I have a lot to catch up on riding-wise as trainer was away at pony finals and Ranger was mine for the week so we had a few nice rides, but instead I’m going to focus on the disaster or success that was the Dover Tent Sale…

Thanks to some encouragement, I headed over to the Dover tent sale on Saturday morning to look for paddock boots. I’ve basically been without paddock books since  last August when mine completely died and instead of replacing them, I replaced my tall boots which also happened to die. In defense of my ariat tall books, I bought them in 2004 and they owed my nothing. So, the fact that the zippers finally died in 2016, I really couldn’t complain. Not having money and having plans to take Batts to Ludwig’s Corner to show,  I replaced the tall boots and have been riding in them exclusively since August.

And now, a year later, I’m less than thrilled with my new tall boots. I mean, I found that I  like them, but they’re actually too big. Last time I was at Dover, I tried on a pair of the Heritage tall boots in regular calf (mine are wide) and they were too tight. So I found I was out of luck temporarily (Dover was happy to take them back if I found something that fit better). That day, I just wasn’t in the mood to try on too much and they were out of a lot in my size anyway (and I didn’t have  my boots to return anyway).

So, tent sale. I found a gorgeous pair of tall boots right away but again, calf was too big. See, for some strange reason, in my attempt to find paddock boots, I wasn’t frustrated to search through the Dover Basement boxes… Which is how I found myself trying on a pair of full calf Ariat Quantum Crowne Pro Field Boots. With little to no wear that fit perfectly. Best part was the lack of elastic (I never thought I’d say that but I’m convinced that’s the issue with my current boots). Dover took $75 off the DB price to make them really affordable. At this point I had a pair of cheap tall boots. And no paddock boots.

I eventually found a black Ariat zip paddock boot. Singular. But was never able to find its mate. I found a brown variation but not the matching black one. Unwilling to sort through any more boxes, I gave up. Eventually I settled for a new pair of Tredstep Spirit paddock boots (tent sale price was much cheaper). They’re fine. And it’ll be nice to have something to wear other than tall boots on trail rides because, at this point, I think I prefer to actually ride in tall boots.

To make matters or damage worse, I went BACK to the tent sale on Sunday because I needed electrolytes and in all my purchases forgot them the day before. I saved $5 so that was something (and they’re cheaper than my local feed store anyway and no sales tax). I also picked up a Dover Basement bridle for Batty for $10 (w/o reins) for Batty. No pictures of that because when I got home, I went in to my trailer tack compartment to grab my bridle and managed to get stung by a wasp right above my eye. Disturbing pictures below…

Today, nearly 72 hours later, was the first day I woke up actually being able to open my eye. Between a steroid injection, 6 days of oral steroids, an RX for an Epi-pen, lots of ice, and benadryl, it’s been a fun few day.