I spent a few hours on the in-ter-web trying to find the best prices for all that "stuff" one needs when one has never owned her own horse. I found success in procuring ankle boots (he interferes behind a teensy bit), a lunge line, clipper, and a sweat scraper.
I also started packing up all the "stuff" I already own that needs to go to the barn. I found a deck storage bench at Target on clearance a few weeks ago. We'll see when I put it together if it was a bargain or not. It's 6.88 cubic feet of storage capacity and my saddle does not need to go in. I'm dimensionally challenged, though, so I have no idea how much room that is. I washed and disinfected my girth, located my halters and my headstall. I also killed a spider that was lurking in one of my storage bins. I am mostly petrified of spiders, but when you're home alone it's kill or be killed, so I grabbed a paper towel and sent him over the rainbow bridge.
The biggest thing on my brain right now is the lack of saddle. I want a roughout trainer. Not that I need the training dees, but I like the gription (yes I made that word up) of the suede and the lower cost because there's no tooling or shiny finish to pay for. Unfortunately I'm torn on which to buy. Rod's has a great one that they carry and sell a ton of. I looked at it and like it. It runs $950. The best thing is that there's no shipping and if it doesn't fit I just have to bring it back to the store for a full refund, no problem.
I've found a few on Ebay, including the kind that my new horse's previous owner has. It's a Royal King. Hers is semi-quarter horse bars and she said he really needs a full QH, but I can only find them with a Veri-Flex tree. They run about $600 with shipping. He's got high withers, too and that doesn't help. I've read some reviews and they seem to be one extreme or another, either "this saddle fits every horse of every size that I own!" or "tree does not flex much and will only fit the narrowest of horses. I'm afraid that it won't fit and I'll be stuck either trying to re-sell it on Ebay or Craigslist OR sending it back and losing $100 on shipping. There's another roughout that's an unknown brand, probably made in India or China and of questionable quality. At half the price of the one at Rod's it makes me wonder if I can get away with it, I can't imagine riding more than 5 days a week on average so i don't need a super-duper saddle, just one that's comfortable, and fits the horse. The seller is questionable, though, several negative feedbacks including multiple "sent wrong size" or "saddle cheaper than advertised" or "tried to use, fell apart, major injury, will not answer emails...." wtf was that, I wonder? The item name was expired on THAT piece of feedback. I had myself convinced to get the one at Rods - paying for convenience and piece of mind, of course, and of course they're on backorder until the end of the month... of course.
I actually got some (job related) work done today so that's good. For some reason I have MORE motivation to work now that I 've found the horse. I've been looking for about a year, but only contacting people and visiting horses since early July. I've procrastinated severely on my course-prep for the fall quarter. Yikes. Only one more week before classes start... ooops.
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