Cob Jockey

Emma asked about Connor in the comments of the last post, and since I just sold his Patrick Dressage saddle this week (to a blogger!) it seems like a good time to talk about what he's up to.

Being loved on by children

I had a lot of emotions wrapped up in that Dressage saddle. My first, and probably only, custom saddle purchase. It was well over 2 years of research, searching and waiting before I finally got it, and we were going to get our bronze medal in it. It's just the way of the universe that after all that I never even showed in it, or even really took regular lessons in it.

Truth is, not a lot has changed since this post. Connor is sound, healthy and happy, but he was getting to a point in Dressage where it just wasn't fun for either one of us. That happened around the time the most tumultuous 24 month period of my life began, and I stopped riding, even though it took me until basically now to start calling him "retired."

That Dad Bod is a far cry from his Second Level bod, and he's earned this bod just as much

Connor, at 19 this year and sound as can be, owes me nothing. He gave me everything - the opportunity to try sports I had only dreamed about, the chance to go further up the levels than I thought I ever could in both Dressage and eventing. He put up with me riding him quite poorly for long periods of time before I learned better and yet he never tossed me (I've still never come off of him one single time in 13 years) and he still nickers at me every single time he sees me. And I will cheerfully pay his room and board for the rest of his life if that's all he ever gives me.

Annie and momma riding next to each other because Annie is finally ready to be off the leadline

But he IS still giving. He's got a part-leaser who rides him about once a week, a former co-op member who lost her heart horse a couple years ago and decided to take a break from horse ownership. He's got two little girls that, when it's not miserably cold out, come take pony rides on him. He's quiet enough for me to put anyone on him, but educated enough to still be a blast for a more advanced rider. 

Let's also not forget the fact that babysitting Disco is a very important job too - without Connor, Disco wouldn't have a turnout buddy. Connor would definitely prefer a less boisterous turnout buddy at his age, and I'm grateful to him for putting up with him.

Sorry, buddy.

In a perfect world, either I or the part-leaser would be riding him more than we are just to keep him moving, but I'm not beating myself up about the fact that I don't have the bandwidth to keep two horses going, work my full-time job and still handle farm chores and maintenance. I still hop on him occasionally, but he's not in any kind of steady work, and he probably never will be again unless the right on-farm lease situation pops up.

He's my heart horse, forever and always, and it's such a privilege to be able to give him a sound, happy retirement after all he's done for me.

We have a potential new boarder joining the co-op this month, and at her introductory monthly co-op meeting, she asked "Do you all ride a lot?"

I thought...yes I do! And then I thought, well, no, it's been years since I rode "a lot". But I'm actually motivated to ride now! So...yes! I'm going to!

I mean, I WAS riding...

Maybe this is why we have Januarys as northern equestrians. To let that "I want to!" feeling build and swell on the -2F nights when it's all you can do to just keep the horses alive and happy. To take stock of why you do all this in the first place and what parts of it matter to you. To look at the show calendar and dream of jackets-are-waived weather.

In the spirit of "someday it will be warm again, probably", here are my plans for Disco for the year, in no particular order:

• Trail ride as much as possible. Especially early in the year when the trails are quiet.
• Attend some smaller schooling shows, either as a non-compete or showing Intro tests, whatever he tells me he's ready for.
• Attend one show with atmosphere - maybe NDPC just for the in-hand breed show day.
• Start taking regular lessons again - more on this soon.

I've fallen in love with wool gear over the years, for more than just the barn. Lounge pants, tanktops, socks, shirts. Merino isn't the heavy, itchy stuff I used to think of when I thought of wool. And it naturally repels the body oils that other fabrics pick up more readily, allowing it to go longer between washes than, say, a technical fabric.

My grandma got me a Minus33 Lightweight Ridge Cuff Beanie - 100% Merino Wool for Christmas, and I have to say that after using it for a few weeks, hats are no longer the forgotten "whatever works" part of my winter wardrobe.

It's lightweight: by far the thinnest winter hat I own. I notice it a lot less than my other winter hats. But despite that, it's incredibly warm. All the way into the low single digits F, I have yet to miss any of my heavier hats. That said, when it does get warmer, wool is a lot more temperature-forgiving than other fabrics, so I expect when (if?) it ever warms up again, it will be comfortable to wear up into the 50s F just like my wool shirts.

Minus33 does have a heavier weight hat, but so far, I haven't felt the need to spring for it.

Another "OMG I can't believe I'm feeding in a t-shirt" photo

It also had the unexpected benefit of playing much more nicely with the Carhartt Montana Puffer Jacket hood, which is sherpa lined. My other hats would catch on it to where I couldn't turn my head inside the hood. This hat is so thin and smooth, it slides nicely underneath it.

Like all wool, you need to follow the manufacturer's recommendation on care, which can vary between brands. This one wants to be machine washed on cold/delicate with gentle detergent and then tumble dried on low. They also suggest storing it in an airtight box in the offseason.

Bottom line: It's a hat - there's not a lot to say, but it's a great hat.

What: Minus33 Lightweight Ridge Cuff Beanie - 100% Merino Wool 

Sizes: One size

Price: $22.99 from Minus33.com, also available on Amazon

Colors: SO MANY COLORS. 26 different colors to be exact.

Longtime readers of the blog know that you could describe me as obsessive when it comes to finding great cold weather gear. I developed Reynauds in my early 20s, and if I let my fingers and toes go numb long enough, I can sometimes pass out when the blood comes back to them. 

After eight years of wearing the same outfit, my cold weather gear finally changed this year and man, some of these pieces are too great not to share with everyone. So here's the first in a three part series about what's new:

I've found the holy grail of winter weather barn coats.

I had to get a new one this year, and I landed on the Carhartt Montana Puffer Coat - Sherpa Lined. On Carhartt's warmth scale, it's a maxed out "4 - Extreme Warmth Rating". For comparison, the canvas coats you usually think of when you think Carhartt are a "3 - Warmest Rating".

Guys, I almost returned this coat. It's TOO WARM at temps above 15F. It's too warm to wear a scarf with, too warm to wear a vest with. Too warm for a single Smartwool base layer. Way too warm to wear my Underarmour 4.0 with. I sweat no matter what I wear under it even though my body doesn't handle cold well at all. You put your hands in the pockets and they are immediately WARM. It's remarkable, and I can't get over it. 

Just as a fun experiment for this post, I did an hour of feeding, turnout and stalls in just a t-shirt and this coat when it was 18F this morning, and I was sweating! I have never felt anything like it before, and I'm truly in awe of it. 

The weather this morning

How I dressed for it

Other upsides to this coat are:

• Extremely durable water-resistant and windproof outer layer. Yes, it's a puffer coat, but it's a puffer coat that takes the abuse of farm work no problem.
  
• Great pockets - big, warm pockets (with zippers) for jamming your gloved hands into, snap pockets to drop things into, a nice big cell phone pocket on the chest, and an easy-to-access massive mesh pocket on the inside.
• Internal wrist cuffs - you can't see or feel them, but you can feel that the cold isn't getting into the sleeve
• It's lightweight and doesn't restrict my movement in any noticeable way.
  

Giant mesh pocket

It does have some downsides:

• It's massive and not at all attractive. Imagine what the Michelin Man would look like if he had all the curves of a cereal box. That's what you'll look like wearing it.
  
• The zipper sucks. It's plastic and sometimes gets stuck. I can already tell I'm going to be making a trip to the seamstress this summer to get it replaced with a metal one.
• The hood is not removable. This really bothered me at first and I felt like it was constantly hitting me in the back of the head, but I don't notice that as much now - not sure if the hood relaxed as I wore it, or if I'm so grateful to be warm that I don't care. I did have to get a different winter hat to fit under the sherpa-lined hood - more on that in another gear review post.

Sexy, it is not

Closeup of the sherpa lining in the hood and body of the coat

"Our winters haven't been too bad the last few years. It's sweatshirt weather through Christmas, then we get about 8 weeks of winter but the snow never sticks around for more than a few days, then it's spring." - my words last year to our newest boarder who moved here from Las Vegas

Yeah. About that.

Normally we have two miles of visibility from the top of this hill, which is my driveway. That's not fog, that's heavy snow.

Over the previous two days, we got the biggest single snowfall I can remember in all my decades of living in Indiana and Illinois. 11 fluffy inches. A mind-boggling thump of snow for this part of the world.

Dogs for scale

Even more mind-boggling, it's not supposed to melt. Like, ever. This is the land of 4" snowfalls that melt within 3 days, so it's hard to wrap my mind around the fact that we're not going to see grass until maybe February.

Mr. Canada is like whatever

In previous winters, when I lived in town, I've always tossed around if I should sleep on the couch in the barn lounge during winter storms, but I never actually did it. With this storm though, the roads were virtually impassable for 36 hours and a travel ban was put in place. I've never been so grateful to live a softball throw from the property line and to be able to tell all the boarders to just stay home.

Even for a very fit CrossFitter, walking through deep snow spiked my heart rate big time.

The barn owner is away, which meant plowing fell to me for the first time. Thankfully my partner helped me unbury the snow blade the BO had hidden at the back of the equipment barn, because wow, we may only use it once every few years, but when you need it, you really need it. This would have taken forever with just the FEL.

Between the blade and the bucket, I slowly got it done, which took me most of the day. That's a skilled task, getting snow off gravel, and I wasn't awful at it, but I know I'll get better at it over time.

I made circle drives in two different parts of the parking lot and told the boarders they are just going to have to appreciate the snow median until spring.

The horses thought the first day was great fun, when we only had about 6" on the ground, but when they came out to 11" the next day, they were all like "...nah." Nobody played and everyone just stood around and ate hay. Our old man OTTB who moved here from Las Vegas moved so slowly through it, I thought he was injured at first. He wasn't, he was just despondent, lol.

Back in November, my Minnesotan BO put snow sticks around the driveway for the first time in the eight years I've boarded here, and I joked then to the boarders that my BO almanac said we were in for a rough winter. I didn't know how right I'd be!

So here we go...a proper winter. I guess if I still enjoy taking the care of the barn on days like this, which I (mostly...I had my moments) did, I know I'm really meant for this.