On Friday, my husband and I woke up early and rode Eugene and Levi over to the park. Then my friend had off from work because of Veterans day so we did a lunch ride over to the winery where we had a picnic lunch of cheese and crackers. We didn’t have any wine because my husband is the member and he did have to work (and we didn’t want to pay for wine), but it was still a gorgeous day for a ride and we had a fun time. I rode Shasta and my friend rode Nilla because Nilla is – scarily enough – now our most beginner friendly horse mule.
Then I drove across the bay to the used tack store to look for a bridle for Shasta. Since Nilla broke part of her bridle well over a year ago, we’ve only used the bitless on her. However, Shasta is going to spend the rest of the winter at our seasonal trainer’s (ST) barn in the central valley. There she’ll have actually pasture to move around in and ST thinks she might have a student who will lease Shasta to just w/t. With the lack of light and winter rain, Shasta isn’t getting ridden much and her small pasture is closed when it’s wet so she wasn’t getting as much movement as the vet wants her to. Since Shasta may get ridden at ST’s, we needed a bitted bridle for her. I did manage to find a rather ratty bridle for $20 and also bought myself a cool Kerrit’s rain jacket and spent about an hour just browsing around.
On Saturday, my husband drove Shasta out to the central valley and I hit up my absolute favorite used tack sale. This sale is run by a charity and all of the proceeds support an equine therapy group. People donate used tack and they resell it for an absolute pittance. Because the sale is in Woodside, the people donating stuff are rich and the charity just wants to sell, not make a profit. This makes for amazing deals. In the past, my husband bought a Freeform Treeless saddle for $300. This time around, I got a Fleeceworks sheepskin half pad for $5 and a Supracor half pad for $25. The Fleeceworks pad has a small hole, but I still think $5 was a total steal. I’ve really been wanting to try a Supracor on Nilla too and those things are expensive, so I’m excited about that buy. I also bought a bunch of schooling AP pads for $1-$3 each and a bridle that is too big for Levi, but I’ll just re-sell it on ETT.
I asked one of the volunteers if they had any spare browbands and she went and found a bag of them in the back. Price? $1 each! So I bought like 6. I should have bought all of them at that price, but I’m not sure even I can make that many ribbon browbands. I did get some ribbon and tried a new 4-ribbon pattern for Levi’s bridle. I really like the pattern, but I’m going to need to practice it a few times before I do a DIY post. It’s a lot more complicated and I managed to mess it up a few times. Still looks pretty cool though:
A photo posted by Olivia @ DIY Horse Ownership (@diyhorseownership) on
On Sunday we woke up early again – it’s really hard to be a night owl and an equestrian – and went to a schooling show. We’re trying to expose Eugene to as many shows as possible so that he can learn to calm down. While Nilla has her issues, being calm at shows isn’t one of them. She can sleep through a crowded warm-up. She needs training, not exposure. So I took Levi. I’ll do a full post on the show later this week, but here’s a sneak preview:
It sounds like a great weekend
It was excellent!
What a perfect weekend!! And those deals, wow!
Seriously: I wanted to buy all the stuff. If I were more industrious I’d buy it there and re-sell in on ETT for a profit.
Wow. That tack sale sounds amazing! Looks like you had a good show, I can’t wait to hear about it.
It was a fun show.
Wow what amazing scores at the tack sale! To follow up with a horse show, sounds like a great weekend.
It was a great weekend, but I very much enjoyed sleeping in this morning.
Levi is adorable!
Thanks! He’s a good boy.
That tack sale sounds amazing. A Freeform for $300?! Can’t wait for the show recap.
That tack sale is the best.
That sounds like a fabulous weekend, and Levi looks pretty handsome in that figure 8.
He does look very professional in it. I wish it fit him.
What a fun weekend!
It was great, but now I’m exhausted.
I love the ribbon browband!! And can’t wait to hear about that satin!!
Oh god that tack sale sounds like heaven!
It’s awesome. They have so much stuff too, like entire stores’ worth of stuff.
Sounds like so much fun! Nice find with those half pads!
Looks like a great show, can’t wait to read all about it!
Serious score on the pads; I’m excited to try them.
Wow, I need to find a sale like that in Missouri! O.o Sounds like an excellent weekend~
I think this sale is unique to this sort of area. You need a massive amount of people with so much money on their hands that they’re willing to donate their used (and sometimes new) horse tack.