Author: Amanda

clothing · winter

In Search Of: Winter Breeches

Amanda11 Comments

Please send help, blogosphere!

I only own one pair of winter breeches. In past years, that has been sufficient for Vermont, but this winter has been so mild that I’m riding a LOT more than I usually do, and the years of wear & tear on this pair is getting to be too much.

let’s just say the breeches have outlasted literally everything else I’m wearing in this photo except the boots.

I have some fairly specific things that I know I do and do not like in winter breeches. I will have to order these online and test them out, so they need to be returnable. (I don’t have time to play the tack swap game!)

My current breeches are Devon-Aire Fleece Full Seats. They are fleece-lined with a suede full seat. They are great, but they are getting quite thin and they have a hole in one knee from a spectacular ice wipeout last winter. I would replace them with the same brand, but the last time I tried that, buying a pair on clearance that were the same size and type on spec, they did not work AT ALL. They were seemingly way too small, and the fit had totally changed. I may end up ordering some of the same kind again, just to make sure that I wasn’t way off base, but…ugh.

So please help! Send your ideas and suggestions!

Here’s what I know I like/need:

– They must be real breeches, not tights. NO pull-ons with elastic waistbands; proper zippers & buttons only. I used to have a pair of the winter Tuff Rider pull ons that I hated with the fire of a thousand suns. They all end up feeling like diapers.
– They must be realistically winter breeches. I live in Vermont y’all and ride down to 10 degrees. None of this “oh well they were warm in Texas in the 40s so they should be fine!”
– Ideally they should either run a bit long in the leg or have a tall option. While I rarely need a tall, I am almost always more comfortable in the tall version of jeans and breeches.
– Also in sizing, I recently learned that sometimes breeches aren’t made over a 34? Fuck that. I usually run 30-32 depending on the breeches, which means my ass fits but there’s gapping at the waist, but otherwise it’s just a no go.
– Ideally they should have a full seat option.
– They really really should be below $100.

Help? Anyone?

blog hop · grooming

Blog Hop: What’s in your grooming kit?

Amanda5 Comments

I am super horribly way behind the ball with this blog hop, but damn it, I’m doing it anyway.

(I’m so far behind I don’t remember who started it – sorry? If it was you let me know so I can credit!)

Anyway!

Once upon a time, I boarded at a barn where the only thing you were allowed to have outside of your tack trunk was one pair of tall boots. That’s it. My tack trunk is an old wooden chest that served as my great-great-uncle’s tool chest, and as such it does not have modern conveniences like space for full grooming kits.

So my grooming kit was this small bucket that, if I tipped it sideways, would slide into the tack trunk. The problem with that was that you had to tip it just right, and even if you had the knack of it, half the time everything in it would fall out. I put up with it for years, because lo, I am lazy as shit.

Then, a friend who was riding Tristan on and off for me bought me a proper grooming kit, because by that time I was boarding at a different barn that did not care if my grooming kit was outside my tack trunk, and she took pity on me, and I think she hated the part where all the grooming tools fell out half the time. The story of my riding life is basically set to “I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends,” like the time Hannah cut Tristan’s boot velcro straps that had been too long for like 5 years.

ANYWAY.

For a few years now I have had a proper grooming tote, and what do you know? Having organizational cubbies actually means I keep this thing pretty darn organized.

Left to right: hoof pick, curry comb (pro tip: buy a child’s size if you have tiny hands like me, it’s much easier to manage), shedding blade (this lives in year round; when he’s not shedding, he’s muddy, and fuck if I can remember to cycle it in and out), stiff brush, soft brush, mane & tail brush, soft face brush.

These are the standards; right now, I’m stuck with the shitty Vetrolin liniment because I could not find Sore No More for a while. I got the EquiFuse in my Blogger Gift Exchange package last year and when I remember to use it I love it. The detangler lives in the grooming box because I will frequently spray it on his tail even when I have no intention of combing it out; it helps keep things from getting too bad.
This time of year, I also do a quick spray of detangler on his shoulders every few days to help keep his blanket from rubbing.

I always keep some array of meds and/or treatment things in the grooming kit. Right now, it’s this fabulous Vitamin E ointment because I was treating Tristan’s fly sheet rub with it, and No Thrush, which is this nifty powdery thrush stuff I’m trying out and like quite a bit.
Not pictured: a small towel that I usually keep there just in case, and generic Tums. I’d run out last week. I use the Tums, I’ll be honest, mostly as a placebo for myself. I will sometimes feed them to him before the ride if he hasn’t had his grain, or if he’s looking a little iffy I’ll feed them after the ride. In theory, they form a buffer and help prevent ulcers, which totally works in some horses. In practice, when he’s 100% fine but I can’t make my anxious brain shut up, I feed them to him and it helps. He eats them like treats, and they have zero negative effect and some small positive, so.
house post

House Post: Bathroom Vent Fans Part 2

AmandaLeave a comment

Continuing in the exciting adventures of getting bathroom vent fans into our house: the upstairs bathroom.

The idea was that this would be much  more straightforward. The vent fan itself was already in the ceiling, put there by my father when we rewired the house. It just needed the venting itself. The theory was we would just pull up the floor and run the vent straight out underneath the attic floorboards.

That theory was wrong. See, our house is built in the Dutch Colonial Style, which means it has these charming features like a gabled roof, and all sorts of extra little flourishes to that roof.

Going straight out the attic floorboard meant we would be in precisely the wrong spot: coming out the corner of the roof. On the entire huge side of that house, we were 4″ too far toward the front.

We of course did not discover this until we had cut up allllllll the floorboards along that line. Sigh.
Eventual solution: come up and over the floorboards, angle back toward the center of the house just one bay, and then go out the side of the house.

So, yeah. It looks kind of awful. Really not my favorite. But, the longterm plans are to build a kneeboard when we sheetrock the attic. It will just look like a finished space and you will never know the venting is behind it. And I suppose it’s a small price to pay for not having bathroom moisture destroy the house.

blog roundup

Weekly Blog Roundup

Amanda2 Comments

Another Saturday, another collection of cool blog posts from the horse world.

Three inexpensive items that improved my life in 2015 from Wallace Eventing
These are all genius.

1,000th post and contest from Cob Jockey
A really cool photo roundup and a fun contest!

My Thoroughbred’s ulcers from Saddle Seeks Horse
This is fascinating, actually – I’d never seen photos so clearly before.

Conditioning Log from Journey to 100 miles
SUCH a gorgeous solution to the problem.

Foxhunting Q&A from Hand Gallop
Siiiiiiiiigh.

Barnsitting 101 from The $900 Facebook Pony
I’ve done my share of barnsitting, and this is a GREAT roundup of advice.

Project Reveal and Contest Announcement from The Maggie Memoirs
Congrats on the new stuff going on – if you have any graphic skills, check this out, there’s a sweet prize.

What Makes Me Happy from Bakersfield Dressage
This is a really crucially important thing to think about.

Uncategorized

2016 Equestrian Life Theme: Focus

Amanda5 Comments

I love reading everyone’s goal posts. I’ve done many of them in the past, but I’m just not feeling it this year.

Many years ago, I did a series of new year’s resolutions for my personal life that were qualities I wanted to cultivate through the year, rather than specific achievable goals. I’m a pretty big goals person, but I like them to be broken up into shorter chunks and to be more actionable. Big annual goal-setting has never worked for me.

I thought a lot over the holidays, and during my blogging hiatus, about what I really wanted out of the coming year, and I thought about the year I set those qualities.

still one of my favorites

It hit me that I could sum up my hopes for 2016 in one word: focus.

I want to focus on doing fewer things, but doing them better.

I want to focus only on the things that really make me excited, that really matter to me, rather than frittering my energy and my direction away on too many things at once.

I want to increase my actual capacity for focus, which has sadly degraded over the last few months especially; longer stretches of paying attention to one thing at a time. No stopping to check social media, tidy the living room, chase the dog – one thing at a time.

In horse terms, that means more emphasis on the basics, instead of getting caught up in chasing whatever’s next. Am I riding my horse on a regular basis? Am I getting him through and supple and working well in each ride, even if it’s just at the walk? Are the things I’m buying true needs, and quality items, or am I just flailing and making purchases out of a loss of direction? How are my finances – solid and growing?

I’ll try to touch back on this, maybe quarterly, to see how it’s going. But that’s where my head is for 2016. Here’s to the new year.

Uncategorized

2015 Equestrian Blogger Gift Exchange: THANK YOU!

Amanda8 Comments
I am behind, but I was thrilled last week to arrive home from traveling to a box on my front steps from Emma of Fraidy Cat Eventing! As soon as I saw the return address I laughed pretty hard: it was a heck of a coincidence for us to draw each other as Secret Santas. 🙂
A lovely card with a very sweet note.

Really adorably wrapped things!
YES. There is no such thing as too many hand warmers. It’s going to be below zero today, perfect timing!

I laughed and laughed. Emma’s card said that the bottle opener on the other end was for if I found anything worth drinking about in Tristan’s stupid food. That is almost a certainty. I’m going to keep a Woodchuck in my tack trunk from now on in anticipation, especially now that I have the right tools.

True story: I have used the same exact brushes with Tristan for 10 years. It’s definitely time for an upgrade and this is a really lovely brush.

I just had to show how cute the wrapping was on this.

Another winter necessity! ❤ Practical and horsey and a bit indulgent, perfect. (Considering my usual lip balm is "whatever I got as a freebie at the last professional conference I attended" and I have to use it pretty much constantly from October – May…)
Thank you, Emma, for the lovely gifts, and to Tracy as always for organizing!

house post

House Post: Bathroom Fans, Part 1

Amanda2 Comments

So after we insulated the attic, one of the next projects that came up on the Must Do list was bathroom vent fans.

Such a boring and pedestrian thing to have to do, but once you start air-sealing a house you need a system to get as much moisture out of it as possible. Bathrooms generate more moisture than anywhere else, hence, bathroom fans. Neither bathroom had them.

One was already sort-of done; it had been wired in and installed when we did the electricity. I’ll talk about that one later. The other…well.

The downstairs bathroom is tiny. It has enough room for the sink, toilet, and shower, and then to turn around. That’s it. The one exterior wall has a window, a corner/wall from the addition, and an eave that made for basically zero space to get a fan out. The joists ran the wrong way to run venting. Every idea we had was thwarted.

there were a bunch of these old masonry nails hanging out in the wall for some reason. don’t they look like shoe nails?

I had hired a handyman to come help out, and then worked alongside him to get this done, and it was complicated.

Step 1: Cut a hole in the existing ceiling to make room for the fan + venting.

Step 2: Drop a new ceiling with 2×4 beams to make enough room for the fan, complete with a corner chase

Step 3: Install a stupid complicated venting system.

Step 4: New drywall on the ceiling

(Step 3.5 was to strip wallpaper and repaint the bathroom, about which more later, because since we were basically redoing the bathroom, why not make it look better at the same time?)

Step 5: As much as it physically pained me, we had to trim about half an inch off the bathroom door in order to get the right “draw” for the fan to actually be able to pull air out of the bathroom.

Steps I did not include: cutting a hole in the exterior and installing the vent outside, and painting the bathroom ceiling. You’ll just have to trust me that we did that, too.

Total PITA, but on the plus side, when we turn on the bathroom fan during and after a shower (the switch is a timer) there’s barely any fog on the mirror during the shower, and it vanishes shortly after the shower is over. Huzzah for that.

blog roundup

Weekly Blog Roundup

Amanda2 Comments

It’s back!

Here are a few blog posts from the horsey world this week.

A word on EHV-1 from PONY’TUDE
Scary but very important information.

Choosing a second (or third! or more!) dog from Team Unruly
I had never thought about any of this before, and it’s good information to have, especially as I intensify my efforts to convince my husband that we need a second dog.

Unbranded by The Journey to 100 Miles
Truly superb overview of mustang policy, with a great thoughtful discussion in the comments, framed as a review of a new documentary about young men who ride mustangs cross-country.

How to say no to more work from the Harvard Business Review
My theme for 2016. This was a good review with thoughtful techniques and helpful advice.

2015 Gift Exchange Link Up from Fly on Over
Always one of the best parts of the holiday season, and this is a fun roundup!