Replies

Speaking of riding, HaveFaith and I had a nice short ride yesterday evening at her place. She gets home early on Mondays and my hubby tends to work late on Mondays so it worked out well. I went home and changed and fed everybody, then hauled Goose over there around 6 and we rode until almost 8, just in woods and fields around there close. It was nice. We'll have to do it more often.

Our trip to the Amish was a great success too. We came home with all sorts of stuff and have other stuff ordered to be made and picked up later by some of the Old Farts who go up there all the time to have their horses shod.

The thing I was most tickled with was the biothane breast collar I had made while we were there. It's just like my Ortho Flex one only it has stainless steel hardware instead of brass. I carried my old one up there so they could see how it was made and he kept it about an hour and made two of them, one for me and one for Kari, while we shopped somewhere else. And they only cost $20! The only catch was that he didn't have the neoprene to make the tubes to cover the shoulder straps, but we carried them to another guy who did and he made those while we waited and they were only $10, so we got the whole breast collar made for $30. They would cost $170 if you order them from Ortho Flex!

I also ordered a 22” nylon and neoprene english girth to be made for that treeless saddle I've got. It's got a dropped rigging and the 24” elastic Wintec girth that I bought for it is just too big and stretches too much. You just can't find that small of a girth in most catalogs so having one made was about my only option. I also had some more nylon bit straps made for my trail bridles, and some nylon throat latch straps to use on the muzzles. Kari got a snap added to her existing leather breast collar and had some broken hardware replaced on her existing leather trail bridle. She also ordered a couple of new biothane trail bridles in some loud colors. I like basic black myself. ;o) Then we just picked up miscellaneous other stuff like brass snaps, bucket straps, some new black nylon saddle bags for BladeRider, a new 28” western Weaver Smart Cinch for me and a couple of small straps of brass harness bells for Kari and I to use in the Christmas parades. I think that's all, but I'm not sure. We had the back seat full in any case. So as much as I would have liked to have ridden, I guess I'm glad we got rained out because I sure enjoyed the shopping trip.