New Boots!

My mom (who is the best ever) gave me something I have been lusting after for years now.  Waterproof boots!  Luckily my tack store discount made them a pretty good deal.  After a few days of wearing them though I think they are totally worth full price, after they have survived the winter I will talk about them again.

They are the Ovation Alistair Country Boots.

Photo from Ovation Website

I ordered the 9.5 (41) and they fit perfect, I've worn them with breeches and over jeans and there is just enough room.  I have a 15 inch calf in most half chaps and such.  My feet have been toasty warm with wool socks and I love that I can do chores and stay dry!

Shut the front door

They may actually make me hate snow in November less.  The inside has cute plaid lining, granted no one knows it is there, but you.  Kind of like cute underwear.

All the cute!

The laces and buckles on the side make them pretty adjustable, they could tighten up maybe another half inch from where I wear them and loosen up about an inch.  Height wise they end just below the back of my knee (about a half inch).  I need 16 or 17 inch half chap.  You may be scratching your head about what I do for show boots...cry.  Yes I'm 5'3" with size 9.5 feet, let's just say that stock show boots are crazy tall on me.

Prisoner says stick a cookie on his tongue

I've pretty much worn them nonstop since I got them on Thursday and I haven't had one sore moment.  I don't think I will be wearing anything else until the end of spring, kidding, not really.

Happy!

Now if only they actually made me this awesome, thanks to sprinklerbandit for photo magic!

Tack store photo overload!

Hey Y'all I made it to Georgia!  Jess and I went to the Dover store first thing yesterday and it was amazing!

All the clothes

All the bridles

All the saddles

And even more saddles

It was horse girl Mecca!  My mom who makes me the luckiest girl let me splurge on some nice half chaps!

Hello lovely chaps that aren't made up of more replacement stitches than original stitches.

Before I left Canada we make two trips to 'Road Apples' a really nice tackstore outside of Halifax and one trip to a tack shop on Prince Edward Island (yes ladies I went to Anne of Green Gables land!).  The loot?

Gah, the cutest helmet ever!

Dream helmet!

Ogilvy baby pad, grey trim and the tack store embroidery!

Road Apples had some really beautiful things.

Not even away from the car yet and already drooling

Love the name

Woah $$$$

Brown Ariat boots

All the Tailored Sportsman colors!

De Le Coeur bonnets

Prestige bridles (not sure about the reflector looking and plastic trim)

More Prestige

Antares breastplate

Jin Stirrups

So many things to love!

Even more Prestige

 The store on PEI was smaller and not as fancy but still had some nice things and half the store was western.  It was way out in the country in someones side barn.  The owners are looking to retire and sell if anyone is interested in a big move!

Always smiling where tack is involved

So quaint!

All the boots!

Some nice bridles

No worries only three more pictures;)  We went to a shoe store around Halifax and they had all the Blundstones and lots of wellies.

Practical and cute

OOO la la

Yes a pair came home.

Red and Black

More than riding

So I surpassed yesterday's goal, I groomed Diva and Mojito!  Trimmed tails and shortened manes, curried and brushed, it was a good day!  Diva was a good girl (as expected) and stood mostly still, we even did and little walk and hand graze and found out that last summer's fear of cows has been over come.

Just chillin' with the baby cows

She also spent quality time with Pat the cat.  Pat has found that standing on the tie rail with a horse is great because he gets back rubs.  He has done this for the last 8 years with every horse, some he only tried it once with and found them too aggressive for his liking.  Diva was very gentle and I think they are becoming fast friends.

Rubs

Mojito blew me away!  He was so grown up and so calm.  I.Can't.wait.to.ride.him!  He is a very fat boy at the moment, but I like that considering we are coming off the 2nd coldest January on record for this area.  I believe that it will be very attainable to get to some shows with him.

Mojito love

I also worked on breaking in my new Blundstones today.  Shoutout to my dad here for a great Christmas present.  My mom gave me a new helmet that I haven't had the pleasure of using yet (again due to such a terrible January).  I love my blunnies, this will be my fourth or fifth pair!

Boot love

I guess you know you are a horse person when new boots get set on the kitchen table for a photo shoot!  I was at Pony Club tonight teaching about conditioning, it is fun to mentor the next generation of riders.  I was a bit disappointed at the lack of enthusiasm for learning.  I offered encouragement to them to scroll through eventing nation or some similar website to try and learn something new each day and to think of questions for future sessions.  Some of the girls there have very nice horses and I would love for them to become well rounded knowledgeable horse people not just decent riders.  I even pulled out my copy of Training the Three-day Event Horse by Jimmy Wofford for them to look at.  Flipping through the pages was a fun trip down memory lane as I have underlined and written notes in many places.  What a great book, Mr. Wofford is a consummate horseman.