Prairie's New Boots (or, another reason to shop)

Just about the time my checkbook recovers from the holiday season I usually find something inane (but positively necessary) to go tack ho-ing for.  Today's impulse d'jour is to find the perfect set of jumping boots for Miss Prairie.

I must confess that 80% of the time we ride, her big, pretty legs are totally naked.  On top of that, nearly 100% of the time we jump her little legs are boot/wrap free.  Exceptions are when we travel for lessons or schooling, but that's predominantly because white polos make my blurry videos easier to watch and let's be honest, that is a priority. 

Given the vast amount of horse crap that is packed into my lockers (note the plural), my garage, my trailer and my car, one would think that there would be no possible way that Prairie could be wanting for anything, but really, that's just not quite true.  We have extra saddles... bridles for every occasion... more clothing than most families of five... and certainly more than our fair share of darling saddles pads/half pads/quarter sheets etc.

But, my collection is shockingly modest in one category - Horse Boots.  This has (naturally) started an amount of research and googling rivaled only by the effort put toward my thesis or horse shopping.  Fascinating really, how little care or consideration I put into other purchases in my life... but I'll be damned if I buy a piece of horse tack without knowing every feature, review, and coupon that may be available somewhere in the depths of internet.. so here goes:

When I first bought Pia, she got a set of Eskadron open fronts and full hind boots along with some new polos and bells.  But as our focus sashayed to almost entirely dressage, there was no need for additional boots (okay fine, one set of fleecey boots on sale), and we pretty much just polo wrapped all the time.  I am a sucker for polos.  It's embedded deeply in my brain.
Then Pia went to Summer Camp and Cowboy Man gave me a weird look when I even asked if he wanted her boots and Pia's legs were naked for the next 18 months...

Prairie justified another new set of polos (no such thing as too many of those things..) and has gotten by using Pia's fleecey boots which actually fit Prair better than they ever fit Pia (Pia has delicate little baby legs the size of pencils). The fleecey boots are great when we ride inside, but are a nightmare in the outdoor with wet sand...

Pia's Eskadron's however are slightly too petite to strap onto Prairie, which means aside from polos I don't really even have a good option to put on Prairie's legs for basic protection over fences.

In theory this shouldn't be an issue for my "new dressage horse,"  But now that we are working grids and small courses twice a week I think it might be prudent to acquire something.  True, she doesn't interfere with her own legs, and true she's barefoot which makes it less disastrous if she ever were to whack herself... but still.  Horses are big, their legs are little, and peace of mind is not (that) expensive.

So, boot hunting we go.

Being a slight priss, I want Prairie's new accessories to be both stylish and functional, and durable and pretty enough to be used in "dressy" situations such as lessons, schooling shows and clinics.

What I've found is that the boots I seem to gravitate toward are a far cry from the old $20 neoprene splint boots I used to happily duct tape onto my pony for cross country.  While I appreciate the progress in both form and function I wouldn't mind a slightly less inflated price tag to go with...

Right now I think the top contender for the open fronts is the EquiFit T-Boot EXP2.  For one, it has "P2" in the name, so... duh. But more importantly I like the reviews, I love a removable liner and I enjoy the look.  The EXP2 also comes in a velcro closure, which I like but it doesn't look quite so polished. At $174 its more money than I've ever spent on a boot, but in surveying the options, it seemed like it's priced in the middle of the current market.  Realistically, the biggest downsides are the price, and a lack of personal experience with the brand.

pretty sexy for a boot

EquiFit's latest "most amazing boot ever" actually comes in an extremely appealing Ostrich leather print that makes my heart pitter patter, but the $220 price tag makes it possible for even me to say no.

Growing up eventing, the little hind ankle boots that hunters and jumpers wear have never made sense to me, and I've always just opted for a full XC boot in the back.  But if I'm acknowledging our exploration of Hunter Land, and all the absurd (to me) tack and traditions that go with that, I have to at least consider the "match set."  I still don't really understand why a 2" ankle boot costs almost as much as a full boot, but some mysteries are just best left to the universe.

The current second place option is by Eskadron, who I've had mostly positive experiences with in the past.  I say mostly because I had one pair of boots totally crap out within a week of purchase, but Dover happily sent a new set which fared better.  From a functional perspective they last a long time, but whatever PVC, space material stuff they have on the outside of their older boots scratches really easily in sand (which I ride in) and thus it's impossible to keep them super clean or have them looking new/nice/polished.  It looks like the Flexisoft Air Front Boots might have a new shell material, which is would be good - and on sale at $99 they are more affordable than the EquiFits:

picture this, in black.

I like it's focus on airflow, though given our climate and our workload, overheating tendons probably aren't a top concern... The biggest downside for me is that the overall look is decidedly more "sporty" and less "polished."   Also, the inside is neoprene, which is less fun to clean/dry, but I've had good luck with hosing down Eskadron products before.

Another contender from Eskadron is their Memo series.  It also falls into the "sporty not polished" category but could be a good one:

It's on sale for  $134 the price is in the middle, which is a pro, but the reviews regularly mention how long they take to dry which is a consideration in our soggy corner of the world...

So, any thoughts out there? anyone have any of these boots or watched a barnmate love or destroy them?  Help a Tack Ho out....

Back on the Trail (and back to the Outdoor)

It was a great weekend with the horses.  Friday I conned The Boy into coming out to the barn with me and giving me a hand scrubbing and medicating everyone's scratches.  (super helpful, also super gross).

Saturday, Supermom drove up to take a trail ride with me, which was the first time I have been able to get Pia actually out on the trails since she came home.  P was a bit of a chicken to get started, but once she got moving she was calm, relaxed and an old pro.  The only unfortunate issue was the "chicken" mode happened right at the beginning as we were leaving the property which resulted in us getting off and walking the horses to keep them moving.  Not so tragic aside from the fact that we were walking them UP A MOUNTAIN and I thought it was more than probable that I was going to suffer a heart attack before I legged back up and let the horses do the heavy lifting.  (note to self, relearn how to drive to gym).

The ride itself was great.  The ground has been mostly frozen so mud was minimal and the fog made the trees fairly pretty and quiet.  It was a great way to spend an hour in the saddle. 

Supermom's view through P's Ears

When we finally made it back, we tootled around the arena a bit and enjoyed the horses before calling it a day and retiring everyone back to some warm, dry stalls.

Supermom and cute P

She's so damn adorable when she's not actively biting you...

I was thrilled to see that Pia's comfort out on the trails is still there.  She's come such a long way from where she was when she started at Summer Camp it is really thrilling to see how much flexible and relaxed she is in new situations now.  Very proud of the little red squirrel.

Prairie's big success came on Sunday when increased temps thawed the outdoor enough to warrant a return to jumping outside.  S set a simple four stride line and after a brief warm up I began by trotting each fence individually on a large circle, then cantering each fence on a large circle.

I'll admit that I was a bit nervous about returning to the outdoor.  Prairie has been so insanely good working inside this winter, that I have been dreading what would happen when we moved back to a bigger space and no longer had confining walls to support our balance and focus. 

Prairie played to all my worries when she immediately resumed freaking out about the "scary end" away from the barn - but after 10 minutes of small circles and shoulder in, she came back from outer space and resumed working like a regular horse. 

Cantering the verticals was... easy.  Relaxed, slow, balanced.  I easily moved Prairie up to bigger distances, and easily reorganized her after each fence.  I was so flipping impressed I was beaming in disbelief.  Then we worked the line.   Something that is always slightly problematic for us.  Prairie gets wiggly, tense and just a bit discombobulated in lines more than two strides.  All of these things were true this time as well - but they lacked the blind-panic-scoot upon landing that was de rigueur last time we worked over fences outside. 

I fell back on what we learned in our grid last week and focused on low and wide hands along with a very supportive leg between fences and we improved dramatically. 

Mind you, up to this point we had been working off our right lead and jumping away from home, toward the scary end - something that always gives us better breaks and control than we we canter (/run madly) away from the scary end and toward the sweet, sweet salvation of the main barn.

Feeling bold and confident we changed directions and came at the line off our left lead, toward home... And Prairie was 100% with me.  I dialed her canter back a bit more than necessary, but we went in quiet, intending to add a fifth stride, which I ended up having to move up to.... and we came out quiet (and on the correct lead!).  Miracle.

Our other new trick was the ability to maintain our canter aaalllllll the way arrrouuuunnnnd and back to the line.  Four months ago, quietly cantering the long side was a challenge, let alone landing from a line (going home) regrouping, maintaining a balanced canter and being organized enough to jump back into the line. 

But we did, and then we started playing with our adjustability.  I opened Prairie up, we did the line in 4, then I brought her back and did it in 5.  Then we opened up and did it in 4... then back for 5 again.

MIND BLOWN.  The mare was quiet, focused and nearly had a loop in her rein the entire time.

So impressed.  so, SO impressed with her ability to take our new balance and focus to the Outdoor arena and still give me the same ride. 

It was a good horsey weekend....

Dressage Lesson (or - oh yeah, I bought a dressage horse..)

After the hospital pickup I zoomed back to the barn, cleaned up the Big Mare, and then was off with a fellow boarder to a much needed Dressage lesson at the same barn where Denali's Mom spent some of her happier horse days.

blurry still from our outing

I had visited the Farm with DM once before to peek in on a passage/piaffe clinic and to pat some pony noses but I hadn't had the pleasure of a lesson with her trainer up there before.  Lucky for me a new boarder at our barn used to board at DM's barn with her previous horse so she organized an afternoon of lessons for us and I happily hauled our beasts up there.

Everything that DM said about this facility is true.  The horses are big (and pretty), the riders are great and the primary trainer (aside from being OBSCENELY preggers) is lovely, supportive and kind.  She's also bad ass.

In my experience a lot of DQ's have egos to match their horses giant, lofty stride and there tends to be a division between those-who-ride-in-the-hallowed-double and those-who-do-not.

Thankfully, neither of those plagues seem to have much of a hold at this facility and I was welcomed warmly into the ring in my snaffle even with some serious horse power zooming around in their doubles finishing up lessons.  Dare I say two of those riders even stuck around to watch us warm up and had praise for my, less than collected, slightly distracted, a bit on her forehand mare.   Nothing puts me more at ease in a new facility that pleasant, complimentary natives... but I digress.


Prairie was actually a pretty good girl.  Our first victory of the day was loading (and unloading!) without a second set of hands.  I've been trying to get more practiced at not needing a second person to help shut the butt bar, and yesterday was the first time we managed all on our own.  We had support if we needed it, but we didn't! It was great.

The second success was Prairie's total willingness to munch her hay tied to the trailer with absolutely no drama about looking around.

The third success was a fabulous lesson, which is really the only one worth talking about - so here goes.

Since lessons were a little late I had the luxury was walking around the indoor for about 20 minutes before we got to work.  Prairie had plenty of time to scope things out, eyeball scary corners and relax.  She was calm and swinging in about 5 minutes.  When we did go to work, she was focused and obedient, but a bit tense in her neck and back.

Working on that tension and trying to unlock it were the focus of the rest of the lesson (along with straightness, esp in the canter). 

We warmed up at the trot spiraling in, then focusing on exaggerating the inside bend and leg yielding the haunches out.  Prairie likes to cheat her haunches in (unloading the inside hind) and for the most part I let her get away with it.  Maintaining the bend then scooting the haunches out (but not switching to counter bend) really got her to step under and drop her hip.  We could only maintain it for a stride or two but it was MAGICAL.

It was also confusing for poor Prairie because we've schooled the tweedle out of her canter transitions so bending her, half halting for balance then adding leg was bit fat punch on the canter button as far as she was concerned.  It took a while for her to accept an "over" button and to yield her haunch, but we got it.  We also don't really have video of that part but we do have the "before."



It was an effective exercise for us.  Easier to the left than right in both the trot and canter, but we made progress both directions.

Our canter work was also productive.  Prairie showed off our new "contained" canter but didn't really want to full relax and step up.  It is light years better than our old canter (which was tricky to take down a long side).  And the fact that I could manage her in a new location without a martingale and without any big spooks was spectacular.

Here's a longer clip of our canter work. Moments of nice-ness, but lots to work on (SHORTEN MY $@#%  &@$ REINS!).  We were working on trying to maintain the bend through my transitions.  Prairie likes to tense, straighten (in the not actually "straight" relative to our track way) and then lurch into the transition.  The theme of the day was that I need to increase my demands with regard to her transitions.  Just getting them done without freaking out is no longer good enough.  Time to engage the abs (hers, not mine, although I should work on mine too).

Featherlite Family

Yesterday was slightly exhausting, but totally fabulous.  I had a drawn out 10 hour day with the beasts which included four, 1 hour hauls that consisted of picking up a friend's horsey from the fancy horsey vet hospital, and then hauling another boarder and myself to a dressage lesson. 

It's always good to bring a horse home from inpatient care and hauling out for a lesson of any sort is also cause to celebrate so it really was a day of high spirits.  It was a very long, very cold day of high spirits. 

All of the driving back and forth though did solidify how much I'm loving my rig.  I love my truck and I love my trailer. 

When I finally made it back from the barn, I was pontificating on my love for the rig over a glass of wine with The Boy and jokingly commenting that "you know, if we had a bigger trailer I could have saved a trip since the hospital is really only 10 minutes from where we took our lesson."

I was expected a scolding about not needing a new trailer, blah blah blah (I acknowledge that I do not need a new trailer) I was surprised when instead he just retorted:

"You know.  I really like our rig too.  I think we might be a Featherlite Family.  When we do get a bigger trailer I'd want another Featherlite.  Even if the Bison or whatever is $5k cheaper, at this point I'm impressed with our Featherlite and I'd rather give them another shot than hunt for the lowest price."

Not really an exciting statement for the casual observer but let me dissect his response.

You know.  I really like our rig too.  I think we might be a Featherlite Family
He has affection for our big horse box.  AND he knows the brand name - and likes it!

When we do get a bigger trailer I'd want another Featherlite.
 When! He said WHEN.  Not "if" but "when" we get a bigger trailer...  I'm glad he knows where our 401k is going :)

Even if the Bison or whatever is $5k cheaper, at this point I'm impressed with our Featherlite and I'd rather give them another shot than hunt for the lowest price.
Bison! He knows two brand names! bonus points for him.  And he can rationalize his perception of brand/quality over price? This man is meant to be married to a tack 'ho.  It's really a match made in heaven.

Mind you, another trailer isn't in the works for quite some time (might have to sell a kidney first), but I do rest assured that he has similar brainwave patterns when we talk about fantasy trailers.  I think it's his background driving big trailers and equipment that makes him so invested in our trailer choices.  But really I don't care why - I just enjoy the fact that he is.

But I really do love my trailer.  I feel safe handling horses in it, never pinched or trapped.  The horses haul quietly and comfortably and I have more storage than I need.  Plus it looks like a sexy beast with the new truck.  And who doesn't like that??