On Thursday, our first stop was Smartpak. Everyone knows I love Smartpak and the fact that all Smartpak branded items were 15% off made me love them even more. Charlie got a lovely new flysheet (he didn't have one) that came with a huge LL Bean-like tote (for those unfamiliar with LL Bean totes, it's a huge canvas bag) for FREE! Love free!
We then swung by Stubben per Megs suggestion and I managed to pick up some web reins for $20. I've never been willing to shell out the $$ money for web reins (meaning even $40 was too much) but I couldn't pass up $20 for really nice web reins. This way if I hate them, I'm not too terribly annoyed at having spent oodles of money on them. In fact, I could probably sell them for more then I paid.
Next stop was Five Star Tack just to "browse." Well, lucky for Charlie they were getting rid of all their old stock. We scored a lovely figure-8 mono-crown bridle and matching reins for a fraction of their original price. It came with a fancy stitch browband but I put an old clincher browband on it so I can keep the fancy stitched one's white stitching white. Yes, I really am that OCD...
Charlie's new bridle - he's thrilled.
Friday brought the "BIG purchase" - I bought a pair of custom boots from La Mundial. Oops! I'm not entirely sure what came over me as these were most definitely NOT on the agenda. Sigh. In my defense, all their display boots are so pretty I just couldn't resist. On the sale front, I managed to pick up 2 pairs of Tredstep Symphony knee patch breeches for $89/pair. They retail for $119 from Smartpak so I was pretty excited.
There was nothing bought on Saturday but we did once again wander the trade fair where we stumbled on Majyk Horse Boots. These are the boots Boyd Martin has helped design and I must say, I was very impressed. A pair of these is most likely in Charlie's future - they didn't have any for sale.
Sunday, we hit the trade fair after SJ was finished in hopes to avoid the traffic rush. Here is where Mom got me my Xmas present (I told her to wait in hopes of trade fair sale pricing). I had been wanting a brown Ecogold triple protection half-pad but every time we stopped by the Ecogold booth either nobody was there or we couldn't get the folks who were there to acknowledge our presence. Very disappointing. So, I started looking for a shop that had Ogilvy pads. We lucked out and found one. I love this pad! I had an Ecogold for my dressage saddle that I traded for some lessons and I liked it but I LOVE the Ogilvy. It fills in the holes behind Charlie's shoulder perfectly and I no longer need to use a breastplate thanks to this pad. And in all honesty, if it's good enough for Reed Kessler, it's most likely good enough for me. :)
Charlie's lovely new half pad. It's brown with black binding and tan piping. He likes it almost as much as I do.
Last purchase was a halter with chrome hardware and a chrome nameplate from Albright's. They had to make it special and it just arrived today. It's sumptuous.
And there you have it, everything I got at Rolex. I went with a budget in mind and seeing as it was very generous, I was pretty convinced I was going to stick to it. Well, I spent 2x as much as I planned. Oh well, good thing there's a bunch of overtime opportunities coming up.
All has been well on the Charlie front. We've signed up for a schooling horse trials (I'm still having my riding identity crisis) in two weeks. Biggest issue right now is all the stinking rain. I don't do riding in the rain - I like my tack too much. But yesterday I was reduced to just that. It wasn't raining to terribly hard when I went out for trot sets but we dodged a few drops. Overnight, it rained more than 2 inches and had bunches of thunder and lightening. Lovely.
A pic from our ride last night.
Lesson tomorrow as well as a date with the farrier.