I won’t lie, I love the week after Black Friday. Blame the society I grew up in and was brainwashed by, blame 2020 and it’s depletion of simple joys, blame it on the fact that I haven’t had Mexican food in like three months, but I love the “your package is out for delivery” notification email, ok? Sue me. “Follow your delivery on a live map”? Um, hell yeah UPS, don’t mind if I friggin stalk this truck all day, thank you!

And after Black Friday it’s like… raining packages. Essentials for the horses, a couple fun things for me, Christmas gifts? Make it rain. USPS, FedEx, UPS? MAKE IT RAIN. They’re little boxes of joy amidst all the other mundanity and you cannot convince me otherwise. Doesn’t matter if it’s a box full of dewormer and fly spray, I. AM. DELIGHTED.

It’s been a long year y’all.

Anyway, I got a few fun things this time so it did feel like a little bit of a Merry Christmas to Myself moment. Those are my favorite. I buy myself the best gifts.

The green Horze breeches were the first thing to arrive and damn y’all, this color is ON POINT. It might be the most perfect green I’ve ever seen, much richer than it looks in the stock photo. It’s also possible that I’ve been basically living in these pants since they arrived. I almost wish I had bought them in Patriot Blue too, when they were on sale.

Next was the Riding Warehouse package, with my sheepskin grooming mitt, cookies, dewormer, and a new girth for Presto. The billets on his saddle are abnormally long and the holes start low, so he really needed a 22″, and this one was on sale on top of sale, so in the cart it went. I couldn’t help but chuckle at how tiny it looks though. Looks like I ride a pony.

I think I like it so far but I’m not in love with it. There are things I like and things I don’t like. I generally prefer leather girths but I couldn’t find one I liked enough that was in the price range I wanted. It works for now though, and I DO like it better than Henry’s Collegiate girth, and I get the feeling Presto will outgrow the 22 soon anyway. When that happens they’ll get a nice leather girth that they can share.

Speaking of leather…

My leather bit came! I’ve been toying with the idea of buying one for a while, not just for Presto but for Henry. My trainer has been using one on her fussy-mouthed OTTB with great success, and I figured even if neither of them likes it, it’s a good thing to have in my bit collection (I know everyone has a bit collection right?). I haven’t tried it on Henry yet but I rode Presto in it and honestly I DO think he liked it. He carried it quietly, no chomping, and seemed happier to take a little bit of contact. We’ll see going forward, jury is still out.

Next up was his giant ball and cover, but y’all already saw how that one turned out.

Smartpak had some of their giant slow feed nets on clearance (hey they still do, just not quite as cheap) so I picked up a four-flake one in Patriot Blue.

Henry’s got that net too and it’s 2 years old and still looks great. Plus it’s HUGE (seriously, Hillary got inside of one once), holds a ton, and the 2″ openings aren’t too hard for the horses to get hay out of. Both of my horses will just quit trying if the holes are too small, and these seem to be just the right balance. Small enough to stretch out how long the hay lasts but still gives them enough to keep them interested. I actually like this color too, it’s sort of navy. And Smartpak got it to me a lot faster than they usually do. I tend to avoid them like the plague if I can but maybe they’re slightly working their way back into my not-so-bad graces.

The real MVP of my Black Friday haul, though, was Corro. I first discovered them last year during Black Friday and have been a steady customer ever since. Their warehouse is in Dallas, so stuff gets to me super quickly, and while they don’t have a huge selection, they do have some of the essential stuff that I need and buy regularly. Like balls, and fly spray, and flaxseed oil. So I made an order of exactly that, plus a few little grooming items and something for my blogger SS gift. And then FedEx promptly mucked that one up. It was supposed to be delivered on Monday, saying it was “out for delivery”. The day came and went, but nada. I checked the tracking again that evening and it said it had been “returned for inspection”. We use FedEx at work so I texted my work friend the shipping guy and asked what that meant, and he said it usually means the package was damaged or leaking and they’d either open it up and check it and then deliver it, or return it back to the sender. Ok, so I waited. Next day it said “out for delivery again”. Still nada. Then “returned for inspection” again. OMG. So I contacted Corro to let them know what was up, they checked it out, apologized profusely, and promptly shipped out a whole new replacement order. The next day FedEx AGAIN said “out for delivery” and then AGAIN “returned for inspection”. Finally, the next day, there was a box at the door, clearly not the original box it had come in, with no paperwork, no packing materials, a sad bit of tape on top, and about half of the items I ordered.

I don’t know where the rest went. FedEx never said a word about it, so I’m assuming the original box was damaged, some stuff was lost/leaking, and this was their solution? Thank goodness for Corro. The next day I had the replacement order at my door, packed just like they usually have it, with all my items intact. A+ customer service. Although now I have a shitton of flaxseed oil.

As for the more fun stuff… there were a lot of sparkles and I regret nothing.

These Majyk Equipe sparkle boots are the classiest sparkle boots I’ve seen in my life. The leather is gorgeous, with just a hint of subtle sparkle along the back. They’re like “yes I’m here to win, but also I’m already dressed for the party afterward”. Love isn’t even a strong enough word.

And because one should never have just a single sparkly item (ok I have like 5 or 6 now but who’s counting) I also added this lovely creature to my bridle collection – the Halter Ego Natalia.

I don’t want to hear one word about my bridle collection. Not one word. Some people collect saddle pads, or polos, or whatever. I have very few saddle pads. No polos. Not a single matchy set. 10 or 11 bridles. Partly it’s because I like bridles. Partly it’s because I don’t like changing bits or nosebands or resizing things from one horse to the next, therefore you gotta have a bridle for every occasion. Leave me alone. It has BLACK SPARKLE PIPING.

You know what makes dressage better? This. Proven scientific fact.

Plus I only had one black bridle before. And how badass is that gonna look on Presto with a spiked browband? Glam punk is his aesthetic.

On that note, I originally wasn’t gonna post these since they’re a non-horse item, but I’m so in love with them that I’m thinking I might need to do a 3Day JUST so I can jog up in these bad boys.

The horses have sparkle boots and now I do too. Are they ridiculous? Hell yeah. Do they bring me a ridiculous amount of joy? Also hell yeah. I wore them to early vote in our local runoff elections last weekend and a little old lady told me they were “magnificent”. She is not wrong.

Tell me they wouldn’t make a rad jog outfit with a leather jacket or something. Showpiece shoes, that’s what those are. I’m gonna have to take a pic of them next to henry’s sparkle Cavallo hoof boot, they’re pretty much exactly the same glitter.

Hope everyone else has been enjoying their BF packages as much as I have! It’s always kind of sad when they all arrive and Mini-Christmas is over though… luckily real Christmas isn’t too far away.