enshittification

The idea that some aspects of the consumer experience are, erm, getting worse, is not new. The term “enshittification” was popularized back in 2022, but people have been talking about topics like “planned obsolescence” even longer. 

It’s been increasingly on my mind, though, and what happened to Dover Saddlery seems like a perfect encapsulation of a broader trend that’s only getting bleaker.

trying to find the path to good choices like…..

Dover was founded in 1975 and steadily grew into a dominant equestrian retailer, going public in 2005. I pored over their catalogs as a horseless kid growing up in Baltimore City — spending hours circling my favorite items, fancifully outfitting my imaginary ponies. That catalog was as engaging to me as all the other equestrian magazines like Equus or Practical Horseman. And eventually, much later in life, the actual bricks and mortar store in our area became a reliable staple. Our “big box” outfitter along with all the other local tack shops.

Unbeknownst to me, and probably many other members of the equestrian community (who may or may not be up to date with the pages of Forbes or Wall Street Journal), three private-equity firms took Dover private in 2015, and its ownership control changed hands at least once after that — with reports of debt, cost-cutting, store closures, and unpaid vendors. And, as many are aware by now, it was taken over again in 2026, and subsequently liquidated by a restructuring firm. 

grateful for the opportunity to unplug from the wider world and just enjoy the moment with our ponies!

This story is apparently being retold again and again across all industries and sectors: a trusted, recognizable niche brand becomes a leveraged financial asset, while employees, suppliers, consumers, and the broader market ecosystem absorb the loss.

The problem, to me, however, is that… the more aware I become of examples of this story, the more I realize just how enormous the private equity / conglomerate ownership model has become, and how deeply intertwined it already is with nearly every facet of my day to day life as a consumer and citizen.

The Guardian ran a story a couple weeks ago about how It’s not your imagination that consumer goods are getting worse. That article linked to a new favorite online publication, Worse on Purpose — authored by Keyana Sapp, who writes deeply researched investigative essays on brands, conglomerations, and the hollowing out of entire sectors.

doozy loves being able to follow along with the group!

For those interested, it’s worth browsing around the Worse on Purpose website… Tho this article about Whole Foods is a neat and tidy representative example of how private equity infiltrates familiar brands and disrupts entire supply chains (and the underlying ethos) quietly enough to avoid much scrutiny or attention, while still exploiting customer loyalty.

More topically for our purposes, however, is this article on pet care and the industry surrounding small animal veterinary care. Sapp promises at the end that a follow up specific to pet food will be forthcoming soon too. I’m personally looking forward to that, since suspecting that my cats’ increasing pickiness over the years may be driven by declining food product quality is part of why I started noticing generalized product degradation in the first place.

That article on vet care is interesting for other topical reasons as well — particularly as it is not especially flattering toward the Mars company. Which, for those unaware, is a massive privately owned multinational conglomerate with roughly $65B in annual sales. And, somewhat coincidentally, is owned and run in part by renowned equestrian enthusiast Jacqueline Mars, or “Mrs. Mars,” as she’s known to her riders. 

not a bad way to spend a day!

You may be familiar with that equestrian tie-in bc the Mars company has been an enormous supporter of major events in recent years, including both the North America 5* competitions. And Mrs. Mars herself breeds and owns a number of FEI horses campaigned by riders of all stripes — from up-and-coming professionals to US Team riders.

In other words, she’s been a major supporter of the sport in a number of critical, existential ways. Which… kinda runs counter to the company’s track record in owning and operating vet clinics and other consumer-facing brands, as outlined in the Worse on Purpose article. And… kinda makes you wonder exactly how reliable that support will be after Mrs. Mars is gone.

Not to be doom-y gloom-y, but isn’t that kinda the whole point? That the accountability for business decisions is increasingly flowing up the ownership chains, that success is metricized into the barest financial terms, at the expense of literally anything and everything else that doesn’t fit neatly into an expense report? 

Take away the individual passion, drive, commitment to community, the will to support…. and, what’s left? Board rooms filled with folks who are only interested in reviewing quarterly reports prepared by lawyers and accountants? 

“oh lawd, are you off ranting on the internet again about things you can’t change??” — doozy, probably

So… yea. You may be wondering what this all has to do with me and my horsey habits and lifestyle LOL, which. Ya know. Fair. And to be honest, I’m not sure I have a point or specific objective here today. Other than, this topic or issue or whatever you want to call it, has been on my mind lately. And I like to write about the things I care about, so here we are. 

I promise that I’m NOT going to try to assign any sort of responsibility or guilt or accountability of any kind onto our role as consumers in this whole situation, either. Bc let’s be real, we’ve been conditioned as a society since basically the 1970’s industry-backed anti-litter and recycling campaigns to view these problems as a failure of individual behavior, placing the burden on consumers while largely leaving the systems responsible in place.

But idk about you, but I don’t really believe that individual consumer behavior can have the same impact or influence as regulatory systems or legal structures. 

Even so, however, I’m still trying to be more thoughtful about my own consumer behavior — divesting where possible from private-equity or major conglomerate ownership structures. Whether that’s through being more selective of the specific brands I buy, or the platforms I use, or whatever.

“ugh i’m outta here, off to go enjoy my purina* snacks” — doozy, not interested lol
(*a Mars company, just so we’re clear on my own “purity” levels here!)

Tho, as ChatGPT informed me (no doubt through its own controversial network of resource and intellectual property consumption / subversion…), it’s better to think about my consumer behavior in this regard as more of a spectrum rather than a purity test. Not every system and supply chain is equally avoidable, ya know? 

But where possible, I’ve made a few small changes. Like my cat food purchases — bc again my precious pets and their increasingly picky tastes were what prompted some of this research in the first place. 

ChatGPT has been useful in researching independently owned and operated pet food manufacturers (tho definitely let me know if you have recommendations too!) and actually, retailers too. I moved my auto ship orders from Amazon to Chewy a couple years ago from a desire to divest from Amazon… But lately am looking to do better than Chewy too. Luckily in my area we have locally owned options like The Mill. 

One downside is in pricing, tho — as major retailers like Amazon or Chewy can often offer the “best” prices. Which, obvi this whole enshittified system shows that the lower prices come at their own costs too… But given that prices of literally everything seem to be climbing at the moment, ya know. Yea we all have to make the right choices for our own situations. No purity tests. 

“sometimes life is better with less thinking tho!” — doozy, philosophical

It’s worth thinking about, tho. Or at least, it’s been on my mind lately. Maybe not exactly a “solve-able problem” per se, but something I’d rather be open-eyed about when making my choices. 

Anybody else thinking about the state of these things lately? Or maybe you have your own private equity horror stories (lord knows I’ve heard all manner of nightmares about everything from fridges and washing machines that only last 2-3 years, to predatory mortgages, lost pensions, senior care disasters… etc, just to name a few!)? 

Or maybe you’ve always prioritized being a more conscientious consumer — and have horse- or pet-friendly recommendations in that regard? Or, lol, and no judgement here, but maybe ignorance is bliss for you when it comes to the darker machinations of the corporate world?

pardon the interruption

Alternate Title 1: Acting As If

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Alternate Title 2: When Trashcans Attack

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Alternate Title 3: Oh Doozy… :(

pictured: a victim of the consequences of her own actions circumstances beyond her control

Sooo… My dear sweet mare… Ms Mondeuse, Best of Biscuits… We had a little accident last week.

The Hill Where It Happened

I had just hopped off after a particularly hot and sticky afternoon dressage school, unbuckled the girth, and slipped off the bridle (reins still around Doozy’s neck, plus neck strap on, obvi), and Doozy was, as she always is, immensely itchy. 

Except, two totally unrelated events occurred in rapid succession. First, Doozy tried to rub her face on a nearby trashcan. BUT THEN, in a totally unrelated circumstance, the trashcan moved and made a noise. And that, as they say, was that. Doozy shied backwards, turned away from me, Lost Her Shit when the ungirthed saddle subsequently slipped off, and got away. 

“the hills, they call to me!” — doozy, on drugs, performing a slightly less dramatic reenactment

For whatever mysterious reasons guiding Doozy’s chaotic impulses, she opted to bolt straight up and over the biggest nearby hill — exploding her bridle into a million pieces (not all of which I was able to find!) along the way. 

She made it all the way to the neighbors before apparently realizing she wasn’t in Kansas anymore, and so naturally turned tail and bolted straight back down the same gigantic hill and back toward the barn yard where we were still just standing there stunned. At which point her inner GPS kicked in and she made the turn she *should* have made in the first place and bee-lined toward her field, where she then waited in sad panicky agitation for me to come rescue her.

pictured: It

Somehow, Doozy kept all four shoes on throughout the ordeal, and had no visible wounds or marks. Plus 3 of her 4 boots were still perfectly in place — one of the hinds had slipped a bit but nothing crazy.

So I checked her over, hosed her off and did my best to help her cool and calm down… Obvi she was extremely agitated and sad after all that… But I hoped that perhaps we escaped any meaningful injury.

anonymous mare has #SomeRegerts
also, shoutout to my farrier who was like, “yea ok but let’s NOT shoe this horse today tho”

Unfortunately, tho, that doesn’t seem to be the case. When I arrived back at the barn about 12hrs later for our regularly scheduled farrier appointment, her left lower forelimb was hot, swollen and sore. I had just shot a text off to my vet when my farrier arrived, and he kinda confirmed my fears that we might be looking at something serious here.

shoutout to anti-inflammatories and antidepressant sedatives too, the real MVPs

He recommended waiting to shoe the horse until after the ultrasound, since her feet look fine and, as he noted, ‘we may want different shoeing based on what we find…’ Oof. 

pictured: as much action as we’re gonna get for the foreseeable future

Fortunately the vet was already scheduled to be at the farm later that afternoon anyway, so I was able to go back out and meet her. She just did a basic exam with palpating the leg, basically just to confirm that it’s possibly a tendon or ligament injury. 

these ice-vibe boots are a nice touch while we hand graze!

Her preference is to wait to ultrasound until the swelling is reduced to improve the quality of imaging. So we’ll do that at the end of this week. And in the meantime, the prescription is to act “As If” we’re dealing with something serious here. 

cold hosing is stronger medicine, imo, but it’s nice to do it all!

So, in other words, complete stall rest — hand grazing only allowed if the horse will behave. A 10 day bute regimen to help with pain relief and inflammation, plus a generous allowance of trazodone, to help with said “behaving.” Cold therapy via cold hosing and ice boots, and standing wraps during the acute phase.

doozy finds this liniment a bit too strong for her large muscle groups especially along her top line, but it’s nice as a diluted brace after cold hosing and under the standing wraps

Based on the initial exam, my vet thinks it’s very unlikely that it’s a worst case scenario rupture — mostly bc the horse is moving around reasonably well, albeit with bute on board.

snoozy doozy <3 <3

In fact she was willing to let me hope that perhaps it’s something like a check ligament injury, vs a less ideal deep digital flexor tendon problem. And, obviously, until we actually scan to find out, it’s entirely possible that there isn’t any significant injury at all and that the characteristic swelling was a fluke, an over reaction of a sensitive red mare! 

seems like no matter what the horsey activity is, there’s always so much stuff involved…

Now I’m a data analyst by profession, I spend a lot of time with statistics… so… ya know… My feeling is like the data in this case, the odds etc, all kinda point in the same direction: that there’s some sort of soft tissue damage. 

4 days post accident, clearly comfortable for weight bearing, swelling much reduced (yes the right leg is totally bent here, i know it’s a weird angle). we’ll ultrasound 5 days from now.

So we’re just gonna continue operating under that assumption. In this type of circumstance, the risks associated with a false negative can be far worse than a false positive. Meaning, the worst that can come from being overly conservative is unnecessary stall rest, vs possibly letting a small injury get suddenly much worse without sufficient precaution. 

The leg is looking good as the swelling reduces, tho, so I’m taking an optimistic view.

in a strange twist of fate, her best friesian friend is also stall bound with a significant soft tissue injury… makes for nice company while hand grazing!

The stall rest is also obviously not ideal, and something I’ve honestly always dreaded for Doozy. But she’s actually coping very nicely with the trazodone! At least so far. I think we helped her by loading her up on a dose before she even knew she was on stall rest — before she even had a chance to get upset. 

and they can see each other from their stalls <3 <3

The trick, I think, will be in keeping her eating it long term. It’s clearly not the tastiest stuff, ya know? So far, so good, tho, and we’ll explore options if/when she goes off her feed.

poor princess, please just keep eating your sedatives <3

I’m obviously pretty upset and sad, tho, even as I try to stay optimistic long term. Naturally I wish I would have done literally anything differently to avoid the accident in the first place. 

meanwhile, us while we wait for the scan.

Things just have a way of escalating beyond all expectation with horses tho —  especially horses like Doozy. Even in the best of times, to think we’re ever really “in control” of a situation is kinda delusional. Ugh. Mare. It really did NOT have the be this way!

So… yea. Cross your fingers for us — that the mare keeps eating her drugs, and that the ultrasound looks better than expected. In the meantime, if you need us, we’ll be in the wash stall cold hosing…

pony club stuff

Woweee it’s been a busy few days around here, folks — hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend (or extra long weekend if you took extra days off work like I did lol).

hand walking + grazing around the show grounds before dressage

We’re deep into event preparations for my local riding club’s big annual recognized event, so it’s been basically all hands on deck for the past week — and still with more to come! The club only hosts two events at this venue, a recognized horse trial and then a starter trial on back to back weekends, and the rest of the year the venue is used for other events like timber and steeplechase races etc. 

So all the jumps get piled up in a back hayfield for the intervening months, making for a big job when it’s time to pull them all out and get them set onto the various xc tracks. 

“filling the tank” before dressage. and thus we conclude my relevant pictures from the day, SORRY!

I managed to sneak away for a day this weekend, tho, to go ride in a horse show of my own, yay! Just another super low key local starter event at Buckworth. I’d actually never ridden there myself, but have been before with friends. 

well i took pics of all the xc jumps too, but i opted to scratch so eh, oh well

I was hoping the low key casual nature of the event would be a good fit for Doozy’s first full event of the year, but in retrospect that might not have been the wisest choice.  

proof that i did in fact ride the horse around the show, tho!

The event is run by the local pony club, which is super cool and all that, but it means that everything is geared toward… well. Ponies and kids lol. The warm up area was a thronging mass of parents, grandparents, small children in wagons or strollers, and fat ponies milling around — literally right up against the dressage courts too. As in, I legit had to dodge a tot-filled wagon just to enter at A. 

more random pictures — the little exercises i set up to prepare

Doozy quite naturally found the scene a bit over stimulating. I’d done my best to help her familiarize with the atmosphere by arriving a couple hours early to hand walk her up and down all the lanes, and back and forth from the trailer to the dressage area a couple times — since she seems to appreciate coming and going from a new space before actually getting into the work. 

oooh and photographic representation of what i’ve really been up to this past week. settin fences, y’all!

And honestly our warm up was… Eh. Not as good as the pre-meltdown warm up at Thornridge the week before (in a quiet indoor on nice footing), but not as bad as the post-meltdown, uh, everything else at Thornridge. I stuck to my guns about getting both legs on and touching right away (much to Doozy’s dismay), and not letting the shoulders pop out every which way. 

 

got to hang out with the builder’s pup too while pulling the flat bed <3

It took some serious persistence in waiting the mare out, but suddenly she seemed to settle onto the aids just in time for us to circle the ring for our test. Well. “Circle the ring” isn’t quite the right way to say it, since the entire ‘A’ end of the court was mobbed with spectators (and aforementioned tots in wagons).

Nbd, tho, I just rode past the judge, gave the scribe my number and test name, and then waited for the bell while circling off to the side. 

played with the common vision simulator app while choosing fence paints too

Doozy actually squeezed past all the hubbub at A without much fuss, and I *finally* remembered to halt for my entrance in Intro C. Yay me! I’m so tired of being immediately rung out of tests bc I either forget the halt for Intro C, or forget the weird broken center line for Starter. 

EXCEPT. Womp womp, my dumbass misread my division split — Intro Rider C — as the assigned dressage test, and the judge just thought I was confirming my division instead of my test when I said Intro C. So… yea. Immediately rung out again, bc we were supposed to be doing the Starter test. 

this venue is so freakin beautiful tho

Ugh. Super annoying. And the judge didn’t think it was appropriate* for her to refresh me on the test — despite having a test sheet literally in hand. So I left the ring again to pull the test up on my phone (which was thankfully in my pocket — technically against the rules). Ugh. 

And naturally Doozy was *not thrilled* about all this, and was a bit less polite about dodging the tots again at A on our way back in a second time… Which. Idk. IMO the type of world where you let spectators and small children crowd the literal edges of the dressage ring sure seems to me like the type of world where a judge can remind an errant rider of the test pattern. I mean, if it’s allowable at Kentucky, amirite???? But what do I know LOL.

(*Funny enough, instead of telling me the test herself, she suggested I get a reader — which actually IS explicitly against the rules in eventing. Moderately annoying when folks in positions of power don’t know the rules yet are inflexible with riders…)

aaaaand more random pics lol, this time from our most recent ride in which doozy acted like the perfect princess i know she can be <3

Anyway. We got it done, but Doozy was… well. She is who she is lol, it was tense and tight and all the normal things for us. I don’t know the scores or comments bc I never picked the test up, but we can all pretty much imagine what all was said. 

I will say that I was proud of keeping my legs on throughout the ride — from hip to heel, Doozy’s preferred thunder-coat style of riding — and kept my focus on keeping Doozy straight(ish) through her shoulders.

pictured: nonchalant (aka not bolting) about the poles

I had hoped for better, tbh, but maybe I just need to be a bit more patient. Regardless, after finishing dressage, we rode over to the show jump area just to get in and familiarize a bit. And then eventually it was our turn to jump too! 

is it just me or is she getting beeeefy??

The wheels definitely fell a bit off the bus, tho, not gonna lie. Doozy felt straight up frantic and overwhelmed, and all the work we’ve been doing in our lessons around patience and keeping things boring went straight out the window. After our first few warm up jumps I honestly decided that maybe it wasn’t going to be worth it to jump at all.

i don’t need perfection, i just want to have fun at the shows, mare. c’mon now

But, eh, again it was a pretty relaxed event (dressage judges aside lol!), and they were just taking riders as they came. So I opted to just take Doozy over to stand in the shade under some trees and chill out a bit while a few other ponies took their turns and moved on.

i do love it when she’s easy tho

Eventually when the area was quiet, we went back to warming up a bit, and Doozy seemed a bit more rideable, so we went ahead and did the little show jump course (in the helmet cam video above). 

Another note about this event maybe not being the wisest choice in retrospect: it was a fine little jumper course for kids and ponies, but was not super duper well suited for big striding green thoroughbreds. The turns were all a little funny, especially a weird super tight downhill U-Turn from fence 3 to 4 (which we predictably missed* entirely and had to circle).

(*Interestingly, tho, I don’t think they “charged” me for the circle in the scoring. Not that final scores mattered lol, but it’s a nice decision when the turns are a bit wonky!)

at least she’s pretty <3

My intentions with this event were probably in the right place, but realistically we might be better off riding at more established facilities with more traditionally designed (and measured) jump tracks. 

As it was, tho, Doozy actually got around the course mostly fine. All the sharp turns meant I really had to sit her down in all the corners, but I was able to let her roll around in canter and she found most of the jumps fairly well aside from a choppy missed distance at 2. 

not getting sent to the dog food factory yet lol

I did decide to skip the xc, tho. Maybe that was the cowardly choice, or maybe I could have just gone around one fence at a time like we were schooling. Which, realistically, is all this really was, after all. 

But. Eh. Doozy wasn’t really in what I’d consider a “learning” frame of mind, and I am not convinced that there’s a lot of value in schooling her when she has that kind of frantic fragile feeling. Maybe the smartest decision of all would have been to just go schooling in the first place, instead of signing up for the event. Live and learn LOL. 

As it is, we went out and did some things and had a time lol. Doozy’s behavior was vastly improved from Thornridge, but still not even close the quality and relaxation we can get at home or in lessons (as evidenced by her being a perfect friggin princess in our very next ride after this show — source of the pics above). 

Which, eh, is maybe to be expected after so much time away from activities. Perspective is apparently everything with this mare. And patience, lol. And maybe a little persistence too ;) 

not on point, but on purpose?

I’m (re)reading a book right now about facilitating collective movement, and the author made a beautiful observation about the importance of focusing less on being ‘on point,’ and more about staying ‘on purpose.’ In other words, less of the discrete moment in time, and more of the big picture long view. 

testing our new Schockemöhle Air Silent bonnet!!

This felt timely to me after having a bit of a bust at the Loch Moy starter trial. Guys. I hemmed and hawed about entering this thing. See-ed and sawed. Whiffed and waffled. Well.. Mostly just the whiff. Classic clown stuff. 

I entered the show. Then literally scratched later that same day (getting a refund minus office fee). Then entered again, paying full price (again) PLUS late fee. And have literally goose eggs to show for it LOLsob.

did a little last minute grid too just to be safe

But ya know. Here’s the thing. I really love this event. The place has fantastic vibes, produces super reliable experiences, and I just ya know… love them. Loch Moy also has a lot of atmosphere, but in a not-unfriendly way. It really felt like such a perfect first event of the year.

Plus, I volunteered for the Saturday classes and could do all my course walking then… Leaving Sunday wide open for designing the most Doozy-friendly show schedule possible. 

loch moy requires competitors to bring their own pinny numbers… but my personal life has been hectic and both nights i missed closing time at the print shop by like 15min… DIY it is!

So with all the NQR-ness and missed time, I thought about maybe just signing up for a dressage test of choice. Or maybe just a CT? But ultimately I chose to enter the full HT, figuring if the mare felt good we’d just keep going. But if there were any issues? We could stop at any time. 

My sense was that… I’d regret it more for not at least giving it a shot, than if we had to call it early. And ya know. Here I am now on the other side of having had to call it early and… Honestly I feel great about all of my choices (well aside from all the wasted office fees LOL). It was a net positive experience.

walked the course the day before after volunteering — it look great! had a ditch option!

The cross country course looked literally fantastic. Some of the jumps were pretty small, sure, but eh at this point in our education, easy is fine. More importantly — the course had a ditch option, and a truly lovely water option that would allow us to jump all our jumps AND try out the water, but in an almost zero-risk sort of way. Perfect!

course also had a reeeeally nice water option. you could go direct through the water alllll the way around to that little jump just behind the car. OR, and my plan, you could do the jump option instead of the flagged water entry (was a pleasant starter table we’ve jumped before) and then go thru the water to the next jump. best of both worlds!

I was also determined to really ride each phase intentionally and accountably. Particularly the dressage. I wanted to really put our recent lesson to work, ya know?

But first, we arrived on the grounds about 2 hours prior to go-time so Doozy could have plenty of time for hand grazing, hand walking, and general familiarization. Last fall she was cool as a cucumber walking around all the rings, but on this day? Mare was lit up. I was grateful for the rope halter, to say the least. 

doozy was decidedly less quiet on the grounds than she had been last fall. we got there tho!

That didn’t give me the greatest feelings about surviving the warm up — but eventually Doozy seemed to remember where she was when we passed through the parking lot, and arrived back at the trailer after about an hour a much more settled horse. And in fact, was a dream for getting tacked up and hacking back over to the dressage rings. 

Then she could have knocked me over with a feather by how quiet and pleasant she was in the warm up ring. We spent a long while walking around, practicing changing bend and getting both my legs on and asking her to soften and give… And guys, the feeling was fantastic. She was super chill, and I truly believed we were about to *finally* ride a test that wasn’t characterized by purely trying to survive lol. 

look how excited i was to go do our dressage

But, womp, I picked up the trot and she was a little off again. Same friggin thing that’s been plaguing us. Siiiiiiigh. 

So ya know, obviously that was that. I dismounted, and we strolled placidly back the trailers, pausing by the show jump ring and all the other hallmarks of a busy bustling horse show. Absorbing as much exposure as possible before going home again. 

i asked the steward to take a photo of us for proof of the goodness before dismounting…
womp womp

And to be perfectly honest, Doozy was so completely relaxed by the end of the (very short) day that it was impossible not to see the value in the experience even if I remain frustrated by trying to understand what’s bugging her. 

Realistically, we probably would not have had a perfect test, but it might have felt a lot more rideable than anything from last year. The show jumping may have been dicey in places (there were a few spots on the course that looked less favorable to us than last year’s course). But the cross country I expected to be an absolute dream, and have zero reason to think otherwise. 

the exposure is so good for her tho

Which… is maybe another reason why this day was a net benefit. For me, a big part of feeling ready and comfortable and confident about showing revolves around having a relatively reasonable set of expectations. Navigating uncertainty is not among my chief strengths as a human. 

But on this day, I’m legitimately proud — proud of Doozy for venting her early season fizz quickly and efficiently enough to be a sweetheart in the warm up ring. But also proud of myself for setting up a healthy mindset and head space ahead of the show. That’s something I’ve been working on for years at this point — given my general tendencies toward anxiety, overthinking and vague existential dread. 

Being able to sleep well the night before, go through all the motions without obsessing, and get from point A to point B with just one foot in front of the other — all without once saying, “Eh maybe I don’t actually wanna.” To me? That’s a clear win. YMMV.

filling the tank before heading home <3

It’s also reaffirming to me that we’re on the right track with Doozy’s general training and education. It IS actually getting easier, and she’s growing and maturing as reasonably quickly as can be expected of a sensitive redhead. 

Tho obviously… That still leaves the NQRness as a literal and figurative sore spot from the day. So that’s something that will need a little further examination and exploration. Maybe the saddle needs another tweak - did we go too far with the flocking? Or maybe it wasn’t the saddle after all? TBD I guess. Tho we were already scheduled for a regular check in with our favorite chiro / acupuncture practitioner this week anyway, so we’ll start there. 

So ya know. Stay tuned, I guess lol(sigh). In the meantime, I’m just going to appreciate that while our “season opener” may not have quite gotten “to the point,” maybe it still supported us in our purpose. For now, that’s good enough.

on saturdays we wear braids

Happy weekend, y’all! It’s been a quiet one around these parts since I opted to just give Doozy a full week off post vet visit. Lots of grooming and snacks and…. that’s about it lol. 

But I did finally sit on her again yesterday for a very light ride, chaperoned by a nice steady mare, and Doozy felt fantastic! Here’s hoping we can just ease back into it over the next week or so, maybe test out some little jompies etc… We’ll see!

always with the side eye

In the meantime, tho, I figured we were due for a little hilarity practice. Specifically: braid practice. Bc. Uh. Well I probably haven’t braided a mane in 5 years… And wasn’t exactly what you would consider “good” at it back then anyway. 

#SadMareDiaries

And let’s not even get into the whole relationship between tidy mane keeping habits and easy braids, m’kay?? lol…. Bc… Well. Ahem. We really don’t have much at all going for us in that regard either!

But. Eh. What the hell, let’s give it a go. Complete with pictures that absolutely do not do the devastation justice…

Step 1: Gather the materials!
Pro tip: Your sensitive mare may require preliminary examination of any new products.

Step 2: We totally got this. There’s the clippy thing doing clippy things, and we have a proper comb to measure the appropriate section of hair. Check and check!

Step 3: We have achieved yarn in braid, go team!

Step….. Oh Dear: That knot might be more yarn than hair, ngl :(

Step The Next: OK, Rally, Y’all! We got another yarned braid! This time with more sauce!! Braid spray is our friend.

Step Ahead: Second attempt is vaguely more button-ish looking?

Step E for Effort: Ok we went back and redid the first (left side) braid and that one looks more-ish normal-ish-ish. Just ignore all the crazy flyaways pls.

Step … Success?: That last one on the far right looks baaaaaasically like what I’m trying to achieve here? Ish?

Closer look at it. Passable?? Mebbe??
Idk if the hair is really long enough for the Dutch braid look I was going for… But adding a lot (like a LOT a lot) more braid spray and using slightly narrower chunks seemed to produce better outcomes.

Last Step: Take more time trying to get all those knots out of there than it even took getting in LOL

poor suffering mare!

Idk. There was a time in my life (cough cough like 30 years ago…) when I could make some pretty fancy macrame friendship bracelets lol. And the few times I braided Charlie turned out decently well. 

All the same, tho, I might need a little more practice to knock all that rust off! Sorry Dooz, but part of the job of helping me learn and advance my skills includes… random shit like this too. 

Anyone else out there taking advantage of the budding spring to work on spiffing up grooming and show prep skills?