Weekly Blog Roundup for Saturday, November 17, 2018

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HOW YOU KNOW YOU HAVE A HEART HORSE from Three Day Adventures with Horses
<3

LandSafe Clinic – Day 1 & LandSafe Clinic – Day 2 from DIY Horse Ownership
I loooooooove these clinics and these are terrific recaps.

THE UNICORN LIST V2 from The Printable Pony
Horse shopping is so hard.

Lund Saddlery Calfskin Stirrup Leathers Review from Patently Bay
Lund is getting a lot of attention right now, and these leathers look gorgeous.

THINGS I BOUGHT AND DIDN’T NEED | 2017 EQUINE AFFAIRE HAUL from Breeches and Boat Shoes
I need to do my own version of this...

Equestrian gifts for under $20 from Hand Gallop
A really great list, and I'm not just saying that because my own things are on there.

Dante and the vacuum from Viva Carlos
Horse vacuum = living the dream.

Best of HN: This OTTB’s Second Career in Horseback Hawking is #Goals from Eventing Nation
THIS IS SO AWESOME I CANNOT EVEN.

Horse Hunters Episode 1 & Episode 2 from DIY Horse Ownership
Goooooorgeous farms. I covet.

Product Review: Dublin Performance Tights from Journey with a Dancing Horse
Color me intrigued. I was sold at "fleece lined," tbh.

58 Equestrian Gifts under $25 from The Printable Pony
Awesome list!

Grids and Gymnastics from In Omnia Paratus
Pole grids are my jam, especially in winter.

Half Halts and Forward from Not So Speedy Dressage
I struggle with half halts and keeping forward, so this was good to think about.

Small Business Saturday Suggestions?

Your input eagerly sought!

I'd like to put together a list of equestrian-related businesses for people to shop from this coming Small Business Saturday.

via GIPHY


Do you have a favorite small equestrian business? Please comment below with its name and website, and maybe a line or two about why you love it!

Saturday's links roundup will be entirely small business related. (Blog links will be held for the following week.)

Comment below, please!

2pointober spoils!

The prizes are here!

I am so easily pleased, you guys. I made goofy happy faces at the box and showed it to everyone in the tack room. Then, of course, immediately put the saddle pad on Tris for a Sunday afternoon road hack. He picked up a happy big trot and maintained it without any urging. I'm declaring it a magic saddle pad!

Huge, huge thanks to PONY'TUDE and 'Fraidy Cat Eventing for hosting the contest this year!

Phillip Dutton at Equine Affaire

I kind of lost track of time while shopping and only saw the second half of Phillip Dutton's clinic on using ringwork to prepare for cross country, but what I saw was really terrific.

I had sat through nearly all of Julie Goodnight's clinic earlier that day on the canter, and was really disappointed at the amount of time she spent covering extreme basics (like...what a canter looks like, and how you have a right and left lead, and how to cue the canter. yeah. that was the first HOUR) so I was thrilled to see that Dutton had a group of extremely capable riders and was kicking their butts.

He worked with individual riders, setting up broad exercises but then addressing each horse and rider pair's challenges as they worked through it. These were NOT easy exercises - think one stride extreme slices, and one stride right angles, and big wide corners. He had them up and out of their saddles and in a true cross-country gallop to approach some jumps. It was really cool to see, and to see the riders and the horses improve in just a few minutes.

Here are three of the exercises that I watched.

House Post: Basement Door

Dear me of 10 years ago: someday, you're going to be VERY excited about getting a door installed.

Let's talk about this #@$#@%@$ door.

It's between the new garage space and the main basement space, and per code, needs to be therefore a 90 minute fire door.

I had no idea how expensive doors could be until this saga. I've been dragging my feet on buying it for two years now. They're anywhere from $350-$500. For a frigging door. Not even a decorative one, either!

Sigh.

A few weeks ago, it finally reached the top of the financial priority list, and I had a free day. After some intensive Googling, I located the door I needed in New Hampshire, for $295. So, a friend and I took my truck to New Hampshire and picked up this door.

On Sunday, there were 5 of this particular door (size, fire-rating, correct inswing) in stock. When we arrived on Monday late morning, there was only one, and it had a handwritten note saying "no hardware."

Ummmmmmmm. Cue a 45 minute runaround with a very patient salesman during which we printed out the install directions from the internet and combed through them meticulously to figure out what the heck that meant. Eventually, we determined that it meant that it was missing the 2.5" wood screws that would usually come with it. I politely asked for a discount, and they gave me 10% off AND a free package of the necessary screws, bringing the door down to $260. SWEET.

Then the door came home, and sat in my basement for two weeks, and then my parents came to visit and my amazing father installed it!!!

Now that the furnace is on, this door blocks the last of the drafts from one side of the house to the other, and it's fantastic. 

Not to mention the entire garage project is tantalizingly close to being finished...!