Shopping…I Hates It

For some reason I thought shopping for horse clothes would be an entirely different and way more exciting endeavor than for street or work clothes. 

Turns out I was wrong. 

Having made my eyes bleed looking through online used tack ads without really having any idea what I needed, I decided the better course of action was to head to a tack store and try on all the things. 

First stop was the Farm House. It’s about an hour from me, but boasts a massive sale room that looked promising. My first mistake was letting the hubby and kid come along. It was a race to see which one got bored the quickest. 

I wandered around the regular floor then headed to the sale room. Wow. So much stuff. So cheap. I found a gorgeous show coat originally $300 for only $20! I hoped it would fit but it was both too wide and too long. I debated getting it and having it tailored but I have no real clue how a show coat should fit and I doubt a tailor would either. 

They also had tall boots for only $40, but again not in my size. The lady helped size me in boots and it turns out I’m a pretty easy fit. I do have very small ankles but the Ariat Heritage Contour fit me really well in a 6 regular. I’m now scouring the internet hoping to find a pair used. 

Everything I touched was well over $100 and I was not in the position to drop that much right now. Maybe later if I decide to stick with this I can upgrade things. 

I was there about 90 minutes when I started getting texts about both men being bored, so I didn’t get to try on any shirts or breeches to see what may fit. 

We went home and ate lunch and I put both boys to bed and headed to the closer tack store: The Tack Shop. I figured the prices would be lower since it isn’t so close to TIEC and is in town versus the middle of expensive horse country. I was right. 

The ladies were so helpful. They shoved breeches at me until I had tried on every type in the store. Turns out I’m an odd fit. When the waist fit right, the legs were super baggy. When the legs fit right, I could barely snap the buttons. Just like blue jeans. I hate shopping.

I never actually found a good fitting pair. I started with a size 28 since my thread bare, more holes than material, Tuff Riders are a 24 and while they still fit it is a bit obscene. Half the time they were too tight. The other half too big. 30s were almost always too big in both waist and legs except in one pair where I couldn’t even buckle them. 26s were almost always too tight in the waist but great in the legs. Ugh. 

She finally shoved some tights at me and started with a medium but those were too big. I tried on a pair of Kerrits full seat micro cord breeches with belt loops in black and they actually fit really well everywhere. I was hoping to get a pair in white just because, by they only came in tan or black. I had her go ahead and order the tans ones so I knew I had at least one pair I could show in for both phases of a CT. Buying used is going to be really tricky since nothing apparently fits me. I wear a size 6 jeans and medium skirts. This shouldn’t be that hard. 

The Tack Shop also has a consignment section and had several pairs of tall field boots, but none in my size. She wrote down what I needed though in case someone comes in with a pair later. 

I never got around to trying on show shirts because that is my last concern and I still need to verify if I need a coat or not. Hopefully Trainer can help me out here when I ride with her next. 

I came home, found both boys still asleep 3 hours later, and put out an ISO ad on some Facebook sites for the remainder of what I need so hopefully someone will have something useful and not expensive because….

I went ahead and signed up for my first ever CT on June 4th!!!!

I’m super excited. It will be Intro B and 18″ cross rails in stadium. I think we can at least safely do both without looking like complete fools. 

Maybe.