_{(Enjoy a baby Pierce photo as this post’s focus because I suck at taking relevant photos in landscape format, oops.)}

I started the weekend on the best possible note – a fun Friday lesson of trot and canter sets plus a short 2’3”-2’6” course on one of my favorite horses of my trainer’s, Wallace.

He’s a delightfully fun guy – so easy to flat and uncomplicated over fences. He can fancy it up for the show ring, but you’d never guess he’s a full-blooded QH and Amish bred to boot.

The rest of it was quiet and chill – Michael’s belated birthday dinner at his mom’s on Saturday night, and I swung by a tack sale at a local barn on Sunday to see about continuing the Retail Therapy Plan as mentioned in my last post. I was hoping to find some open front boots, bridles, or reins, but ended up picking up a pair of practically new Ogilvy baby pads for $50. I’m on a low-key mission to make my hoard of saddle pads consist of purely Ogilvy pads and monogrammed/award pads – so these are a fine addition.

Afterwards I spent some quality time deep-cleaning my bridles. My previous horse, Bronx, was a delight, but a sweaty beast on the best of days. This, of course, played havoc with my tack – my martingales were always grungy and crusted with grime from rubbing on his sweaty neck, and the reins were always gross with sweat and grunge. I’ve never minded cleaning tack, but never braided reins – too many crevices!

But I soldiered on, cleaned the grotty mess, and popped the Inno-Sense flexi mullen mouth I had tried with Bronx onto my newer bridle from SmartPak. Pierce is a bit of a monster about putting reins and things into his mouth so I may swap the reins out for something cheaper or more indestructible – Biothane maybe? – but it felt nice to get something ready for him.

When I first sat on him it felt like Pierce was a similar size to Bronx. It’d be nice to be able to re-use things on him, but looking at videos and photos now he looks so much bigger – now I’m hesitating on buying any new tack. But at least I’ve gotten a few short videos of him enjoying the brief handwalks/grazing periods he’s allowed as a break from stall rest. I’ll end on that parting note of positivity – just a sleek and happy-looking boy enjoying some sunshine.