kentucky day 1: SHOPPING

Happy Friday everyone!! Obvi my weekend started yesterday haha with day 1 of dressage at the Land Rover Kentucky 3 Day Event. Except... Well... To be perfectly honest, we didn't plan on arriving early to watch all those extra tests haha. Thursday for us was for SHOPPING !!

check out this gorgeous ASB?

Also, unlike in past years, my host's home has upgraded the wifi so I can actually post this haha. PLUS I'm actually getting pretty reliable cell phone service in the Horse Park too. At least, on this first day when there weren't too many people on the grounds yet.

ooooh and this one too!! so much action tho

Actually, Thursday seemed pretty sparsely attended overall. But that worked out for us. No long lines, plenty of stock. And my friend with the injured foot is basically fully weight bearing and walking pretty darn well, albeit in a boot. So all in all, pretty good conditions haha.

inside the trade fair!

And we did a LOT of shopping haha. Right off the bat I had my eye on show coats, considering none of my coats fit me any more womp womp. I already picked up a couple pairs of breeches to update my sad saggy baggy, so that's not a big priority at the moment.

trying on so much attire! also. that shirt says "good studs are hard to find." OMFG

Tho. Haha. Just bc you're not buying doesn't mean you can't try on ALL THE THINGS!! Obvi for science, right? Like idk what size breech I am right now, to be perfectly honest. So clearly I had to try on all various different brands etc.

Like these Romfh breeches that I LOVED. It didn't hurt that VTO Saddlery was offering a free pair of socks just for trying on Romfh breeches haha.

LOVED this county, think it was an epiphany?

Clearly I've done a fair amount of saddle shopping in recent years so I'm not reeeeally in the market haha. But like that's ever stopped us before, right? We sat in a TON of saddles (probably will continue throughout the weekend tbh), and this County (Epiphany maybe?) was hands down the most favorite dressage saddle I've ever sat in.

majyk equipe is getting into the stirrup iron game!

Back in the world of more realistic price points lol, Majyk Equipe has these neat new irons (they had pink too! such cute colors!) with pretty good deals when purchased with full sets of boots. I've had pretty bad luck personally with MEs, mostly with the boots turning and rubbing. Apparently that's pretty common, tho they say it's user error. But like, how hard should boots be to put on?!?

wondered if there would be more demo stirrups to be found haha, but nope

Anyway. The Stubben tent is one of my favorites ever since finding those demo stirrups for $100 off list price haha. So naturally I had my eye on the ground just in case we could manage any sort of repeat haha. But rats, no such luck - all the demo irons chillin under the racks were standard old school fillis irons haha. Maybe they wised up ;)

i've heard good things about this faceh metal curry

Grooming stuff doesn't normally end up in my shopping cart bc I have a lot of it already and tend to just use my old faithfuls. This metal curry was interesting tho. One of my barn mates has it and likes it, but I'm kinda skeptical haha.

actually really liked those brushes too...

These brushes tho....I liked them WAY more than I expected. Bristles that long aren't generally my type. But something about their relative stiffness just had that certain je ne sais quoi that we all like in our body brushes haha. Didn't end up buying one, tho no promises I won't grab one before the weekend is over haha. I think they were only $14 or something so maybe haha!

loved this combination! 

There were so many pretty tech-y jackets allllll over the place too. I really like what's happening with colors right now too. Not so much bright and bold, but more sorta conservative while still kinda different and interesting. This particular hue I really liked, especially that underlying show shirt (tho the shirt wasn't as cute on its own). But I imagine it's a bear to keep clean!

came pretty close to getting these ice boots

Y'all already know that ice boots are on my list in general. This is the style that I was pretttttttty sure I was going to buy. But.... maybe I'm just kinda an idiot, but I didn't realize that the price was per boot. Which like, obviously changes the numbers quite a bit. So even tho the above was pretty much what I thought I wanted, I ended up not buying. Spoiler tho -- I found an alternative that seems even better haha.

the equitack booth was hardcore. champagne and insta-friendly cactuses and some aggressive sales people haha

Anyway moving right on along. Possibly my favorite booth was the EquiTack tent haha, since they had absolute mountains of really nice used saddles for pretty competitive prices. And quite a few members of my party spent a good long while trying different things and getting fitted etc. Didn't hurt that the sales reps kept plying us with champagne tho lol.

voltaire booth was super stylized 

For real tho -- actually one theme from the day was just how intense some of the sales people were. Like everyone is super nice, and obviously everyone is there to do a job. And there's naturally a symbiotic relationship between customers and sales people. But DAMN. Some of these folks were sharks haha. Definitely aggressive tactics. So like, consider yourself warned if you plan on visiting all the booths.

these titanium bits were fascinating! 

Like the lady in this booth who walked up to us discussing bits in general, not this specific metal (titanium), and jumped into the conversation to tell us that the titanium was what would make all the difference in the world. That horses who don't accept the bridle will accept the titanium. And that my horse who leans magically won't lean if I just use a $300 titanium bit lol. Which like, eh. We've heard that story before haha.

checked out the equipe booth too

Anyway tho, overall there were a LOT of really great booths. Lots and lots of excellent product. The Equipe was probably one of my favorites, and in some ways reminded me of Eponia (which I have NOT seen yet, tho that doesn't necessarily mean they aren't at the show).

they had a lot of nice stuff!

Actually they had some great deals here too. I LOVED all their bridles, but especially loved that they sold everything in pieces too. Y'all know I'm a huge fan of frankenbridles lol so individual parts are always very enticing to me.

i esp liked all the individual parts...

Especially, ahem, when I discovered a certain black patent chunk of leather that.... was quiiiiite possibly either tagged incorrectly, or tagged in such a way that the hand written price wasn't very clear. But I double checked the price with the rep and bought that thing before she could second guess her answer lol.

and, naturally, some stuff came home with me too ;)

So Charlie's got some new gear to try out when I got home. And, uh, yea there are some other fun new things too ;) Probably I'll do a more complete recap of the full haul eventually (bc let's be real, I'm probably still gonna buy more stuff throughout the weekend...). But here's a sneak preview!

Anyway. TGIF yo. Here's hoping for an awesome weekend here in Kentucky. It feels like kinda a small field of riders, but hopefully the weather will cooperate, the ground will be good, and the horses will all run well!

Hope you all have a great weekend too ;)