Sunday Stills: Hiking with the Puppy

When do you get rid of breeches?

Every time another horse blogger posts photos of their beautiful breeches collection, I admit to a pang of jealousy. I can't remember the last time I bought new breeches. I have 5 pairs that I have been stretching and stretching for at least 5 years now. 3 of them fit poorly, 1 of them I disliked almost immediately after buying, and that one remaining pair? Well, I love them. But I think they are done.

They're On Course Cotton Naturals, and they are the most comfortable breeches I've ever worn. Ever. I love them. I would buy them again in a heartbeat, or at least I would if I could justify spending money on myself when Tristan is flinging new bills at me left, right, and center.

I can't throw them away, though. In fact, I rode in them on Sunday for our trail ride. I love them that much.

I think it's time, though. Here's what they look like now.

Yeah. I know. And you also can't see the hole over the right knee patch. Here's a close up of the wear pattern on the inside of the thighs.

The elastic is just shot, and it gets exponentially worse whenever I wear them. And yes, that is a huge hole you see in the crotch.

I'm finally tossing them today, but I am very sad that I'm now relegated to not liking a single pair of the breeches I own.

How long do you wear your breeches for? Are you just as bad as me?

Movie Review: Justin Morgan Had a Horse (1972)

Justin Morgan Had a Horse (1972)
(Available to watch instantly on Amazon and iTunes, or to buy on DVD on Amazon)

Let me be very explicitly up front and very clear before I delve into a review: this movie has little to nothing to do with either the actual historical events surrounding Justin Morgan and his horse Figure OR with the Marguerite Henry book of the same name.

If you want the historical review of the movie, I'll be posting one on Figuring History in the next few days, so keep an eye there.

In the meantime, let's do the horse-centric review of the movie. To that end, let me summarize the plot.

Justin Morgan is a schoolteacher and musician who travels to Massachusetts to settle a debt owed to him by his cousin. Said cousin died penniless, and the only things Justin receives are two horses and a cart. The younger of the horses is a small animal that Justin has named Figure.

The voiceover tells us that Justin Morgan Has a Dream: he wants to do something that will live on after him, something that really means something. Simultaneously, he wants to show the world a new way to train a horse. (Though at no point is there any explanation whatsoever of how his way of training a horse is different from any other way of training a horse, though at one point someone mentions that Justin wants to create an "all-around" horse that will do many different things...which is apparently a novel idea?)

Justin goes deep into debt to raise and train Figure, which is a problem because as a schoolteacher he doesn't make much money to begin with. He borrows that money from Squire Fiske, who is a rich farmer and horse breeder who looks down on Figure and thinks he'll never amount to anything. Justin also happens to be in love with Kathleen, who is an indentured servant who owes Squire Fiske five more years of work. Thus, the central tension of the movie is basically a love triangle between Justin, Kathleen, and Figure.

(Please note that the character of Kathleen is entirely invented for the movie, and Joel Goss, Marguerite Henry's boy narrator, never appears.)

As Figure grows, he proves himself to be good at everything: hauling logs, racing in harness at the trot, and then racing under saddle at the gallop. Kids love him, and he's fearless. There's one particularly insane scene in which Figure hauls a log that no other horse could move, and then carries Justin Morgan and Robert Evans bareback down a quarry in a Man From Snowy River style scene in order to beat all the other loggers back to town.

Things finally come to a head, and Squire Fiske demands Figure in payment for Justin Morgan's debts. Justin sulks and decides to leave town, but then Fiske receives a challenge to race Figure against two New York horses. Justin agrees to stay and train Figure for the big race. If he wins, he gets Fiske to agree to let Kathleen out of the rest of her contract so they can get married.

The big race happens, and Figure wins! Surprise! Not only that, but Squire Fiske is so moved by Figure's devotion to Justin that he agrees to give the horse back to Justin in addition to letting Kathleen out of her contract. The epilogue scene of the movie shows that Justin, Kathleen, and Squire Fiske have all joined forces to create a new breed of horse.

So that's the summary. What about from a horse point of view?

Here's the central problem with this movie. It's not about the horse. It's about Justin. Justin's dreams, Justin's problems, and Justin's decisions. The movie even waffles back and forth on what exactly makes Figure so special. Is he just a miracle wonder horse who was born great, and Justin got lucky? Does Justin get credit for recognizing the diamond in the rough and polishing it up? Or could Justin have created a wonder horse out of any old horse he found by the roadside, and the fact that Figure was such a scrawny little thing is only more of a testament to Justin's skills as a horseman? Different lines of dialogue and scene setups all imply different things, and the movie has no central statement. Played well, that could be a subtle mystery; in this movie, it just comes across as sloppy.

With that in mind, a lot of other things are kind of weird. The way the horse is used in defiance of common sense. (That quarry scene comes to mind, holy crap.) For example, the log-pulling scene, which is a pivotal part of Figure's legend and Marguerite Henry's book, has been changed from a simple show of strength on Figure's part to a show of cleverness on Justin's - who has men sit on it so the front is lifted off the ground, and who has Figure move to unstick the log before pulling it.

Figure's pivotal race is also played up as Justin's cleverness. Figure is training well, but they need to make him faster, so Justin suggests that Robert Evans get up out of the saddle in a jockey crouch to stay off his back. (Duh?) He forges special ultra-light shoes himself. He trains the horse in all weather to be a stoic runner.

The really emotional moments of the movie are all centered on Justin, with Figure occasionally as a feature of those moments, but it's not about him. It's about Justin doubting himself, wanting to make a name for himself, trying to overcome odds. Justin doesn't so much believe in Figure as he believes in himself and the way he's trained Figure. Losing Figure is just one more setback in his life. He sulks a lot, but he's not truly devastated.

Training scenes are a bit bizarre. There's a training montage during which Justin longes Figure from yearling colt on up to two year old...and the horse improves not at all. He's a brat on the longe line through the whole montage. He just gets bigger and older. That big race that's the climax of the movie, that Justin trains Figure for? They have a week to train him. A. Week. Granted, the horse is fit already, but...really?

There's zero attempt to make tack even vaguely period - I'm pretty sure half the horses are just ridden in off-the-rack 1970s hunt saddles and flat bridles. The riding is piss-poor and there are some super-awkward scenes during the race when they try to get close-ups for tension. Buying oats for Figure is a central piece of Justin's debt to Squire Fiske, when the horse is on lush pasture 24/7.

That said, there's one thing they got very, very right. The horse they use for close-ups of Figure is a GORGEOUS example of a throwback, foundation Morgan. Just lovely. Many of the scenes with him really show that off. As best as I can tell, they use the same horse pretty much right through. Some of the action scenes it seems like they swapped in another random bay, but otherwise it's that same beautiful Morgan.

In final summation, this wasn't a terrible movie. It was perfectly engaging to watch, and at 91 minutes, relatively short. If you turn off the part of your brain that might know anything about history or Marguerite Henry's book, you'll probably enjoy it a fair bit. It doesn't have any glaring flaws, nor any glaring strengths. It's a perfectly enjoyable, somewhat bland little film.

Product Review: Ariat Terrain

Ariat Terrains
$94.95 through Smartpak

I bought my first pair of these shoes in taupe, exactly as you see above, at a local tack shop in the clearance section about six years ago. I paid $30; they were the only pair on clearance and they were exactly my size. Win-win!

I loved them almost immediately, and wore them everywhere. They are built much lighter than the average sneaker (the website says 14oz), and they had a substantial heel and a shank through the bottom of the shoe that meant they were sturdier than sneakers - though not quite as much so as a hiking boot.

I wore them to and from the barn; basically anytime I wasn't on a horse around the barn, I was wearing these. The taupe pair I had were flecked with bloodstains from Tristan's first colic, when I held his head to and he fought the vet who was tubing him. I was perhaps more emotionally attached to the shoes than I should've been after that.

I lost them through no fault of my own, but rather to an over-eager puppy who chewed the uppers to shreds one day. I actually continued to wear them for a little while, but the way the puppy had chewed them meant that they rubbed badly on my ankles.

Enter my second pair, which I paid full price for and have owned for about 4 years now. If you need a strong recommendation, know that I hardly ever pay full price for anything. I love these things that much. I got my second pair in the cordovan color, which is a smooth leather instead of the roughed out look of the taupe.

I waterproofed them new out of the box, and proceeded to wear the everloving shit out of them. So what do they look like 4 years later, and do I still love them as much?

Well, the things I loved before I love just as much. They're light, comfortable, and a really terrific solution for hanging out around the barn and even for riding with half chaps. The waterproofing has mostly kept them looking ok, though they have a couple of wear points. I have once or twice rubbed some saddle leather conditioner into them, and that always perks them right up.

What do I like less? Well, the uppers have clearly not worn terribly well. If you look at the black edging on the top part in my current photo, you'll see that it's worn almost away, and that's simply from wearing them with jeans. Movement from walking alone has rubbed most of that away. The uppers are also pretty broken down, and I found that I have to use the loop at the back to tug them on now. They don't slide on smoothly.

They never had much tread to begin with, and that's now gone to the point of occasionally being slippery on wet surfaces. While the waterproofing held on the surface of the boots, they are NOT waterproof. (Ariat has apparently come out with a newer version of these that is, though.) When I do course walks or jump judging or really any sort of walking through grass in the morning dew, these soak through almost immediately. I went through a phrase of packing multiple pairs of socks per day when eventing, and even then often ended up with nasty swamp foot. Now, I only wear waterproof muck boots for that purpose. These just can't handle getting wet. For that same reason, these are not for doing chores. They just won't hold up.

That being said: I still love them. I still wear them all the time, most often now to trail ride. I basically use them when most people would use paddock boots - and find them far, far more comfortable for that purpose than any paddock boot I've ever worn. I would buy them again, though I would probably invest in the waterproof version.

DIY Project: Custom Quarter Sheet

Last winter, I started riding Tristan in a quarter sheet on especially cold days. I borrowed one from the barn's stash, and really liked it: it kept me warm, and he seemed a bit more comfortable. I started shopping for my own, looking at a bunch of different websites. I didn't like any of the ones I found: whether the style, color, or price.

Wouldn't it be just as easy to make my own, I thought? So I bought fabric, ribbon for edging, and when my mother came to visit, she brought her sewing machine. We based the pattern off the one at the barn I liked most - I don't know what brand or even what size it was.

It was a bit of a rough first attempt, but the cat thought it was the best day ever.

Finished cutting:

We sewed a 1.5" ribbon doubled over around the edge, which I would probably not do again. I think I'm going to want a blaze orange one for hunting season (coming up soon), and I'm already thinking about new edging material.

Here's the finished product. I LOVE IT, and have gotten a ton of compliments every time I ride in it. I think it looks so much better than any of the ones you can buy. It ended up being less expensive in terms of materials (which I picked carefully to be on sale), though perhaps not when you factor in the labor cost of figuring out how to do it and then the sewing itself.

I think the only thing I'd change is the bump you can see just above the point of his hip there - we didn't figure the cut quite right to lay flat. Purely aesthetic.

Have you ever made something from scratch for your horse?