Puppy sitting

We're taking care of a neighbor's puppy while she's gone. He's almost a year old so luckily he's house trained and overall he's a great little dog. You might remember Winston (the British bulldog) from last summer when we looked after him over a weekend. This time we've got him for 2 weeks!!

I forgot how much work a dog is!! I feel like I have a child. Got to get up early when he whines to let him out, back to bed, back up again an hour or so later to feed him, back to bed (on the weekend anyways) and then up for good not much later. The bonus is that if I take him back to bed with me, he'll curl up and go back to sleep. A furry hot water bottle!

He's sure grown A LOT since we had him last and he's a strong little guy! He makes us laugh when he see's his reflection in the window and barks at himself. Or when he snores. He seems to think my feet are a good thing to chew on..... Not so much. So we bought him some chew bones to keep his mouth occupied instead.

I feel bad for him, tomorrow I go back to work after the long weekend and he's got to spend all day at home by himself. Poor little guy will probably be pretty bored. He's so good that I'm *almost* tempted to leave him loose but I'm not sure I trust him that much yet! lol

Right now he's snuggled up next to me while I type this, snoring away.

Pictures to be added tomorrow, I left my camera at work.

You win some & you lose some

In regards to Ebay purchases anyways.

Awhile back I saw a nice framed print of a lady riding a bay horse sidesaddle. I thought "Oooh I want it!" but someone beat me to it. I saw it listed in January again and took the chance to snap it up. For $24.50, I figured why not. It was in a neat ornately raised frame.

I received it the other day and was a little disappointed upon unwrapping it. The frame is really gorgeous but the picture is ummm.... Well it looks nice from a distance. It's a pretty poor reproduction/enlargement and appears a bit pixilated and blurry. Not quite what I was expecting. Oh well, for what I paid, it's nice enough! The seller was really good to deal with and shipped it fast so I still left them good feedback.

The only other bad Ebay experience I've had was when a bridle I'd purchased arrived and upon trying it on my horse, the browband LEAKED dye onto my mare's forehead.... Not good.

I don't think I like shipping saddles!!

What a pain in the bum! First trying to find a box big enough to accomodate the saddle and packing materials. Then trying to get a quote for shipping. That's the worst part!!

Yesterday I took the box measurements to the post office in my town, I had the measurements and estimated it to weigh about 40lbs or 18 kg. They gave me a quote I thought was quite reasonable.

So today, before I can send the final invoice to the person, I took the box to the post office, with the saddle et al in it and got an exact quote just to be sure. To my suprise, it only weighs 12.6kg's or 27.72lbs but somehow the shipping is now $30 more expensive and will take an additional 3 days.

I'm baffled!

Now I'm waiting on a quote from UPS and DHL. Hopefully I can get this all figured out in the next hour!

The moral of this story... Keep future sidesaddles and just build more saddle racks in the basement! lol

Goodbye little saddle.....

I did some thinking this week and figured that I really didn't need to hang on to the little saddle with the stitched safe. It doesn't really fit me, nor does it fit my horse.

I carefully listed it on Ebay, making sure to list it's less than perfect condition. It might look a little rough but it is rideable now. I read through the listing and I noticed the way I had written it, it sounded like I really didn't want to sell it. I put a reserve on it and a buy it now price thinking "I really doubt it will sell".

To my suprise this morning, I checked my email and someone had bought it!!! WOW!!! Now to try and find a box big enough to ship it in.

I'm a little sad to see it go because it was really neat little saddle but I really don't need 4 sidesaddles cluttering up my basement... Wait did I say 4 sidesaddles? There was three wasn't there? Maybe I'll have something really interesting to post on next week!

"Hi my name is Michelle and I have a problem....." lol

1922 Country Gentlemen's Newspaper

While I was picking up my saddle I had some extra time on the way home and decided to stop at an antique store I've never had time to go to.

While parusing through some old magazines and books, I found this!

It's in pretty amazing shape considering it's from 1922.

In the newspaper are articles on fishing, swimming, yachting, motoring, hunting, horse shows, polo etc etc. (Although there wasn't quite enough on horse stuff for my liking! lol)

As I was flipping through, I found some really interesting ad's for hunting wear...including sidesaddle habits! Some of the names I recognize, some I don't.

Here's one I recognize!

Aha! Some sidesaddle stuff!

And some more! Swaine & Adney hunting appointments. It's neat to see what they would have cost in 1922.

Champion & Wilton too.

There was also an article on a horse show with a photo of the show ring. If you look really closely, you can see there's a horse jumping one of the fences in the ring.

From now on I'm definitely going to make sure I look through the magazines & newspapers in antique shops!

Look what's back from the saddlers!

Do you remember my $70 sidesaddle find?

This is what it looked like when it arrived.

Kind of looks like it was dragged behind a truck doesn't it? lol

I took it to have some new billets put on it and a balance strap. Well it got that and much more! It still looks a but rough but now it's rideable.

They touched up a lot of the stitching, put some new button screws in here and there to hold things together and oiled the heck out of it. Looks not all too bad now.

New billets & balance billet/girth.

And the off-side.

I really want to try it out but I'm not so sure what it will fit! It's a very fat little saddle and doesn't have a cutback. I don't think this saddle will ever see hard riding but it'd be good for anyone wanting to try sidesaddle.

Speaking of pretty grey horses...

I had a lesson at my friend's barn last night on one of her students horses and wow was it ever good to ride a different horse. This horse had a LOT of potential, let me tell you. The horse was a big grey gelding, very tall and gooorgeous. My first thought upon taking his blankets off was "Ooooh wouldn't he make a lovely sidesaddle mount!"
It's always good to have another pair of eyes to point out things that aren't quite right, and boy are there a bunch of things I need to work on! Lots of bad habits acquired since I last took lessons (at least a few years ago!). My friend told me that I've been riding the same horse for too long, which means I've got LOTS of bad habits from riding Brigit! lol
I definitely wasn't feeling the most confident being on a new, young horse and in a different saddle (it was slippery!!) but it was still a fun ride. I think perhaps this gelding would be a wee bit bouncy for sidesaddle now that I've ridden him! lol He had a LOT of spring in his step at the trot.
We did some jumping and that was a real eye opener!! Talk about SCOPE! From a trot, the horse jumped a tiny x-rail like it was a 4' oxer. I kid you not! I managed to stay with him alright but I made everyone laugh pretty hard by the terrified face I made!! What happened to being fearless and jumping anything and everything? That's sure not me anymore!! lol I wouldn't doubt that this horse will make it to the big jumpers with no problem. It was a real treat to ride a horse with so much potential (although it was a bit humbling... lol). There was a few other times that I got severely jumped out of the tack, which hasn't happened for quite some time!
So I've got a list of things to practice and work on astride. It's good to ride a different horse because you can sure feel where you're not doing things quite as you should.

I think I'll bring some stick-um for next lesson though! lol