santa hat shenanigans !!!

'Tis the season for subjecting our creatures to ornamentation and decoration for our own personal glee and photo albums. Muahaha.

tolerant and FESTIVE pony! (an OF lesson pony, maybe Nikki? could be wrong about that tho)

Isabel does... not love getting dressed up. Haha. Hahaha.

"bah humbug" - isabel the grinch

Particularly, she strongly dislikes wearing hats.

oh no, it's going!!

You can't say I didn't try tho! Poor princess and the nonsense she stoically tolerates lol...

..... and gone....

Bali, however, has proven much more compliant with my ridiculous shenanigans. 

christmas cheer?

And obviously I can rationalize my childlike behavior by saying it's all part and parcel of turning him into a broke kid-friendly horse.

cheerful green! just, ya know, ignore that it's the wrong shape, and that it has someone else's embroidery on it lol

He got fully dressed up in another of my new-to-me saddle pads too. This time in a pleasant green with taupe binding and white piping. Never mind that it's got embroidery on both sides that definitely doesn't come close to matching with my own initials, or my horse's show name.

Alas, my leg doesn't bend enough for the stirrup length most comfortable for my jump saddle, so I've been riding exclusively in my dressage tack. And this is obviously not a dressage pad. Whatever. It's the right color and that's all that matters!

infinitely patient pony is infinitely patient

And I'm pretty sure Bali would have stood around all day wearing that thing. In fact I was thisclose to leaving the hat on him for our trail ride too, but would have been devastated if he shook it off in the middle of the woods bc there's no way in hell that I'm fit for getting on and off on random logs with a 5yr old OTTB (even tho technically he's easier to get on than Isabel...).

adorable, right?

So we just settled for some pictures instead.

the ear fuzz gets me every time

I think my favorite thing about Bali might be that he snuggles and cuddles. What a sweetie. Santa, if you're reading this - all I want for Christmas is.... well, a few things lol ;)

Happy Holidays Everyone!!!