STFS blog hop: Tack Wants

A quick aside before this post: as of yesterday, I have officially known Jazz for three whole years!  I celebrated, of course, by completely forgetting about it until the day after, and then noticing "Jazz-a-versary" on my phone calandar once I no longer had time to go see her today. 

First, I wanna know: what is the ONE piece of tack (or clothing) that you simply cannot live without? Put function aside for a moment and try to decide which piece of your tack ho collection is your favorite. It can be anything for you, or for your horse. Second, I'd like to know what you're currently saving up for or lusting after. Basically, what item do you have your eyes set on right now? If someone handed you enough money, what would be the first thing to buy on your list? 

Two favourites come immediately to mind.  I would be tempted to say ALL the halters (I have a well-documented halter problem.  I have one horse and either seven or eight halters, I'm not entirely sure).  That said, though I love to buy halters, I probably have more love for two other horse things that come to mind.  

The flat blue halter

The original breakaway trailer halter.  I've since bought a new one that hasn't made it into any pictures yet.

The original rope halter.

The four-knot groundwork halter.  I actually did not like this halter at all, and only used it maybe ten times.

I also own a purple flat halter, a burgundy breakaway trailer halter, a new rope halter (which fits better than the original and is almost the exact same color as the other two rope halters I own).  

The first is my Gumiponi (formerly Custom Stall Signs) custom Jazz hat.  

Jazz approved.

It's adorable, it's of good quality, and the color is perfect.  I also love that they made sure to incorporate the dot in her blaze at my request, because it's one of her important features in my opinion.

My other favourite is my purple lettia coolmax saddle pad (it's the third or fourth down on the page). 

Previously featured here

And here.  I took it to the show because it is my favourite.  

I love the bright purple color, and it looks really sharp on Jazz.  Plus the coolmax works amazing! It really does keep her cool, and she dries much faster when she's sweaty (a big score for my unblanketed wooly horse beast in the winter months).

The item I've been lusting after is definitely not a likely reality.  For one, it is not something like my halters, where it's acceptable to have eight (a lot of them don't even fit jazz anymore anyway), or saddle pads (I only own two english saddle pads right now, but I want about seven thousand more. They might become my new answer to buying halters).  I already own the item I want, and they are perfectly functional, despite how much I may complain and claim otherwise.  

I speak, of course, of my tall boots.  I bought my tall boots at the local consignment tack shop about a year and a half ago.  They were the only boots that fit me, and they actually fit really well.  They seemed to be customs made for someone else, but they weren't even broken in.  They were pull-ons, but they did fit pretty well, and I was just buying them for once-weekly pony club lessons, so I figured that was okay.  The price was right, at $90 for practically brand new boots that fit perfectly, so I bought them.  And they did work.  It wasn't exactly the most fun to break them in, but they worked.  I started having more issue when I started riding English primarily back in July or so.  I still think I have yet to figure out the magic formula for arranging my breeches and socks to help keep them from pulling up my leg four inches when I get my boots on, but it can get really frustrating when I have to take them off and put them on ten times before they're livable.  They've also only gotten worse since I've been riding more.  I suspect all the English riding has been building up my calf muscles, because my boots that have always been manageable and comfortable enough have been getting harder and harder to get on, and my lower legs and ankles are getting sore when they weren't before.  I might have to get room put into them or bathe them in boot stretch to make them livable.  Also, the leather cracked a little where it breaks above my toe, and I've conditioned the living daylights out of it with little help.  I asked at the tack shop, but they told me that all I can do really is to just keep doing what I'm doing, because they are bound to crack based on the quality of the leather.  

I did a ton of research, and learned that my standards are impossibly high and my price range is impossibly low, so I'm likely to have to stick it out with my current boots a while longer, but a girl can dream.  

And I dream big, apparently.  My favourite boots were far and away the DeNiro Leuca Field Boot that I found on Smartpak.  They've got a really unique zipper that curves around, and I really like both the design, and the abstract idea that there are people out there who never have to fiddle with boot pulls and boot jacks for fifteen minutes before being able to ride their horse.

Ooh.

Aah.  So pretty.

However, at $700, I consider them HIGHLY unlikely.  If I were to purchase new tall boots, I think the most likely (for online anyway) would be the Ariat Heritage Contour boots.  At $289, the concept of the price hurts a lot less, though still more than my $90 consignment boots I'm in a constant love/hate relationship with.