VCMBH: Our Commercial Moment

What are you buying next? Not your "Wish I could" list but your actual practical pony shopping list. And if its a high ticket item you are saving for what is it and when do you expect to order/get it?

So I'm saddle-shopping.

Again.

(Laugh or cry, laugh or cry...)

Basically I was really happy with the Eurolight right up until I wasn't.  At which point it began to seem like the more I worked on it,  the farther we got from "close, just needs a little more tweaking" situation and the closer to "this is just not ever going to work."

I'm not actually sure, at all, that it was never going to work.  Everything started out so well -- and I did test that sucker as thoroughly as I could under the circumstances, so I am pretty sure I'm  not making that up!  But ultimately I just don't feel like I can experiment with Tucker's back.  We're starting from too compromised a place and we're too close to the start of the season and I don't have the heart for it.  So screw you, sunk cost fallacy.  There is an awful lot that I love about the Eurolight as a saddle and I would absolutely revisit it if I found myself with a future horse who seemed suitable, but for now?  We're moving on.

The good news is that the Eurolight sold to a new home with relative speed and ease and I'm working with the saddlefitters that I probably should've gotten in touch with back in the fall (before our detour through treeless and Specialized) to find something that will work.  I suspect you guys are as sick of this project as I am, so I will try to avoid posting about the process until we settle on something and I do a ride or two or fifty in it!   But in the interests of an honest blog, here we go again.

My other impending maybe-purchase is not strictly horse-related, but is motivated by my desire not to die in the woods after getting lost on a training ride.  I'm planning to apply my REI dividend this year to a handheld GPS device.  I've been trying to get by with smartphone apps, but I'm just not happy with them for the purpose and I would prefer that my wayfinding/ride-tracking and my emergency-cry-for-help technology not draw from the same batteries.  So I'm in the middle of investigating my options, and if any of you have experience with these things, I am all ears.

In other news, we hauled out to the beach yesterday after work.  We just strolled, but it was a fantastic day for a stroll.

Playing Black-Stallion-after-the-shipwreck.

In which I am in front of the camera every now and again.