‘Tis the season to have absolutely no idea what to get any of your friends or family, for the umpteenth year in a row. Every once in a while you find the perfect present, but especially for horsey friends, the pressure is on. Obviously you’ll be purchasing something horse-related, but does it have to be pink and have a fat pony on it? We here at Eventing Nation say NAY! That’s why this holiday season each one of our impressive staff writers is picking one unique, amazing, thoughtful and clever horsey gift to help you along during this time of stress. Happy holidays!
Monogrammed iPad cover with equestrian design by Nico and Lala
I generally take very good care of things that are important to me, especially when those things are expensive. I have painstakingly hand-mended horse blankets and refused to let my saddles be laid on the ground, but I am VERY good at breaking phones, laptops and generally anything technology related.
Have you ever tried to explain to a cell phone repair person what exactly Magic Cushion is and why it’s stuck in the microphone of your cell phone? I have, and can unfortunately confirm that Magic Cushion doesn’t provide healing and comforting effects to a Samsung. I have shattered two iPhones, one Samsung Galaxy S3, and broken the charging port and mouse pad touch screen on my laptop — all in 2013.
Sadly, three-fourths of these were directly horse lifestyle related. I have removed my phone from a horse’s mouth (he got a little curious about what was in the cup holder of my chair while I was icing him), successfully used the rice/oven method to revive an iPhone that went swimming in a water bucket, used my cat-like reflexes to catch a phone as it fell out of my back pocket and ALMOST into the cavernous abyss of a porta potty, and found out that you can use the gator and another cell phone at night in order to find it in a field of tall grass.
Those were the success stories, but the casualties are expensive and frustrating. When I call my mom and ask for the family phone numbers AGAIN because I’ve lost all of my phone contacts, she encourages me to keep my devices in a “safe place,” but I can’t find one. Tragedy always finds my electronic devices first.
With that said, I am a connoisseur of protective cases and coverings. While I am 100 percent certain that I am not the only person who understands the #horsegirlproblems and anecdotes provided above, I am not sure that all of our horse-loving friends know that we can, in fact, protect our devices while also being fashionable. Win-win. So here are a few options for great holiday gifts for the horse person in your life!
We’ve all seen the “if it stays still long enough, monogram it” craze of the past few years, and it’s always good to personalize your technology. With these options, you can be equestrian themed as well. My first suggestion is the monogrammed iPad covers with bit detailing from Nico and Lala (pictured above at the top of this post). These are available for $70 and can be purchased by clicking here.
Tory Burch iPhone Case with equestrian design
This super cute iPhone case is HARD (i.e. will stand up to being flung out of your pocket and into the arena footing as you get bucked off), and it’s also by Tory Burch (the goddess of jog outfit flats). It also comes in blue/light blue (98 percent of the eventing world’s cross-country colors). Triple Yay! WAIT, it’s on sale here! Quadruple YAY!
Also, there are a myriad of cute cases available from the popular Dapplebay here. And for those of us who are stuck in “my crappy cell phone company is the only one that provides service at the farm but doesn’t carry the iPhone,” land, we take a deep breath, pretend that it’s OK to have an Andriod and customize our cases here at Skinit.com.
Cute Morgan horse custom phone cover from Skinit.com
Please, for the love of phones that work, get a tough case. I have the most sissified, fragile phone on earth, the Samsung Galaxy S3, and I’m stuck with it for 1.2 more years. On the bright side, you can fully customize the artwork on your case on Skinit.com and even upload your own photos, which I would suggest, since entering the keyword “horse” just brings up images of rearing mustangs. Ew. I chose the Cargo case to customize and put a cool cross-country pic of me and my horse on it; it was quite user friendly to do so!
In conclusion, help a horse person out this season by helping protect our electronic devices. We like practical gifts, especially when they are also cute, and we can probably tell you how many show entry fees we’ve had to spend this past year replacing broken phones (TWO).
Happy Holidays! Go Eventing!
