NaBloPoMo Day 29 - A style/trend in tack/riding apparel that you don’t like

Hearts.

Random Pinterest image, but these things are a dime a dozen.

Crosses and crucifixes.

Oh honey, no. I'm sure Jesus loves you too, but this is getting into the creepy stalker-level love.  From here.

And beaded browbands that are basically a single or double string of beads, a bit of leather at each end to attach to the bridle, and nothing else. 

They all just look like a recipe for a cascade of beads down your horse's face to me.

There are exceptions, but I'm not generally a fan of browbands without the leather backing up the beadwork, actually; it just seems so fragile.

Oh, and special dishonorable mention goes to the beaded browbands where there's no leather behind the browband and the browband is either silver tube beads, a chain, or a rope of plain white crystals.

From here on Amazon.

I know it's for the conservative dressage ring folks, but... I just find it so ugly.

NaBloPoMo Day 28 - Helmet or no helmet?

Helmet.

Helmet.

HELMET.

Shown: not my helmet.  That's the helmet of one of my BOs the day a green QH mare freaked out and the BO bailed instead of letting the horse try to jump the 5' arena fence to get away from the "monster" on her back.

That's right.  This was from an intentional bail-out.

I was 100% pro-helmet before I watched the ambulance haul her off for a night of observation, y'all.  Talk about reinforcement of an idea.

(I mean, I'll ride without a helmet in a dude ranch trail ride.  And I forgot to put on my helmet one day, on about the safest horse at the barn.  But that's about it.)

NaBloPoMo Day 27 - You know you're an equestrian when….. (Give 5 original ones)

...You mourn the poor, dead saddles nailed to the walls in Western-themed restaurants.

...Your tornado shelter area has your fancy tack in it, just in case.

...Your bottle of Murphy's Oil Soap isn't for the furniture.

...You critique the horses and riders in video games.

That's not a real horse color. C'mon.

...Despite the critiques, you still buy every last horse you can in video games, and stop and stare hopefully at the ones you can't buy.

I don't have a problem.  You have a problem.  Leave me and my flaming skele-horse alone!  lol

NaBloPoMo Day 26 - Biggest riding pet peeve

If you and your horse aren't safe, don't ride in the arena with other people.

If you notice people leaving the arena when you mount up, and it happens every time?  You're not safe.

If you notice people deliberately waiting for you to be done before they come into the arena, and it happens every time?  You're not safe.

If you and your horse aren't safe, don't ride in the arena with other people.

*shudder*  We had one of those at the current barn for a while.  She took her time getting saddled, etc - because she looooved her horsie and had to spend a bunch of time getting him prettied up and saddled - and we'd all either ride before she did or wait until she was done.  It wasn't that she was overtly unsafe - I mean, she wasn't hanging off of her horse or doing stupid shit.  It was more a problem of communication issues between a very sensitive horse and a very high-strung, not-sensitive rider.  They were like a thirty minute session with a powder keg and a lit match.  I honestly sat and watched them some days just to make sure someone was on hand to call 911 in case that horse actually blew.

Second place in the pet peeve list definitely goes to "let's all go stand at the gate at the end of the ride!"  Just... why.  Why would you do this?  Your horse already knows that the gate goes out, and that going out of the gate means you're probably done.  And the people that always do that also are the ones that always dismount by the gate.  Can we say "recipe for a massively gate-sour horse"?

NaBloPoMo Day 25 - Your dream trailer

I actually don't have a specific trailer in mind.

In the end, what I want is a trailer that will hold all of my horses.  At the moment, that's gonna be a two-horse rig...

Oh, and I need a truck to pull it.

It's the little things, right?

NaBloPoMo Day 24 - Your best riding friend

You know, it's funny... I don't really know that I have one.

I had a best friend in middle/high school that I took lessons with.  We were great friends outside of riding, but I found I had... questions... when it came to riding.  There were a lot of things she said that didn't line up with what she knew or did.  It just didn't add up.  And as we moved on into high school, she got into band and I didn't - and she got into some freaking crazy drama and I didn't - and we've grown very much apart these days.

Most of the intervening years were spent around a lot of teenagers.  Lots and lots of teenagers.  Which, I mean, I'm not a small-child-friendly human (ugh, so sticky and annoying, sorry mothers), but I can handle teenagers.  They just aren't typically my friends.

My BOs right now are the closest friends I've had in the horse business, really, and when we do get on and ride, we have a great time.  But I'm also conscious that they're best friends and I'm always going to be a bit of a third wheel, no matter how much fun we have.

I realize this sounds kind of... well... isolated and lonely?  It actually doesn't bother me.  I prefer to have someone around when I'm on horseback (and honestly, sometimes when I'm handling the horses at all), but "around" can be "watching on the barn cameras" and I'm fine.  I'm a little bit of an introvert.  :)

NaBloPoMo Day 23 - Critique a famous/well known equestrian jumping round of your choosing

I don't have a critique.  I just want William Fox-Pitt's lower leg skillz.  lol