Tack Haul

Okay, so finally, my tack haul from Rolex. Perhaps it may not seem like much, but it turns out to be a a fair amount since I’m omitting what I bought at the Rolex booth. Not for any reason. I just got a few shirts, two hats, a bag and a pair of socks, so it’s really not that exciting.

Most of the items I bought on Friday. Since I hadn’t made it very far in going to the shops on Thursday, I had to battle with the crowds Friday and make sure I checked everything. I hit some gold at the Smartpak booth – because you know, I don’t buy enough from Smartpak. I got a pair of breeches I’d been eyeing, a leather halter I had looked up many times, and a fleece dressage girth.

The kneepatch Pipers I really like only had grey and turquoise. Since I’m not really a grey person – warm, earth tones are more to my liking – I had my eye on the silicone kneepatch Piper breeches that came in taupe and turquoise.

I had quite a few turquoise Piper shirts, so of course, me being matchy matchy obsessed, I had to get a pair of Pipers that matched. I’ve only worn them once, but so far so good! Like all the Pipers they’ve worn well and come out of the wash just fine. However, I could have sized down in these. Usually the others aren’t so big in the waist, and these are, so at least for the silicone knee patch I could’ve sized down.

The leather halter I’d constantly clicked on on the website caught my eye, because this time I could actually FEEL the leather. Certain brands I don’t need to feel the leather to know it’s going to be top notch quality (ahem, PS of Sweden). But, it was a very affordable leather, padded halter, so I wanted to be sure I knew the feel of the leather before I bought it.

Sunday I made my way over to the Clever with Leather booth to get those plates on the halter – they had some brown leather halters with blue padding, and were better quality, but I liked the blue on this halter a little better, along with the price. But you do get what you pay for, so we’ll see how this halter holds up. I’m waiting for our place to be done before I use it.

The fleece girth so far has worked great. Amber has sweat in it a lot, but I threw it in the washer, line dry and it was good to go again. I’ll need to get another one, a 28 this time since what I bought was a 30. It hasn’t stretched; she’s just going to lose weight and she’s already losing a bit so I’ll need a smaller girth.

Amber seems to like it a lot, and it’s super easy upkeep for me. Yay on both ends. I just wish it came in brown…..

Sunday I popped into a few more stores, found a jacket I sort of liked, but I just couldn’t get sold on it. I’ve had a lot of show coat issues because I’m usually in between sizes and all of them feel extremely restrictive in the upper arm. Plus, I love the classic, navy windowpane look – my old hunter coming out – and I was passing one booth when this coat just snagged my eye.

I loved absolutely everything about it; especially that the windowpane/plaid was such a contrasting light blue. Amber’s colors/barn colors right there – navy and light blue. This was probably the first windowpane that I really really liked. Though my mom wanted to buy me a jacket as a birthday present, we hadn’t found any we could agree on. She knows tons about fabrics, and I know what I want it to look like.

It’s by a brand called Equine Athletics, and I was ecstatic to find that upon trying it on, it was STRETCHY. I have not been familiar with English apparel and tack since I was about 13, so while many things have improved, I am completely unaware of them right now. I figured they had to have coats with stretch, and ta-da! Here was this one. I kept looking at the price tag and hoping that the sale price wasn’t indicative that the fabric was of a much lower quality. But since it was the last day of Rolex, it was on a “must-go” sale of $89.95. It retails for $185 from this site. I’ve looked at other sites and while they say they’re cheaper I’m pretty sure those are the kids’ show coats. Either way, I think it was a steal. It may not be the solid black or navy of a dressage/jumper coat, but I really love it. Maybe in the future I’ll nab a “real” jumper coat.

Next, I of course had to get gloves to match. I happened upon these navy Roeckl gloves at the Bit of Britain booth. I wanted to buy so many other things from there, too, but settled for the gloves.

I’m really not a gloves fan. I wear them in the summer because otherwise my hands get way too tan, but those gloves are fingerless. I feel like gloves inhibit my “feel” in my fingers. It could absolutely be my imagination.

One of the things I bought at the RK3DE booth that I will highlight are these socks from Jox Sox.

I really really like these. I usually buy the thick socks to help absorb sweat, but these are just like my Ovation Aqua X breeches. They really let your feet breathe, and I can get really dry, cracked feet in the summer, so these allow my feet to breathe and wick away sweat so they don’t dry out as much. Also, as you can tell, they are very slim fitting. They came about a half inch over the bottom of the Ovations, and are not bulky at all. They fit very nicely under my half chaps. These are the closest I can find that are the same brand and the most similar to the ones with the RK3DE logo on them.

That’s it! Not too much stuff for the pony, but it was a good tack haul nonetheless.