Half An Hour At the Equine Affaire Ohio Tradeshow

I’m sorry I’ve been so absent lately. I was just out of town for four days living and breathing horses at Equine Affaire in Columbus, Ohio, and was dealing with some family stuff before that. I’m back in business, and you can expect some recaps of the awesome Equine Affaire clinics and clinicians (and the Extreme Cowboy Race!) over the next week or so.

I’ve been to Equine Affaire a few times before, but the tradeshow has never been that alluring to my bank account. That was, before I had my own horse. Sure I was riding, but only the cool horse paintings and funny t-shirts attracted me. Now, it was saddles and bridles and grooming tools and supplements and gloves and breeches and every piece of horse equipment under the sun. I managed to exercise some self-control, but I did spend most of my money in the first half-hour of wandering the tradeshow hall. Here’s what I came home with:

Missing from this photo are the 22-pound bucket of Farrier’s Formula supplement that I hauled across the Ohio State Expo Center to my car by myself (and wasn’t getting out of my trunk again until I get to the barn tonight) and the matching red and blue jump blocks that are also residing in my car.

A pretty good haul, huh?

In case you aren’t sure what all you’re looking at, I now have:

• A birthday present from my mom: Two pairs of 3-sided jumping blocks, which will get plenty of use as soon as I actually get poles to go with them (8 foot PVC pipe from Lowe’s will do the trick!)
• hunter green polo wraps to protect my klutzy horse’s legs
• a dressage whip
• citronella shampoo (came free with the aforementioned bucket of supplement)
• a super-cool World Equestrian Games hat (that I had been drooling over on their website but wasn’t paying full price plus shipping for)
• a new shedding blade
• Irideon sage riding tights (which I’m totally hooked on – so much more comfortable than breeches.)
• Definitely didn’t get the cat at Equine Affaire, but she’s obsessed with the string on the end of the dressage whip. I got it for $4; should have bought an extra to keep at home as a cat toy.

Ace’s favorite will probably be the new shedding blade, and I doubt he’ll mind the shampoo either. The dressage whip and the jumping blocks are a different story, though. Although he usually does what I ask, he gives me his grumpy face when I introduce something new. I fully expect some laid back ears and a wrinkled nose the first time I pull out the jumping blocks. But he’ll get over it!

I sure hope my boy Ace knows what he’s in for when I show up with a head full of new training ideas and a trunk full of toys! I’m sure horses all over the country aren’t going to know what hit them this week.