Bonus post: New Helmet!

My most exciting birthday present (from nearly a month ago, oops) by far was a gift certificate to go and buy myself a new helmet.  Here's a couple of photos of it in action (aka me holding Jazz's reins since I never seem to remember to request photos while I'm actually doing anything).

Mmm Charles Owen. I'd better start wearing pearls... (X) 

This picture turned out really awkward of me, but pony is extra cute. 

Here's What you Missed

Jazz got a new saddle! Her old one wasn't fitting right, so I finally found something that works! Unfortunately it's not exactly what I would have wanted, since it's a black synthetic, but the important thing is that it fits, so I can stand black tack for a while (can you say new bridle?).

I mean, more awkward pictures of horses probably exist.

Snapchats feat. one of the failed trial saddles.

I worked at an undisclosed location for a couple of weeks. It was a lot of long days, and a lot of missing my horse, but the paycheck  sure didn't hurt.

Mmm. Sideways spoilers.

I also celebrated my birthday the best way I could think of, by trying to give Jazz a beverage I am now able to legally consume (but wouldn't). I poured Jazz a Keystone light that was kicking around in the fridge, and she promptly swished it all over the place (and all over me) and then refused to go back near it (sadly,  no photographic evidence).

I also got bucked off a couple weeks back in a Pony Club lesson. The worst part was no one got video.

Plus another event that I think warrants its own post. Stay tuned!

Mr. Postman

Today the mail brought me something I have been waiting for for a long time now.  For a long time now, I have been admiring the model horse hobby from afar.  For anyone not familiar, here is a post explaining performance model horse showing (technically it's from She Moved to Texas, but I had an easier time finding the link to her guest post on Braymere Custom Saddlery). Basically model horses get dressed up in awesome scaled down versions of real life tack and do a still frame of real life horse events.  I'm slightly obsessed, and if anyone else is interested, I cannot recommend Braymere Custom Saddlery enough as a resource to learn a little more.  

However, I say admiring because I did not even own one Breyer. I say did because this arrived in the mail today! 

After a very long wait (as in, I first inquired about whether the set was still available back in August, and finally paid a few weeks ago), it's finally here!   One of the hobby blogs I follow is Stage Left Studios, with fabulous stablemate (1:32) scale tack by Grace Ledoux.  She made a portrait set of Secretariat's race tack, and I fell in love, but couldn't quite justify buying it when I had no horse to put it on.  Luckily for me, Grace threw in a horse with it, and I couldn't resist! 

There may or may not have been squealing when I saw how little it was.

I gathered my supplies

And then proceeded to squeal a little more about just how teeny tiny it was.

 Naturally, I had to tack up and play with it right away! It was a lot harder than I had thought it would be, but it was also 8000 times smaller and cuter than I'd expected! It's hard to get an exact scale in mind until you're physically holding something.  I spent maybe 45 minutes fiddling and fussing with wax and tweezers and tiny paper-thin straps before it was on and satisfactory for the time being.  Grace at one point had offered to permanently attach the tack for me, but I said no because I wanted to be able to play with it. I had a little teeeensy bit of regret over that decision when I spent about twenty minutes trying to get the wax on the undergirth to stay while also threading a 1:32 scale buckle for the overgirth and keep the saddle and pad in place.  I realized AFTER all of this fuss of course that the girth goes OVER the pad (duh, have I never tacked up a horse before?) so the wax would probably stick a lot better where it's actually supposed to go.  But for now, I'm not going to fuss with it, I'm just going to ooh and ahh and keep it as far as possible away from my very curious cat.

Mmm blobby bridle sticky wax (just behind the ear)

Overall, I am incredibly impressed with the set.  I am floored by how small it all is.  The leather straps are all literally paper thin and maybe as wide as a toothpick.  I'm particularly impressed with the reins and the blinker hood (surprisingly, my favourite parts are the ones I didn't spend forever fiddling with trying to get to stick).  I would buy from Stage Left again in a heartbeat.  (Say, anyone know where I could get a good simple custom paint job on a stablemate?  I might be able to be persuaded into commissioning a portrait tack set for a certain red pony that was once given as a gift to a certain someone at a certain time of year...)  If I had one and only one thing to say that wasn't absolutely gushing, it would be that I can't find the buckle hole on the overgirth, but a) this strap is the width of a toothpick, and b) it's clearly buckled in the sale photos, so I know it's on there, I just haven't found it yet.  Sometime soon i'll have to work up the nerve to untack and fix the sticky wax blobs and the girth.  I don't think I could possibly have bought a first model that would have made me any happier! Thank you Grace!  

Win-ter

It's a day exactly like this one where I understand how people like winter.  It is far from my own favourite season, and Jazz seems to feel the same way more often than not.  But today, when it's not too cold at -5, sunny with not a cloud in the sky, and not a breath of wind, I get it.  It was a truly gorgeous day, and a wonderful reminder of how lucky I am to have the horse I have and so many other little things.

Jazz was fairly easy to catch today.  I had her new halter from my recent tack shop stop (review coming soon I just need some pictures), and I noticed the tag on it said full.  I thought that was odd, because I could have sworn I'd bought a cob halter.  It was the same brand as my pastel purple halter (which is cob sized), so I knew it would fit, and I specifically remembered the girl at the tack shop asking to make sure we knew it was cob sized.  So, when I got to the fence, I yelled over to C (who had been with me when I bought it) to see if I was crazy or if the halter was actually supposed to be cob sized.  She recalled that the tag that had said cob had been the sale tag, so it must have been mislabled.  As we were talking over the fence, Jazz started nuzzling my shoulder and giving me little kisses.  It was so sweet, and she's only done that maybe twice before.  I tried to get C to take a picture, but Jazz stopped by the time she got her phone out.  She did get a few cute shots, though.

I love this one.  She almost looks like she's smiling.

As I was walking back from the pasture, I noticed how gorgeous of a day it was, and asked C to take some more pictures.  Two of the barn cats even came out to greet us.  

Just look at that sky! It was really perfect

I picked up one of the cats and put her in my coat, and Jazz happily snuffled her.  She loves the cats, but usually she scares them off.  Today she was just sniffing and snuffling the kitten so gently she didn't even squirm.

We got this adorable but sadly fuzzy picture of it

 Soon the other cat caught her attention, and we captured a couple photos of Jazz's fascination with the cats.

I got a few nice pictures in the sun near the back paddocks (the ones in the far background of the above photos)

One of my absolute favourites

This one turned out really nice of me and the cat

See? Cat and I are cute, pony looks like she's plotting something.

A brief interlude from today's events to summarize our lesson from this past Wednesday that I neglected to blog about.  Something I don't appreciate often enough about my trainer is the confidence I feel when I ride with her. My last ride before my lesson I didn't ride above a walk because I didn't feel safe.  I cantered on Wednesday, because I am confident my trainer knows enough to tell me how best to keep my occasionally frazzled horse (and self) under control, and I also know she will listen when something just isn't working.  In December, a lesson I didn't blog about didn't happen because I got onto a horse I wasn't sure about, and when Jazz felt much closer to rearing than I wanted to touch with a ten foot pole, I told my instructor I wasn't comfortable and hopped off (and she also didn't let me pay her for the lesson I didn't take).  So on Wednesday, I got on to a fussed sort of Jazz that I probably wouldn't have even trotted if I was alone at the barn.  I had bought a standing martingale at the tack shop the previous weekend, but hadn't actually had time to put it on yet.  I asked my trainer if she wanted me to try it, and she helped me put it on and adjust it correctly.  We went quickly back into some trot work, and Jazz bumped herself in the nose a few times.  The difference was immediately obvious to me.  She's head tossed a bit for some time now, but it finally felt like I could ride it out safely again.  We did a lovely canter on her better right lead, and tried her left, but with little success.  She's much duller to the right leg, and she will run sideways on the circle when tracking left sometimes, even stopping sometimes.  It's very difficult for me to try to control, and has been a source of most of my frustration with riding over the last three or four months.  When I had been having no success for a few minutes of working on it, and as I was starting to get frustrated, I did something I'd been meaning to do every time we'd had this problem for the last few months.  I asked my trainer if there was some other way (any other way) we could possibly work this out.  She said a crop was an option, and retrieved one from the whip bucket.  She explained how to use it, and we worked on small circles where she wasn't squirreling off sideways on me.  It took about two sharp pops with the crop behind my leg, and four or five gentle taps before she was much improved (and a million miles an hour, but I wasn't going to pull on her after giving her such a strong foward cue, that would just be confusing).

Coming back to today, we even squeezed in some work after the photoshoot, . I taught C a little basic groundwork, and Jazz was a rockstar.  I groomed her and tacked up with our other purchase from last week's tack shopping, a standing martingale.  I walked her for a bit, and she was listening the best right off the bat she has in months.  She's always been very eager to go when I get on, and I sometimes have issue getting her to stand at the mounting block for me to get my reins and stirrups organized.  Today she stood well, and started off at a good walk, but listening nicely to halts and half halts (another thing that she usually has to warm up to in the winter).  We trotted early on, and I worked on doing ovals tracking left at the trot.  She was actually getting off my outside leg on the open (non-walled) end of our oval, and I didn't need to fetch the crop to get her to listen.  We even cantered a bit on her good right lead.  There were two other horses in the arena trotting and cantering, which made Jazz want to speed up, so we had a fairly zippy but controlled canter.  I just focused on her being quiet and listening, and did a bit of leg yielding on the quarter line intermittently throughout the ride.  I even worked a bit at two pointing at the trot, which made Jazz happily zip around in a fast trot.  I pulled out two ground poles to trot over, and even commented to C that if she did well over the poles, I might pop over a cavaletti.  That goes to show how confident I was feeling in her, because I would never jump outside of a lesson unless I knew Jazz was doing well.

 Unfortunately, just as I was getting ready to start work over the poles, Jazz had a big spook.  She reeled up her head and bumped herself on the martingale, and took off, nearly tripping herself over the pole, and doing a little dolphin buck over it.  I yelled at C to move because I wasn't feeling confident about my steering, and veered right.  She came back to reality quickly, with the whole spook maybe lasting four seconds.  I'm not sure exactly what set her off, but the other people in the arena had dismounted and were doing a little de-spooking with the flag (aka Jazz's number one fear) on the far end of the arena, so that may have factored in.  I've found Jazz isn't usually a horse that will spook at something that startles her unless two or more things happen at once.  For example, she'll sometimes startle at the sound of people rattling the chains on gates just outside the arena walls, or snow falling off the roof, or a car door slamming, but she'll rarely spook at these types of things unless at least two of them are happening at once, or one happens while I'm cueing for an upward transition.  I put the poles away and basically worked on getting her calmed and releasing her tension. 

I especially love her dragon breath in this picture

Once I was off, I took off her bridle and looped the martingale strap through the neck loop so it wouldn't drag.  Just then, two scary sounds at the same time = another spook.  Jazz startled and reeled away from the viewing area (where the halter had been sitting, and I was standing next to the rail) and away about five steps.  She stopped quickly, and I had to laugh at her a little bit.  She couldn't have picked a better time to spook, with her bridle off and no worrying about her catching her bit.  Her girth was still tightened, so her saddle didn't move an inch, and she had respectfully not so much as grazed me.  I did two fast groundwork moves to get her brain back, and untacked for good.  

I've really learned something this week, and I hope it's something I remember next time I'm in a similar situation.  I have had a very natural horsemanship kind of 'upbringing', and I've been committed to a gadgets are bad kind of mentality.  I was first told by my trainer that I should consider a martingale/tie-down in June, and I bought one last Saturday.  The result was an immediate feeling that I had returned to safety upon first use, and a horse who didn't catch herself on the martingale once (with the exception of a spook, of course) the second time she had ever had a martingale. My trainer commented to me when I asked about another method to deal with Jazz running sideways at the trot, that a crop or spurs would help, though she knew I didn't usually like that kind of thing. I've actually had the thought cross my mind a few times that a crop might have been the answer to my outside leg problem when she really isn't listening the way she was.  I've actually used a crop before.  It helped take us from here: 

 "Pleeeeeeease trot? Pretty please?"

to here:

You can actually see the crop in the video too.

So the moral of the story is a piece of advice I've heard from one of my horsey mentors (paraphrased) "You are going to hear a million opinions from horse people.  You can't ever do that, horses should never do this, etc.  The important thing is for you to figure out what feels right to you, and to do that."

So, readers, remember that no matter what, what matters is that you have a horse you can be proud of, and a method that you can feel good about.  

New Directions

I have spent the past two winters not riding my horse.  This is the main reason that none of my new quarterly goals specifically require riding (well, with the possible exception of talking less in riding lessons, but last year I was still taking lessons, just on the ground.  I'm not sure if that would be an option with this new trainer though...). That said, I have high hopes for this year.  Jazz is truly a different horse than she ever has been before.

On Friday I went to see the horse.  It was a cold,snowy day, but was only threatening to get colder and snowier, so I figured I would work in a visit before it got too bad.  Jazz and her buddies were huddled in the shelter against the freezing wind.  I can't say I blame Jazz if she doesn't want to be caught on days like that where a long walk directly into the wind is promised on the way to the warm arena. It was cold enough I decided to start with a warmup in the arena instead of a quick groom in the barn.  A good friend of mine, R, was inside riding, and it was nice to catch up a bit.  I did a little basic work, mostly leading to get the muscles warm and the pony brain paying attention.  Jazz then proceeded to be a superstar letting herself be ground tied within five steps of the door (which is really incredible considering her former love affair with gates when I started working with her) while I picked her feet and gave her a quick currying.  Just when we had finished, another horse came into the arena.  The other boarder was still riding in the far end of the arena, finishing up some work she'd been doing with ground poles, and I was hanging out in the close end of the arena.

The horse who had just come in was clearly not having the best day.  The girl with her said that she was on rest for an injury and she didn't think she'd been handwalked in a day or two.  I recognized the sort of jitteriness Jazz gets when I take her inside and it's been icy outside, where she's finally on good footing and has a few days of ice-prevented energy to get out.  Jazz was pretty distracted by this at first, but a couple of quick exercises brought her right back to me.  R offered to move into the middle to let her handwalk around the outside track, but the horse was not a fan of the back half of the arena.  There were even a few kicks, and strikes, and rears.  It was exactly what Jazz would have been like if she'd been confined last winter.  Then R offered to put the poles away if she thought that would help, and I helped drag them back.  Jazz is so funny whenever I put poles away.  She absolutely has to sniff them once I'm holding one end and they're slanted.  It's much harder to get her to back away from them than anything else.

Eventually I did saddle up, and I tested her with the bit a little.  I hadn't ridden since her teeth were done, just to give her a little time for her mouth to heal up.  Having spent most of Christmas with the worst imaginable canker sore, I had plenty of sympathy for mouth lacerations. I decided the best way to test her would just be to get on, so I hopped up.  By the time I was riding, both R and the other boarder had left, and another friend came in to warm up and blanket her horse.  Jazz was very forward, and was in the kind of mood where fussing too much with the bit (especially asking for too many halts) will set her off, so I did what I call a "bareback protocol" ride.  I let her go forward until her energy levels off, which usually doesn't take too long.  I just walked her and tried to sit as quietly as possible until she finally relaxed and I could feel her quiet and come up through her back a little.  She had one spook in the scary K corner with all the jumps, where she took off in a weird crazy trot, so I pretty much just walked.  I did ask for the trot at one point, but when I got the same sort of spooky weird explosion, I decided walking was lots (again with bareback protocol.  I'm not that great of a bareback rider, so generally my bareback rides consist of not irritating her so she doesn't throw me off when I'm working on my balance).  I hopped off shortly after, unbridled, and lunged her a bit so she could get out some of that energy I didn't want to ride out under saddle.

Lucky horse even got some cookies.  The barn management always gives out a nice card and horse treats to all the boarders for Christmas, so I made an exception to my no cookies rule.  Jazz did a little carrot stretching and bow stretching, and I was reminded of why I have the rule in the first place.  Such a little cookie monster! Her brain was all but gone once she knew there were cookies.

I was very glad to have arrived when I did, because it got just as snowy and cold as promised while I was there. The light dusting of snow I had brushed off Jazz at the beginning of our ride was replaced by one twice as thick in the twenty yard walk from the barn to her pasture.

Maybe it's just a winter thing where I take no pictures until the horse is put away and I'm about to leave.

I also had a productive Saturday when it got too cold to do much at the barn and made a pilgrimage to the tack shop to pick up a product that might just help me cross off that product review goal... stay tuned for that! 

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.  

Window Shopping Blog Hop

I saw a rider at a show I was watching with my dream saddle today, and It made me wonder what other people had as their dream saddles.  My next thought was, "That would be a good blog hop!"

And here we are.

What do you think? Needs more color, no?

If money was no object, what saddle/tack set would you go out and buy?

Believe it or not, this was actually the very first English saddle I ever sat on.

What can I say? I'm an overachiever.

It was a temporary booth set up at a horse show I attended, and I wanted to look at the pretty saddles.  I got cornered by a rep who came up to me and said, "Are you a rider?" When I said yes, he ushered me over to the saddle stand to make me try it out.  He pointed out various features that all went over my head because did I mention I hadn't even sat in an English saddle before? All I knew was that it was SO COMFY.  Seriously.  There's gel in the seat or something (I cannot overstate how little I knew about English saddles at the time and their website appears to be in French), and it is wicked comfortable.

True it has the weird carbon panels some find offputting and ugly, but comfy.  It's also apparently really well made to support the rider's leg and help with position, as well as being more comfortable for the horse.  And as a bonus, comfy gel seat (it was really cushy, ok?).

However, some lazy internet research (read: checking one forum link when I couldn't easily find a price on their website), indicates the saddle I had pictured in the back of my mind was called a CWD 2G, and it is WAAAAY above my price range.  I saw a few answers, and it depends heavily on which options you choose but it could be anywhere from $4500-$6000 or maybe more or less (I was really not feeling this whole doing research thing today).  

Maybe someday.  Then again, I did pay $100 for my saddle, so it's preeeetty unlikely I would actually pony up that much cash (pun intended) for a 2G.

Adventures in London part 2- Monday

After our busy day at the Tower and a few other non-horsey sights on Sunday, Monday was tame in comparison.  Or maybe the jet lag was just starting to wear off...

All the horses I saw were at Harrods.  For anyone not aware, Harrods is this huge department store.  I think it's five floors and there are departments for everything.  Seriously, there's a department devoted to pens and stationary and it is expensive.  But then, so is everything else there.   

Tell me you don't want one of these sweet horses! Available for the price of most jumpers you'd find on the circuit!

Aww! Maybe these cute plushie horses will be more my speed (and price range)

HA! HAaahahaha no. 

Quick lesson in price conversion: One pound is currently valued at approximately $1.80 in Canadian dollars.  So, this cute little haffie costs about $215.  Yikes!

This was a life size plush pony.  I wasn't brave enough to look at the price tag, but the slightly smaller deer was listed at about 4000 pounds, so feel free to extrapolate as you like.  

Also look at the little bay's scary teeth! 

Tuesday had more horses, so keep holding on for some real horses coming up! 

Blog swap tack hop!

Okay that title isn't entirely accurate but hey,  it rhymes! Either way I'm participating in the $900 Facebook pony's Tack swap and sale! 

Unfortunately, upon review, I found I had little extra horse tack to be parting with (which is surprising considering how much I frequent tack shops).  Nonetheless, there is definitely something to get rid of.

Nurtural Crossunder Bitless Bridle in blue.  Nylon webbing material, size horse. $65 obo or I'd be open to a swap. Jazz normally fits either horse or cob size and the buckles were somewhere in the middle of the holes for her.  I bought it wanting to have a bitless bridle to play with and have as an option, but Jazz didn't really take to it and I didn't want to put the work in with it because she does go pretty nicely in the bit. She had it on maybe three times and I thoroughly cleaned it. I also have a pair of barrel reins I forgot to photograph in a lighter blue and black that I would be willing to throw in if someone wants both bridle and reins.  The reins are normal length though, not super short barrel reins or anything.

Why yes, I am a photographer in my spare time.  Just look at that sale photo.  Immaculate.

 And that's it.  Yes, really.  Well, no, really, but for horse stuff that's it.  However in cleaning out my closet recently I found a couple of purses I keep meaning to sell on kijiji but keep forgetting about, so I'm going to put them up here if anyone's interested.

Pink Coach purse. A bit bigger than the size of a dvd case.  Asking $35 obo. 

No, this is not a super weird bit I'm trying to sell, I just wanted to prove it's coach. 

Notice how I don't have a detail shot of the logo like for the Coach? Juicy likes to have their branding right up front. 

Last but not least a Juicy couture purse. Medium sized, you could fit a textbook in there in terms of dimensions.  Asking $80 obo.  

That said, this is a tack (or in my case not so much tack) swap, so I would possibly interested in trades for the following items

-All purpose full size saddle pads (especially if you have Lettia coolmax)

-A decent english bridle with a cavesson noseband.  I love raised and/or padded browbands, but not a necessity as I am a) just starting english riding and b)unlikely to be showing seriously at all. Maybe a fun schooling show or something in the next few months or year but nothing requiring anything fancy.  I'm honestly not sure if Jazz would need cob or horse sized, so I would probably want measurements

-Myler level 1 comfort eggbutt snaffle with plain sides.  As much as I love my fancy sided one, I don't know it would fly for english showing if I were to head down that road

-horse books and dvds (the instructional kind) on topics I might be interested in pursuing 

Granted, I am not dead set.  If you're interested in offering something else for trade, I might be interested.  I can be emailed at mnglylas@gmail.com, and I will be checking comments too! Happy shopping!