Shopping For An Equestrian Birthday

This time last year, I was joyfully celebrating finding my dream horse. My birthday happened to fall on the weekend and I spent a lovely day with my husband and son going out to the barn for a ride in the sunshine, doing a little shopping and enjoying dinner out. It was lovely.

This year is different. I’m working more, my munchkin is in school, my husband is TDY (again) and we’re in a serious countdown to the next deployment. This year’s birthday will be spent like any other Monday- prepping lunches, finishing laundry, running twitter on Army Wife Talk Radio and wrangling my little one.

Knowing this was what my birthday had in store, I took advantage of some spring sales to fulfill some of my Riding Wishlist. The best part? Dover Saddlery helped out by throwing a Tent Sale at their Austin store beginning on April 4th (the Friday before my birthday). So on Friday, I dropped little one off at school and spent a pleasant, sunny morning driving the hour down to Austin just to play at the tack store. It was more than worth it as I saved over $300 off regular prices on some items that I really needed.

What did I pick up in my Birthday Shopping?

1. Suffolk Triple Stitched Leather Halter (’cause you can’t have too many nice leather halters, right?) Sale Price- $18.99
2. A couple extra jelly scrubbers (pony likes them)
3. 2 really pretty pairs of Zocks by Ovation
4. A pair of Ashley breeches in heather gray- I really like gray breeches.
5. 2 pairs of Kerrits Performance riding tights.
6. Random grooming supplies- a super soft face brush, some Slick ‘N Easy grooming blocks, shampoo and detanglers that were on sale
7. An extra Crusader long nose full ears fly mask so I can trade them out and take one home to wash without pony getting his pretty white nose sunburned.
8. an extra Kincade fleecey girth

In a happy coincidence, an order I’d placed a couple weeks ago when horze.com had a clearance sale also arrived on Saturday with a lovely saddle pad embroidered with the KWPN logo (the breed association pony is registered with).

This birthday probably won’t go down as a favorite, but it did remind me WHY I’ve held so tight to riding through the craziness of adult life and our journey as a military family. With all the other things that can pull on my energy and attention, this is something that replenishes, nourishes my own dreams and goals. I don’t know about you but there are days I need that to get me through.