The Most Awesome Stock Ties to Ever Tie

Come to me, beautiful

So, I was adding things to my Christmas list, and I remembered back when I was oogling at all of these super cool stock ties in the show jumping ring at Spokane. I wanted one of those. I need to be cool. So, off I went to track one down that wasn't a butt ton of money. Even if I wasn't the one forking it out, I don't family members to fork it out either for fancy fabric.

Not fancy, but it works!

So I looked and looked. Sure, I found some beautiful ones. But none of them were totally speaking to me, and if they were, they were $60+. No way Jose. I remembered that a stock tie company was featured up in Spokane, and asked my friend if she remembered who they were. Yes. Chubby Cov. Ok, got it. Off I went to see what they had.

Oh my

Holy moses, I found the gold. All of the gold. So many beautiful and cool colors, and they were $25-30. Say what?!?! There were even stock ties with owls on them. I saw some spectacular purple ones that would go so well with our outfit. But then I saw that she also made custom ones.

OWLS!

Well, then my mind started to go crazy with the whole customized thing. We have a spider stock pin, we should probably have a spider themed stock tie to go with Bacon's spider legs. But if I wanted custom, I would probably have to buy it myself, so I thought about that. For about 2 seconds. I sent a message via facebook page and received a reply right away.

More subdued, but I love it

Cindy was so enthusiastic to help me find the perfect stock tie. She went to work finding me some fabrics that would work. I happily paid my $30 for my custom stock tie with $5 shipping and awaited my prize in the mailbox. My prize arrived. OR SHOULD I SAY PRIZES.

Merry early Christmas is right! Hooray!

That's right. She sent me not one, but THREE AMAZING STOCK TIES. I am not sure what I did to deserve that, but she is more than kind. One will be discreet enough for dressage, and the other two will be perfect for show jumping. My other stock tie was a simple pre-tied one, so I will need to practice to get mine right, but I am so excited to wear them next year. And I am sad that I will have to wait that long, so I may just wear them in the house.

Going to have to learn how to tie this so that the skull is upright!

There is some good news for you. Although they are already cheap, she will be offering 15% off orders for small business Saturday. So if you are looking for something funner than your average stock tie, look at Chubby Cov first. She went above and beyond (I mean waaaaay beyond) and she already has so many wonderful fabrics to choose from. And when you buy them, I want to see them!

A spider for my spider webs!

TRM Blog Hop! Before and After

Oh, how I love a good transformation post. And thanks to Cathryn, I get to use her blog hop as an excuse to post another one, hooray! So here we go:

The Baconator:

4 year old stinker

I got to bring Bacon home in April of 2012. She was a growing giraffe who roughed it through winter, and looked a little scraggly. But after seeing her at the track the summer before, I knew how beautiful she could be all shed out. I hopped on her bareback straight off the trailer, and she was so good. Albeit, uncomfortable.

OOf.

I then had difficulty with feeding her grass hay, and she lost top line and muscle and gained a hay belly. I tried many things, but switching her to alfalfa was the main answer.

Looking better. But depressed and lame.

That October, she came up very lame and we got no certain answers. She stayed that way for a year, so she did her best to just hang out, look pretty and make me sad. But then she got better!

Our second ride back after initial lameness. October 2013

2014 brought promises of future fun, as Bacon and I started our training pointed towards the eventing type. I didn't know what I was doing, but Bacon played along, stayed sound and we did our first show. An event derby at cross rails. Throughout summer, we kept practicing, and ended the year doing our first beginner novice event derby,

The weekend after our first even derby!

And our beginner novice derby!

In 2015, we moved up to Novice, and battled some more soundness issues with those feet. An epic battle with thrush ate away her frogs. We tried multiple different things with her feet, and finally found that frog support pads and magic cushion were the way to go. Our goal of going to a recognized event did not come to fruition.

Our first jumper show! Came away reserve champion for 3'

During the Jan Bynny xc clinic 

Novice event derby that October

And now we are here. We found out the real reason for Bacon's lameness. A damn bipartite navicular bone. We jumped our first training level jumps on xc. And we made it to TWO recognized events! It wasn't at Aspen, like I was hoping, but it has been a good year. My horse has stayed sound after her injection and we are looking forward to what awaits us next year.

Stanton Horse Trial! 4th place!

Spokane Sport Horse Trial. 9th place!

Looking pretty darn good nowadays!

November 10!

Well, I had written a very thorough post describing a lot of the trials I have gone through over the last couple of months, but stupid Blogger ate it and I lost the motivation to type it up again! Thank goodness for L's 10 questions!

Two year old Vegas!

1. How old is the youngest/greenest horse you have ridden?

I sat on Vegas when she was 20 months old for a minute to see how she would handle it. She didn't care. As far as actual riding goes, the youngest would probably be the two year old at the race track!

2. How old is the oldest horse you have ridden?

Napoleon on the left. Grand grey boy. Me on Dan in the middle, and brother on Ace, the Missouri Fox Trotter

We had this handsome old boy named Napoleon at the barn. He was 38 when he had to be put down, and I had taken him for a couple of walk strolls that summer. What a cool boy. They use to leave his stall door open at the barn, and he was free to roam wherever he would like.

3. Were you scared of horses when you first started riding?

Dominic! And a 5 year old me.

No. When I was about 5, my aunt stepped inside to get a drink of water for me, and her horse Dominic decided to go on an adventure down the road to go see his girlfriend. I just laughed as we trotted along, my aunt and mom trying to catch up behind. Any horse I could hop on, I would.

4. Would you say you are a more nervous rider or confident rider?

Weeeeeeee! I haven't used this picture enough.

I would like to think confident. I tend to not get too worried, unless I am about to do a dressage test or I am on a runaway racehorse.

5. Biggest pet peeve around non-horsey people?

Me on another old gal, I think she was 28 years old?

No, I am not rich. No, I do not rodeo. No, you cannot run up to my horse, or take it hunting.

6. A time you have been scared for your life (horse related)?

Rothstein, the nice boy I learned to ride out there on. And a runaway.

When I was on a runaway racehorse. I was finally able to hold this horse (in a citation bit, yeesh) and had almost made my two gallops laps. Some guy thought it would be funny to put me on the rail, and when a horse gets on the rail, it "works". Or gallops at high speed. So my horse went to working, and I could feel all of the energy in my body dissappear trying to pull the horse up. So I hang on for the ride, almost running over two stupid riders on babies on the rail (not where you ride babies unless working). The outrider caught me on the back side, and we did another slow gallop lap. I was so tired.

7. Have you ever fallen off at a show? What happened?

Not this day!

Hasn't happened yet, but I am sure it will come some day!

8. What's a breed of horse you have never ridden but would like to ride?

This has been my favorite breed though!

I think maybe a Cleveland Bay, Irish Sport Horse, or perhaps a Dutch Warmblood?

9. Describe the worst behaved horse you have ever ridden?

This one wasn't too terribly bad. But that perm was.

Hmmm. There was a few at the barn I use to ride at as a kid. One in particular loved to bolt sideways in open spaces and another would crow hop every time a person went to get off. That one made me laugh though!

10. The most frustrating ride you have ever had?

The handsome Chappy was a little frustrating when I rode him. But I still love him!

When I know my horse is totally capable of doing what I am asking, but we get nowhere. You know, like trotting in a circle with some bend. Or when I got on a nice race mare on the track, but couldn't complete the ride because I had injured my arm the day before and it was causing me extreme pain, so I didn't even all the way around the track before I pulled off and walked her back to the barn.

Scary Jump Night 2016

 My favorite jump night of the year came rolling around again! Halloween is my favorite holiday. I am an avid fan of horror and gore, and my costumes generally reflect that. See below:

Clown Alyssa 2014

Plague Doctor Alyssa 2015. Still my favorite.

I thought I was going to be able to head off to Kentucky with Lindsey, so I wrote Scary Jump Night off in my mind. When it turned out that I wasn't going to be able to go, I did not have enough time to construct the costume I had in mind (Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde). I started using my brain to try and figure out what else we could pull off. One day I was weaving, and Blake had mentioned that I looked like I belonged in an asylum. THAT'S IT! Straight jackets, here we come!

We escaped the asylum. Had to slaughter some fake people to do it.

Unfortunately, I had caught hubby's cold, so I was struggling a little bit that night. I pulled my insane weaving pony and added the finishing touches before hopping on. This year's format was similar to last year, in that there was a costume contest, an equitation contest, and the high jump. I was determined to beat our jump last year (we made it to the 4' round) but I wasn't sure how we would do with a cold in progress and my horse wrapped in a sheet. But we were going to give a go.

Dragon, crazy, plane, and witch.

Such a good boy!

Mario and Luigi!

Fancy show jumper and her damaged rider

Jack Skellington

The scariest thing in all the land to many of the horses.

Rocking the poodle skirt on a poodle!

I am pretty sure my traveling event buddy (E) won the costume contest on her OTTB Justin. It was awesome, and he is a saint. Bacon was not too sure about him and kept a close eye on him. The other costume causing grief around a bunch of snorty ponies was Maleficent and her dragon. The greatest lesson pony ever, Sunny, was wide eyed and wanted absolutely no part of him. During the high jump, his owner fell off and everyone got to yell "LOOSE DRAGON!" and fortunately he only ran to the gate because the rest of the horses were thinking "HOLY SHIT GIANT HORSE FLY IS LOOSE OH GOD".

Sunny needing some assistance from the whitest Jamaican ever. I hope that didn't come off as racist.

Bing was clowning around.

Wonder Woman and wonder pony!

The arm was flapping around quite a bit. But didn't phase this creature.

Doing the equitation class.

Just some of our group!

We finally got the high jump competition rolling, and started it out as a ground pole, and going up one hole from there. The daylight was dwindling fast and I had no idea how we were going to get to the bigger stuff in time. But after the kids on their lesson horses did as much as they could, it started to go up a lot faster. Like 2-3 holes faster. Bacon and I joined in probably around 2'9". She gave the rail a hard rub at 3'3", but we didn't knock it down. She made sure to clear that sucker the next time around, and flew over it.

4' I think? And jumping awfully close to the standard. Yikes!

These photos don't really show how dark it was. 

I had forgotten my spurs, so our straightness was lacking as Bacon would blow through my right leg and aim for a standard. So I hung out in the back seat a whole lot as the jump started to creep ever so tall. By the end, it was me and two other horses left, and the jump was as high as it could go. When Bacon and I came around to it, I looked straight at it and hesitated, and so did Bacers. We tried, but we were so underpowered and I did nothing to help her out, so down it came. Only one horse came out victorious at that height, and it was a handsome 2* horse dressed as a poodle. Our other competition was a fancy professionally trained show jumper mare. So I was feeling pretty good about making it that far.

4'6" cleared!  And me hanging in the back seat and looking down. DAMNIT ALYSSA

And there I am STILL LOOKING DOWN after failing hardcore at 4'9". At least I am smiling.

They had the three of us come stand next to the jump for a picture, and looked at the height. 4'9". WHAT?!? For some reason, I was thinking it was 4' again. No wonder it looked so huge when we came down the line. Well, we definitely beat our jump from last time. I did not think we were going to make it that far. I was so proud of my pony for trying so hard and doing it wearing a sheet, dangling arm, and a weirdo on her back.

Last three standing. Feeling extra cool and not paying attention.

After I put her away in the trailer, we headed back to the spooky crowd and ate the richest chocolate cake ever. It was awesome.

Proud hubby and proud insane person. Go Bacon go!