Pouting

After a good weekend of riding (I'll get to that in a sec) I'm hardcore pouting because of Daylight Savings. Because instead of riding the bus in the dark and coming home for an hour of daylight (max) where I can technically almost squeeze in a ride.. the sun is coming up as I drive to the bus station and is basically set as I'm riding the bus home. Luckily I'm working from home tomorrow so I'll get rides in on both horses (so help me god) but it's time to panic about lights and come out of my shell enough to contact the local lady I know with an indoor to see if I can buy/bribe a way into her indoor one day a week.

In leu of riding, out nightly entertainment includes teaching the donkey to lead.
Arya apparently loves the donkey

My current thought is that I can swing riding Fridays (my work from home day), Saturdays and Sundays at home, and just need to get one ride in midweek. Of course, I am pretty sure the only night I can't trailer in to the indoor due to lessons is Wednesday, so I'll be deciding between Tuesdays and Thursdays for my mid-week ride. I also ordered a solar light, because as of the last snowfall and freeze, I think I need to kiss any hope of getting electric run to the arena this year goodbye. It won't be bad to do next year, but in the mean time... I'm trying out a sketchily cheap Solar light option from Amazon that may or may not work. Cross your fingers for me! I don't know if we'll be able to hang them high (by bracing taller boards against my existing arena fence uprights, since the ground is frozen) as I'm not sure they will stay up in the wind, but I am wondering if I can put them on my top board to light up the footing. Have any of you seen any unusual riding arena lights? Particularly anything that actually works?

Ride wise, both of the girls got ridden this weekend; Arya looked sound on Friday afternoon, so while I ran out of light, I gave her a brief lunge and got on her on Saturday. Bailey got ridden on Friday and I felt like I was really getting her inside hind at the canter. She is happy to be out and moving, and since I actually remembered my spurs, I felt like I was able to actually get some decent work out of her. She was much more limber than our previous ride and was quite springy and active feeling without being a total nutcase. I was very happy with that! Her winter brain over the past few years has been unmanageable, but so far, she seems to be holding it together relatively well.

Arya lunged out nicely despite the fact that it had snowed 3-4 wet inches overnight, and rode really well. We're still working on our back to basics approach - learning that leg doesn't always mean sideways, and while I was asking for more contact and for her to engage with me more, we also kept it simple with simple transitions of gait as her main work. She even cantered a little bit, which got silly for a second there (aka the shoulder went, the steering went, and there may have been some adorable bad bucking and/or porpoising (they feel the same to me) but she recovered well and when we cantered again, she was rhythmic and very lovely.

The arrival (finally) of Hubby's birthday present this weekend resulted in him casually dropping "Why don't you just buy yourself whatever you want for your birthday" which I take to mean "Stop talking about horse tack and just buy whatever will shut you up". And I'm wholeheartedly ok with that. I don't need wrapping paper and a surprise, the thrill of the shopping adventure is enough for me! While my birthday is still a month and a few days away, I've, of course, jumped right into shopping mode. Because honestly, when am I not in horse tack shopping mode?!

My shortlist of wants this year is pretty short; I'm working on selling a pair of tall boots and at least one pair of half chaps to help finance another pair of boots or chaps that actually fit, and with winter firmly here, I can save for that purchase and don't necessarily need to ask for a pair as a gift. This works twofold; it gives me more time to try on as many pairs of boots and half chaps as possible and lets me splurge/ask for some fun stuff instead. I've been eyeballing a quarter sheet (Back on Track, because of recent discussions on other blogs) for the girls, and have been considering getting another bridle for some time. I'm starting to be less in love with my BS of Sweden knock off bridle; I feel like it's kind of heavy on both of them:

Though I know that the Micklem isn't the most beautiful thing ever, either. Because Bailey goes so well in the Micklem, I'm not really looking for a new bridle for her. Idk if it actually looks semi-decent on her, but I mean... she and Arya, who for some reason, I keep envisioning in this mysterious new bridle, do wear the same size, so they can share, too. It doesn't help that the blogging community has kept Eponia's beautiful bridles on my radar for some time now... and they happen to make a couple of black and brown bridles. And I love my black and brown saddles, so I am trying to decide how I feel about black and brown bridles. Especially on my girls. I think that my line up could use a more traditional element, and honestly I'm having a hard time justifying the cost of another (real) Micklem when there are so many pretty bridles that cost less, and I feel like nothing I have does anything for Arya's face.

So, readers: tell me about your bridles and why they are awesome, please. Some of you have already published (very persuasive) reviews of pretty things (aka Eponia bridles) but I know there are so many fish in the sea!