Good Hunt, Much Loot
Apr. 29th, 2004 06:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dancinghorseMore gales today--gusting to 50mph. Horses are toughing it out. Definitely not a day to ride anybody, we'd be blown to El Paso.
I had to take the car in for backup work--since it got its innards fixed a month ago, it's been dribbling fluid. This was duly fixed; while I waited, I went to Rubio's for lunch. Rubio's Baja Grille is a SoCal chain that offers Baja Mex fast food: fish tacos, seafood enchiladas, like that. Their grilled shrimp burritos are to die for. Died, went to heaven with shrimp burrito and salsa verde, got car fixed.
En route home, I stopped by the Saddle Shop. The Saddle Shop is Tucson's English-horse-stuff emporium. Don't even ask how much I've spent there over the years, or how much I've corrupted guests and friends into spending. Jerri and crew have been outfitting me and the Fat White Ponies since I arrived in Tucson--from Capria's first outfit (bridle, grooming stuff, and all the trimmings) to Pooka's fancy gold-piped bridle to, today, the piece de resistance.
This requires a little backstory. For competing in dressage, one is required to have tall boots, preferably in black (and white breeches--yes, white--and gloves and shirt with stock tie, and black or navy coat and hat). They're also a good thing to have for schooling, though in our hot climate, they can be a bit, well, challenging. I've always had a pair--all the way back to Alex at CT yelling at me to "get a decent pair of boots so you can have a proper dressage leg!" (delivered in fierce Russian accent).
My problem is, I am not an off-the-rack, $100-used-on-special size. I have a long foot and a short calf. Riding boots are not made for the likes of me. By the time you fit my foot, the leg is two inches too long. Since you have to be able to bend the knee to ride, never mind walk, this is not a viable option.
Back in the day, I used to go to the Tack Room in Westport and buy semi-custom: fit the foot, get the nice man to build the tops. Those were not the best boots; they wore out fast. Finally I broke down and, just before I moved to Tucson, went hardcore. Full custom. Dehners. Vogels are pricier, but Dehners are built to last. The hunter princesses adore their Vogels. The dressage queens go for Dehners, Koenigs, or Cavallos.
Then I moved to Tucson. And went from a sedentary lifestyle to a very active one. And, well, got middle-aged.
And the beautiful custom Dehners, which were built to hold up for at least twenty years...no longer fit. I could get the tops adjusted, but not the feet, and my feet had gone splat. No more sitting at desks in nice little pumps. All that running around the barn in riding sneakers did my feet in.
Dehners cost the ever-living earth. So the beautiful custom pair with my name stamped inside in gold sat in the closet, and I rode in riding sneakers or, at best, Ariats. The Ariats with half-chaps are OK for clinics and casual riding, but they aren't quite the thing for shows. And I want to show da Pook within the year, the Mother Ship (i.e. finances and transport) willing.
Last winter I decided to bite the bullet. Took the combined "mad money" from all the new contracts and put it together and went in and had Jerri do the very meticulous measuring and fitting. And then I waited.
And yesterday Jerri e-mailed: "They're here!"
So today I went and determined that yea, verily, they are here, and they do fit (though until they're broken in they're going to be a bit challenging to get into and out of). And now there is a pair of Very Expensive Black Leather Objects sitting in a box on the dining-room table. I can't just put them on to break them in; I'll have to have someone here to help me in and out of them. So, Joni gets elected on lesson day. I'm also under orders only to ride in them (not walk and by god not muck stalls in them!) for the first few weeks, until they've softened up. French calf, Olympic tops, rubber soles, inside gussets--aahhh, the pornography of good leather.
But that was not all. We got to talking about the marketers' perception of riders versus the reality. Marketers see twig-thin barely adolescent girls. Real riders, especially in dressage, are predominantly ladies of a certain age and a certain weight, who last saw the twiggy phase when they were about eight years old. If that late. And I lamented that dressage coats are incredibly weirdly sized, and I'm stuck with custom there as well. (Breeches and shirts and such, thank goodness, are much easier; I have a bust and shoulders, but no hips to speak of.)
But no! said Jerri. We just fitted, off the rack, a lady much bigger than you. And instructed her assistant to go to the back room and bring out the coats.
And lo and behold, I can too wear a coat off the rack, in a more or less normal size, rather than a $300 "larger ladies" model. And now, for a lovely price, I have a handsome black wool-blend dressage coat with silver buttons (four down the front, two on the back above the vent--three and no vent buttons is a hunt coat: you learn something every day). And not only that, I'll have to have it taken in; shoulders and bust are just fine, but the rest is overly loose.
Altogether, a good hunt. A very good hunt indeed.
I had to take the car in for backup work--since it got its innards fixed a month ago, it's been dribbling fluid. This was duly fixed; while I waited, I went to Rubio's for lunch. Rubio's Baja Grille is a SoCal chain that offers Baja Mex fast food: fish tacos, seafood enchiladas, like that. Their grilled shrimp burritos are to die for. Died, went to heaven with shrimp burrito and salsa verde, got car fixed.
En route home, I stopped by the Saddle Shop. The Saddle Shop is Tucson's English-horse-stuff emporium. Don't even ask how much I've spent there over the years, or how much I've corrupted guests and friends into spending. Jerri and crew have been outfitting me and the Fat White Ponies since I arrived in Tucson--from Capria's first outfit (bridle, grooming stuff, and all the trimmings) to Pooka's fancy gold-piped bridle to, today, the piece de resistance.
This requires a little backstory. For competing in dressage, one is required to have tall boots, preferably in black (and white breeches--yes, white--and gloves and shirt with stock tie, and black or navy coat and hat). They're also a good thing to have for schooling, though in our hot climate, they can be a bit, well, challenging. I've always had a pair--all the way back to Alex at CT yelling at me to "get a decent pair of boots so you can have a proper dressage leg!" (delivered in fierce Russian accent).
My problem is, I am not an off-the-rack, $100-used-on-special size. I have a long foot and a short calf. Riding boots are not made for the likes of me. By the time you fit my foot, the leg is two inches too long. Since you have to be able to bend the knee to ride, never mind walk, this is not a viable option.
Back in the day, I used to go to the Tack Room in Westport and buy semi-custom: fit the foot, get the nice man to build the tops. Those were not the best boots; they wore out fast. Finally I broke down and, just before I moved to Tucson, went hardcore. Full custom. Dehners. Vogels are pricier, but Dehners are built to last. The hunter princesses adore their Vogels. The dressage queens go for Dehners, Koenigs, or Cavallos.
Then I moved to Tucson. And went from a sedentary lifestyle to a very active one. And, well, got middle-aged.
And the beautiful custom Dehners, which were built to hold up for at least twenty years...no longer fit. I could get the tops adjusted, but not the feet, and my feet had gone splat. No more sitting at desks in nice little pumps. All that running around the barn in riding sneakers did my feet in.
Dehners cost the ever-living earth. So the beautiful custom pair with my name stamped inside in gold sat in the closet, and I rode in riding sneakers or, at best, Ariats. The Ariats with half-chaps are OK for clinics and casual riding, but they aren't quite the thing for shows. And I want to show da Pook within the year, the Mother Ship (i.e. finances and transport) willing.
Last winter I decided to bite the bullet. Took the combined "mad money" from all the new contracts and put it together and went in and had Jerri do the very meticulous measuring and fitting. And then I waited.
And yesterday Jerri e-mailed: "They're here!"
So today I went and determined that yea, verily, they are here, and they do fit (though until they're broken in they're going to be a bit challenging to get into and out of). And now there is a pair of Very Expensive Black Leather Objects sitting in a box on the dining-room table. I can't just put them on to break them in; I'll have to have someone here to help me in and out of them. So, Joni gets elected on lesson day. I'm also under orders only to ride in them (not walk and by god not muck stalls in them!) for the first few weeks, until they've softened up. French calf, Olympic tops, rubber soles, inside gussets--aahhh, the pornography of good leather.
But that was not all. We got to talking about the marketers' perception of riders versus the reality. Marketers see twig-thin barely adolescent girls. Real riders, especially in dressage, are predominantly ladies of a certain age and a certain weight, who last saw the twiggy phase when they were about eight years old. If that late. And I lamented that dressage coats are incredibly weirdly sized, and I'm stuck with custom there as well. (Breeches and shirts and such, thank goodness, are much easier; I have a bust and shoulders, but no hips to speak of.)
But no! said Jerri. We just fitted, off the rack, a lady much bigger than you. And instructed her assistant to go to the back room and bring out the coats.
And lo and behold, I can too wear a coat off the rack, in a more or less normal size, rather than a $300 "larger ladies" model. And now, for a lovely price, I have a handsome black wool-blend dressage coat with silver buttons (four down the front, two on the back above the vent--three and no vent buttons is a hunt coat: you learn something every day). And not only that, I'll have to have it taken in; shoulders and bust are just fine, but the rest is overly loose.
Altogether, a good hunt. A very good hunt indeed.
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no subject
Date: 2004-04-29 07:28 pm (UTC)Elizabeth Moon suggested Dover when I needed to hunt down a bale bag--ordering the thing meant I am now on their list. Now I receive catalogs offering lovely jackets (I love jackets) and boots (I love boots) and work clothes (have 2 dogs, have big yard, need work clothes)and a lot of gear I would never in a million years have any use for. I have been on a horse once in the last 20 years, and it was an iffy proposition from beginning to end. Kris the Rider ain't gonna happen.
But y'all have the best gear.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-29 07:58 pm (UTC)It gets to the point that you realize you have all the good gear. One more spiffy saddle pad or halter or halter plate is about all you can squeeze in, and even those get overdone. I was at that point last year. Then Pook got to the "almost ready to think about showing" stage. As Jerri noted today, "Now you have the option, if a show pops up and he's ready, of grabbing the coat and boots and going to it."
Note to self: Get coat taken in.
It's a lovely, lovely coat. Dover has the hunt version--three black buttons--but not the dressage version with all the silver buttons. Which I might switch out to matte gold to match his bridle. We shall see.
The ultimate in Gear Lust for me was, a few years back, an offering in one of the Lipizzan newsletters: full Spanish Riding School kit including white doeskin saddle, gold-plated bridle, and rider's attire (brown coat, cocked hat, and doeskin breeches--and, of course, boots). I lusted. I drooled.
I bought another Lipizzan instead.
Priorities, you know.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-29 08:07 pm (UTC)Boy, howdy. We bought a gelato maker last summer. (It's a serious tool -- it has a self-contained refrigeration unit as well as a power churn.) But just when you think you can't possibly buy another knife or baking dish or even saucepan, you realize that you've lived too long without a gelato maker.
Tools will eat you out of house and home. But we sure have eaten a lot of splendid ice cream since then...
no subject
Date: 2004-04-29 08:20 pm (UTC)Oh lord. Talk about lust. I really really want one of those. (Cooking. Another passion of mine.)
But not this year. I just blew my entire year's worth of mad money on the boots and the coat.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-29 08:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-29 08:33 pm (UTC)Bookmarked that puppy. Maybe I'll take up a collection at Christmas. Or something.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-30 02:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-29 08:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-29 08:18 pm (UTC)Is gold. I'm trying to get a Luxus pad from Dressage Extensions, but they have a habit of ignoring back orders--that would be edged in navy and gold.
Priorities
Date: 2004-04-29 10:12 pm (UTC)Always--ALWAYS--go for the Lips. When you have the expensive champagne, you don't need the crystal glasses--they're nice if you can have them, but it's not required.
Same with Lipizzans....
no subject
Date: 2004-04-29 08:29 pm (UTC)It must've been Get The Car Fixed Day, too ... my Bug now has a brand new catalytic converter. :P Thank the gods for the 100,000-mile engine/powertrain warranty that also covers the emissions system!
no subject
Date: 2004-04-29 08:35 pm (UTC)I saw a convertible Bug today--silver with black top. Very pretty. (And Mini Cooper--white--and a Land Rover, too. It was a day for unusual vehicles.)
no subject
Date: 2004-04-29 08:44 pm (UTC)Real Beetle or New Beetle?
My first car was a '79 Bug, silver with a black top.
I loved that car. I miss that car.
I always figured that horse people would be leather fetishists, if not for the beasties.
It's bits for me. My guy goes in a plain old hollow-mouth eggbutt. I own a French link dee. I can't imagine ever needing or wanting anything else unless I take up fox hunting or running Mr. ADD cross-country. I don't care. The things fascinate me. So many choices. I want them all!
no subject
Date: 2004-04-29 08:56 pm (UTC)Backpacking gear is cool. I love the Summit Hut. Have to avoid it because I'd buy all the t-shirts.
I collect halters. Just realized that Camilla doesn't have an adult-size nylon halter of her own. She has a nice leather one, but it never goes out because it would get all crappy out in the barn. Will remedy that when the budget has wheeze gasp recovered from the boots.
She does have a custom saddle pad however. Leopard print. And a Swarovski bridle (crystal browband, swan logo), though her schooling bridle is a USDF headstall she inherited from the previous War Mare.
My horses, needless to say, are much better dressed than I am.
Bits--French links across the board here. Lipps tend toward low palates and thick tongues. The best is the $10 special from State Line. They actively hate the $100 KK's and are neutral about the Sprengers.
("Mr. ADD"? Any relation to da Pook-in-spring?)
no subject
Date: 2004-04-29 09:40 pm (UTC)Second time I've heard about custom saddle pads today. Is it something to do with the padding, or just a custom look?
I keep thinking I can justify at least a loose ring. "What if the real dressage queens see us? They'll know we're recovering hunters!" But what I really want is a bit wall. Old bits. New bits. Normal bits. Unidentifiable bits. Heaven!
And could be! Mr. ADD is the boy's new code name. He just graduated from Mr. Green & Spooky. It was a very proud day.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-29 09:53 pm (UTC)Must decide what color to get her.
Her leopard-print pad is a Serengeti. They stopped making dressage pads in that fabric, but when I asked for one, they made one up for me. Nice people out there at Serengeti. (I have a zebra pad, too. That's Capria's. With gloves to match. Makes my trainer snarf. "But it's correct!" I tell her. "It's conservative! It's black and white!")
I know people with bit walls. Walls of Infamy. Bits with umpzillion moving parts.
And could be! Mr. ADD is the boy's new code name. He just graduated from Mr. Green & Spooky. It was a very proud day.
Pook was never spooky. That was keed's shtick. And Marita The Spinbolt Queen. But ADD, oh yes. There are just so many things to look at. And Challenge. And Attempt To Incorporate Into The Herd.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-30 09:45 pm (UTC)That? Is truly awesome.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-30 10:04 pm (UTC)And awesomely true.
Hmmm. I think Capria will go zebra tomorrow. Must start breaking in The Boots.
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Date: 2004-04-30 02:54 am (UTC)I saw a Mini Cooper yesterday too -- green with a white top. I've lived in this town for over 30 years, and this is the first Mini Cooper I've ever seen around here.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-30 09:37 pm (UTC)If it weren't for the advent of the convertible Beetle, I might just get a Mini for my next car ... :)
MInis/Beetles
Date: 2004-05-02 09:53 pm (UTC)I had originally wanted a convertible Beetle, but they made them in the most awful colors. That made me hesitate enough to fall in love with my tiny little lunchbox of a car.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-29 08:42 pm (UTC)---L.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-29 08:46 pm (UTC)People bring stuff up to the counter.
"Ooh," I go. "Shiny. I want."
A discount is a dangerous thing.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-30 08:20 am (UTC)---L.
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Date: 2004-04-30 08:17 am (UTC)(It's worse when you live with an enabler.)
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Date: 2004-05-01 10:02 am (UTC)I think now that the beautiful boots were the real reason my daughter and I were looking into riding lessons for her. But none of the boots she wanted fit her calf so she dropped the whole plan. Cheaper that way, anyway, and now she's absorbed in Rugby. And rugby players don't collect gear (it's for wimps, aside from Scrum Caps for my daughter's position of Lock).
The problem with being a writer and web designer is that there is little really cool gear one can justify. Pens are pens, and once you have a terrific one that fits your hand perfectly (Cross fountain pens rock!), you won't use any others so why bother. Software you upgrade, computers you upgrade when you need to, but over all, no cool gear. So I collect jewelry. I just got a fabulous necklace, with the "chain" being 3/4" faceted chunks of BC Jade and the pendent being a rectangle of abalone. Absolutely fabulous. And it requires a woman of some age to wear it -- it's too much mass/power for the young crowd.
But gear is seductive. Even though I don't backpack Mountain Equipment Co-op makes me buy lots, likewise hardware stores. (Ooo, I could use that for....)
Caryn
no subject
Date: 2004-05-01 01:20 pm (UTC)I mean come on, everyone needs a glow-in-the-dark USB duck to store portable files on. It's a requirement.
(Personally I prefer the USB Devil Duckie, but that's just me.)
no subject
Date: 2004-05-03 09:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-01 03:22 pm (UTC)I feel her pain.
The answer for people who are built like real human beings, outside of recognized shows, is paddock boots and half chaps. I wore those for years. But if I want to show da Pook, I have to dress up to the level of the horse. So, Really Expensive Custom Boots. (gasp.)
So I collect jewelry. I just got a fabulous necklace, with the "chain" being 3/4" faceted chunks of BC Jade and the pendent being a rectangle of abalone. Absolutely fabulous. And it requires a woman of some age to wear it -- it's too much mass/power for the young crowd.
Holy Wow! Awesome. Jewelry is another Cool Thing To Get Into. I have a lot of that, as well. Lots of Willow and some Kofoed and some assorted other pieces. And a really fine Hopi silver inlay bracelet--it's museum quality.
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Date: 2004-05-03 09:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-04 09:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-01 11:35 pm (UTC)Especially if they dream of setting up a remote office in the wilderness somewhere. :-)
no subject
Date: 2004-05-03 09:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-04 09:46 am (UTC)Actually, the reality is I mostly do take my laptop to the local coffeeshop. But one can dream. :-)