Classic Eventing Nation

Ladies and gents, Christmas is closing in, and with our proximity to the arrival of Old St. Nick, EN’s 12 Days of Christmas is going to get increasingly more jolly. Wait until you see what’s coming for you today!

We can always count on Horseware to get us into the holiday spirit. This is the company whose signature weatherproof, rip-proof, downright dark magic-infused blanket is green and red, after all! Did you catch their new Christmas commercial? Featuring top riders, ponies with impressive tree decorating skills, one very adorable little kid, and some magical snowglobe action, it’s a holiday must-watch.

In addition to the fabulous advent calendar giveaway they’re running on their own Facebook Page, they’re spreading the love to Eventing Nation, too. Today — and today only — you can enter to win a seriously amazing prize: A deluxe outerwear set for human, horse, and hound!

This prize pack will include a select Horseware winter jacket, turnout blanket, and dog blanket to keep everyone you love warm and toasty through the rest of this winter and many winters to come (except for your cat, who will just have to stay curled up in your duvet for 21 hours a day like always).

Enter below for your chance to win a genuinely epic trio of Horseware Goodies! The contest closes at midnight tonight:

Photo by Mike Mozart/Flickr/CC.

Why spend more than you need to? Here are 20 dollar store finds for around the barn:

1. Shallow tubs: Use these shallow tubs to soak their feet. Fewer spills and easier to maneuver than a large bucket.
2. Diapers: These things are expensive! And if you’re like me and have your horse on pasture board, they don’t last very long. You can buy a variety of sizes and amounts at the dollar store to keep your foot wrapping costs down.
3. Duct Tape: To fix, wrap, rig, and use on just about anything you can imagine. You can never have too much duct tape!
4. Scissors: useful for cutting the duct tape and bandages, but also great for other barn chores.
5. Petroleum Jelly: For those of us that have horses with bell boots. Every once in awhile, my horse gets rubs from his, so I apply this generously to his ankles and it soothes the irritation.
6. Thermometer: A must-have for a horse person. Know your horse’s normal temperature so that when he is sick you’ll know for sure if there is a difference or not.
7. Mouth Wash: Do you have a horse that rubs his tail constantly? Try applying a bit of antibacterial mouth wash! It can fight that pesky itch your horse is experiencing.
8. Baby oil: This is a two in one, because it can help with dandruff as well as sheath cleaning. For horses with dandruff, mix mouth wash and baby oil in a spray bottle (50/50) and apply in the problem areas. As for sheath cleaning … well I won’t go into detail on how to do it, but baby oil can be used as your cleaner!
9. Washcloths: A great item for bath time, clean ups, and many other barn happenings.
10. Moisture Eliminating Box: Put this in your tack trunks, tack lockers, tack rooms, etc. This will help minimize mold on your expensive gear!
11. Lint Roller: You can use this on your own clothes as well as your saddle pads (specifically show pads). It’s a good way to stay on top of clean show gear.
12. Laundry Detergent/PreWash: I have a lot of white saddle pads (apparently I enjoy laundry?) so using the prewash helps a lot, and buying detergent and spray for just a dollar keeps my costs down from the million horse loads I have to wash!
13. Multi Tool: A great and handy item to have on you, specifically for hay string cutting!
14. Socks: Long socks and especially zocks made for riding are expensive and wear quickly. Buy some long socks here for everyday riding and maybe treat yourself to a nicer pair for shows. (Extra sock tip: every year I got to black Friday and buy long Christmas socks. They usually only run me about 25 cents apiece and I get to have Christmas cheer all year long!)
15. Shallow Baskets: Use this for your polo wraps, jump boots, bell boots, etc. I use one of these baskets because it fits perfectly in my tack trunk!
16. Fake Flowers: What a great and cheap way to decorate your jumps! These would normally cost you much more than a dollar anywhere else.
17. Mini Tupperware: Perfect for your supplement organization. These colorful ones are four to a pack but you can also get 10 white top ones in a pack. Up to you if you’d like to go crazy and spend more than just a dollar!
18. Mints: We know what these are for. And our horses do, too!
19. Spray Bottles: Useful for fly spray, show sheen, water, the aforementioned dandruff killer, etc.
20. Measuring tape: You’ll think you don’t need one, and then soon you’ll kick yourself in the butt for not having it!

Total spent: $20!

For more barn bargaining tips as well as an online horse show for only $19, head to BetterDressageScores.com!

Photo courtesy of SmartPak.

Welcome to day eight of EN’s 12 Days of Christmas! Today we’re giving away a Harwich Flash Bridle from our awesome sponsor SmartPak.

Your horse’s good-looking face deserves the best! The Harwich Bridle offers outstanding quality and features a traditional design with sophisticated, subtle treatments. Crafted from durable vegetable-tanned leather, your horse will appreciate the comfort of its padded noseband, browband and monocrown. We love the rich walnut brown color, set off by white stitching and stainless steel hardware. It comes with 54″ rubber reins.

Ready to win? Enter using the Rafflecopter widget below. Entries will close at midnight EST tonight, with the winner to be announced in News & Notes tomorrow morning. Good luck! Go Eventing.

It begins; complete with sad truths and wine. Photo (c) Morgane S. Gabriel

Disclaimer: game includes some adult themes.

So you may have heard of Apples to Apples, and if you’re of the darker, more warped variety of individual, you’ve likely heard of Cards Against Humanity (now THERE’s a game where lives are changed). Equestrians Against Normalcy is the hay encrusted, barn car driving, doesn’t know where the mall is but can navigate to every tack shop and show facility with in 500 square miles, cousin of theirs. Seriously. It’s that awesome.

If you’re unfamiliar with how these games are played, check out our earlier post here that goes into more detail (and some background on the game’s inspiration). The basic idea is that it’s a group game where the active player draws a card from the blue deck that has a phrase or question to be answered or completed by a card from the white deck. All players have a hand full of the white, ‘thing,’ cards and they each try to play a card that they feel best answers or completes the drawn blue card. The active player then decides which card they feel is best.

While the general consensus seems to be that the goal is to play the card that will garner the most humorous completion, really the goal should be to play the card that you think the active player will find most fitting, as they get to determine the winner of the round. The winner each round keeps the blue card from that round. The game continues in this fashion until all the blue cards have been completed (or everyone is laughing to hard to finish), the winner being the person who has amassed the most blue cards.

But really, with equestrian gold like this, who *isn’t* a winner? Photo (c) Morgane S. Gabriel

Being the warped individual I am, I thoroughly enjoy Cards Against Humanity (I am also upsettingly good at it, which probably says something I’d rather not discuss) and as someone thoroughly entrenched in the equestrian world, I could not pass up the chance to meet this cousin.

I managed to round up a couple of my horse crazy brethren, some pizza, and adult beverages, and we went to work. I’m not sure anything I could say would be as telling as the images below.

Yes, yes she might. But she’d also probably understand. Photo (c) Morgane S. Gabriel

Aren’t these often one in the same? Seriously though, being a COTHer I cannot tell you how thrilled I was that they got COTH in there. Photo (c) Morgane S. Gabriel.

Many of the earlier rounds were mostly PG.

As the evening wore on and the wine bottle wore down, things got a little less like The Saddle Club and a bit more like the Real Dressage Divas of the OC (No, that is not an actual series, but perhaps it should be).

Because who doesn’t love chocolate, wine, and questionable morality

Ah, innuendos.

Yeah, I’m not sure why this is funny either. Seems legit.

After going through the deck three times, we unanimously decided that the only downside to this game was that we just had the starter deck. Seriously, it was that much fun. I will be taking this on the road this next show season and I am pretty sure that this belongs in every equestrian’s stocking for the holidays. There are additional decks and I would recommend getting at least one of them to further extend game time.

You still have 11 days to snag this gem of a game up for the crazy horse people in your life! Check out the official Equestrians Against Normalcy website for more information and ordering. You can also visit their Facebook Page, where they’re doing some giveaways!

Go Riding! Then play adult themed card games with wine and chocolate.

Morgane Schmidt Gabriel is a 34-year-old teacher/artist/dressage trainer/show announcer/ who still hasn’t quite decided what she wants to be when she grows up. A native Floridian, she now lives in Reno, NV, where she’s been able to confirm her suspicion that snow is utterly worthless. Though she has run the gamut of equestrian disciplines, her favorite is dressage. She was recently able to complete her USDF bronze and silver medals and is currently working on her gold. Generally speaking her life is largely ruled by Woody, a 14.2 hand beastly quarter horse, Willie, a now beastly 7-year-old Dutch gelding, and Stormy, her friend’s nearly all white paint gelding with a penchant for finding every mud hole and pee spot in existence. Visit her website at www.theideaoforder.com.