Horse "Stuff"

In light of my post yesterday and because all I'm able to do today is lunge my poor neglected pony, I figured I'd talk a little about horse stuff.

I LOVE shopping for Walker. I love shopping in general, but now that I have my own horse, I have been able to funnel the greater part of my irrational need to buy high heels into a more practical (at times) obsession with buying Walker whatever he might remotely need.  At present, I have the following list of horse stuff:

- 2 saddles
- 6 saddle pads
- 3 bridles
- 4 bits
- 2 useless horse blankets
- 3 halters
- 2 lead lines
- my own lunge whip (awkwardly living in the back seat of my car)
- a various assortment of brushes and combs (pretty much every kind made)
- saddle bags
- etc.

To those of you who may be horse people, this might not seem like a lot.  In fact, horse people are all the same.  We all have a lot of everything.  However, keep in mind that I have only had Walker since March, and the only thing I bought before then was an English saddle.  The rest I have bought since having him - and a lot of it was for the two measly horse shows that I did.

All that being said, I still love to shop around.  I recently went through every online horse website I could find that had catalogs and had them send them to me so that I could spend the Fall lusting over things I don't need and probably won't use.  I have discovered that this is safer than actually going into a tack shop.  The last time I went to Greenhawk, I went there to pick up a 50 cent braiding comb and came out of there with $200 worth of stuff.  I have a problem.  But besides being addicted to shopping, I'm slightly addicted to my horse.

Who can resist a face like that?

So while it's true that I always seem to be in the market for something (currently horse blankets and full seat breeches), I probably rarely need anything.  The upside to all these catalogs is that I might actually be able to find stuff I like at a cheap price, and of course there's always Christmas.  These days I have my eyes on the following:

Need:

- appropriate winter turnout and stall blanket for Walker (cold winters mean this is closer to a necessity than anything else)

Want (and will probably get):

- full seat breeches (I have a new love affair with breeches - especially considering I ride Western.  However, breeches are SUPER comfy and I don't have any full seat ones)

- horse boots (for jumping so that Walker doesn't hit his legs - I don't expect much natural ability from him so I want him to be safe)
- new Western riding boots (I have mine nicely worn in now which means they're not exactly show appropriate...)
- a big Western buckle and belt (I want to be fashionably Western)

Desire Wistfully:

- an English saddle (I own one but it is worth about as much as I paid for it - which is not a lot.  That being said, this is more of a desire for the future, especially when I've started jumping and actually riding English on a more regular basis)

- a Western saddle (I also have one of these which I actually love, but I am worried that I should have a cheap one to use for mucking around on since the other one is worth more)

- a horse trailer and a truck to go with it (obviously I will not be buying a horse trailer tomorrow, but in the future - way WAY in the future - I would like to be able to load my horse up and take him places for trail rides, like on the beach or to a horse show if I ever do another one again)

- a homemade tack locker (which may make itself into the Want category if I can find a barn that will let me put one in, in which case I have a talented father with talented friends who I'm sure could hammer a few boards together...)

Naturally I would have a cheap English saddle and want an expensive one, and have a good Western saddle and want a cheap one.  I seem to get into a lot of scrapes like that...

In the meantime, I'm realizing that budgeting for a horse isn't exactly what you expect.  You take into consideration the cost of the horse, and the cost of the board, and the cost of the farrier and vet, but  you never seem to take into consideration all the other stuff.  Sure, you realize that  your horse will need a halter, but what you fail to realize is that your horse will probably destroy several halters in his lifetime, and in the meantime, you will probably get bored with it anyway and buy him a new one.  Or you will buy yourself cheap stuff to get by while lusting over more expensive stuff that you hope to buy later.  That being said, as I've come to realize, having a horse means that your friends will never run out of things to buy you for your birthday and Christmas!