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My soon to be mother-in-law asked me to send her ideas of what she can get me for christmas. And I have no idea what to tell her! But I figure something in the horse realm will likely be used. So...are there breeches, shirts, saddle pads, horse boots, coolers, halters, etc that you really love?

Are winters cold where you live? If so, polar fleece breeches (mine are from Tropical Rider), warm riding gloves, good wool socks (Smart Wool, Darned Tough).

Canyon wrote:Are winters cold where you live? If so, polar fleece breeches (mine are from Tropical Rider), warm riding gloves, good wool socks (Smart Wool, Darned Tough).

those are good ideas! It's not very cold where I live (Georgia), but I get cold easily and we have enough chilly days. I also have an old pair of tropical rider summer breeches that I love to wear in our very hot summers. They are starting to fall apart, so that's another option!

As for specific brands of 'things' I find it's all a very personal choice based on our own conformation LOL.....but I am one who tries very hard to have an extra of everything in order to have my trailer always packed and on the ready........so I have a set of grooming equipment in the barn and a duplicate in the trailer. I have a helmet in the barn and a show helmet and schooling helmet in the trailer. I have the same bridle and bit in the barn for Junior and ditto in the trailer (the other horse's just have their one bridle/bit in the barn). I have two spare girths (different sizes, I prefer the anatomical ones) in the trailer and so on. I will say the one purchase that I keep patting myself on the back for getting as an early Christmas present to myself last year was a horse vacuum. The. Best. Purchase. outside of a great fitting saddle I've ever made. Wish I had done it sooner.....btw I had it on my Christmas wish since I was 17 and I'm 57 now so if someone buys one for you instead of you breaking down and getting one yourself....well I think you're golden and want to live under your star LOL

For gift ideas - I ditto Canyon on those quality wool socks. They are my favorite brands with the various weights and cushion heels. Next, really nice quality riding gloves. I have too many pairs but I love riding in comfortable gloves - don't like it naked anymore.

My favorite saddle pads that have lasted forever were from that seamsrightsaddlepads. Mine are at least 20 years old and washed a x100. Breeches are always perfect if you can get the ones you like. I've always worn Pikeur Lugana that fit me perfect but only purchased when I found on sale.

You can also wear the Smartwool socks in the summer, they breathe.
Love my Thinline saddle pads, for the summer I bought a contoured one which fits my mare nicely. I like full sized ones with the back on track for the winter months.
Love those tiger tongue sponges! They are useful for many things! I even use mine dry to get the dust off.

Love my Ugg boots for chilly/frigid days. Also love muck shoes for the warmer days.

Like exvet I bought a vacuum and love it. I should use it more than I do, but it works really nice, I found mine new on EBay at a great price.

New clippers?

I think in your climate I would be asking for sun shirts. I don't have any because I bought a bunch of Under Armor polos shirts a couple years ago and they are going to last a while, so I can't recommend any specifically.

Also, maybe a set of nice Haas brushes?

Mattes and LeMieux saddle pads, Fleck whips, Grip6 belts, or maybe a Pivo unit? The tricky thing about asking for horse-related gifts is that they often don't seem like a gift to the giver if he/she is not also a horse person. "No really, I would love a new manure fork as a gift!"

StraightForward wrote:The tricky thing about asking for horse-related gifts is that they often don't seem like a gift to the giver if he/she is not also a horse person. "No really, I would love a new manure fork as a gift!"

Yes! I was just talking to a friend about this. It's hard to convince someone else how exciting these things are! I would love a new muck bucket cart but I think my future MIL will have a really hard time believing I really want a poop container on wheels. But I do!

Haas brushes are the bomb. I was skeptical, but they really are better.

Breeches--so personal! I'm looking forward to bein able to get most of mine back on again now that we seem to have sorted out my hormones and I'm slowly (very slowly) deflating... I love Pikeurs, but I also love Ovation Celebrity Slim Secrets, at about a third of the price...

Nice belts are a weakness of mine when I'm not the size of a small house.

My stepchildren bought me a nice saddle pad for Christmas about 30 years ago. Bright red for my then white horse. I thought that was pretty impressive from a trio of no idea about horses teenage boys. I've just finally tossed it out after it became a cat bed for a while. (I'm a bit sentimental about gifts.)

Vests--flattering and practical.

I haven't bought any new horse stuff all year, so I'm due a splurge this winter. I want new boots, too--the Ariat tall lace up fronted ones in mahogany. But do I NEED them?

The DH is totally NOT a horse person, but he's bought me saddle pads (okay I picked out both, right down to the color ), a Bobbys bridle, and girths ... and his parents give me a gift card to Dover (there's a local brick and mortar) every year on my birthday. I've used those on helmets, boots, crash vests, breeches ...

Unless my mom's the gift-giver, I shy away from asking for anything horse-specific that's not a gift card, electronics, or mechanical. The rest is far outside my relatives comfort zone.

Roekl gloves, forever forks. hydrophane leather dressing are some of my specific favorites

Unless you can be so bold to give a very specific list, you might say a gift certificate to "X" would be much appreciated. Horse people tend to want very specific brands/colors/styles----and many non-horse people will not pay that close attention to those distinguishing details.

piedmontfields wrote:Unless you can be so bold to give a very specific list, you might say a gift certificate to "X" would be much appreciated. Horse people tend to want very specific brands/colors/styles----and many non-horse people will not pay that close attention to those distinguishing details.

She actually asked me to send her very specific things! Which I've never really done before and felt a bit intimidating. But I ended up sending her the following:
PS of sweden pad I've been eyeing for showing (it's the white one with gold and black trim)
A pair of winter riding pants--i don't live in a very cold place, but I get cold very easily!
And a saddle cover

I recently bought a Strip Hair grooming brush. Horrendously priced but brilliant thing, I've raved about it to everyone.

Besides that... Specific saddle blankets (everyone has their favourite brand/cut/colour). Decent lead ropes (I'm very picky about these). Leather wear from my favourite tack maker. Hoof boots for the new pony. Trimming tools.

silk wrote:I recently bought a Strip Hair grooming brush. Horrendously priced but brilliant thing, I've raved about it to everyone.

I just saw an ad for that on my instagram feed. It looked tempting--but a lot of things look tempting in their ads. Good to hear you like it! Both of mine get very furry in the winter and have a major shed out. And even in the summer MM's coat is a bit 'longer' than the average horse's. Do you use it as a regular groomer or just for shedding season?

blob wrote:

silk wrote:I recently bought a Strip Hair grooming brush. Horrendously priced but brilliant thing, I've raved about it to everyone.

I just saw an ad for that on my instagram feed. It looked tempting--but a lot of things look tempting in their ads. Good to hear you like it! Both of mine get very furry in the winter and have a major shed out. And even in the summer MM's coat is a bit 'longer' than the average horse's. Do you use it as a regular groomer or just for shedding season?

I only just bought it so it's only been here for shedding. I have a furminator and that's also great for shedding, but, I am leery of the fact it is metal. Some horses don't like it. The striphair is like a sort of large blocky rubber curry. It is soft, flexible, and totally OK to go over all the legs, bumps and corners on a horse. They love it much more than the furminator, which I loved, but was very very careful with.