Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Tina said: 

>       Hi, Chelsea. You have good questions, and good advice has been
posted in reply, but let me add that you don't need to start out with $300
riding tights, a $100 stethoscope, and a $60 multi-purpose tool, among other
things.  

Sure, and I started with a $250 saddle that I wouldn't put on a horse today.
Where in the world do you even get $300 tights? OMG. I wouldn't dream of
spending more than about $60. I'd be afraid to wear something that expensive
- I'd ruin them in an instant. Only piece of clothing I own worth that much
is my business suit.

However, there's a reason to the $60 multi-purpose tool. One day I was
sponsoring a junior, and her horse was in the process of losing the 2nd shoe
of the day. The shoe was bent, and we were probably 10 miles from camp. I
wouldn't have been able to get that shoe off without tearing up the hoof,
and if we'd just kept riding, we might have lamed her. As luck would have
it, some friends caught up to us while we were looking at the problem, and
my friend had recently been given a Leatherman with a file on it by her
father. We used that to file the clinches, and after some work managed to
get the shoe off so that we could get the easy boot on. I don't think we
would have finished the ride without a way to get that shoe to come the rest
of the way off. That's obviously a rare occurance, but the difference
between a cheap tool and a good tool is only about $30. The cheaper ones
don't have the file.

She certainly doesn't need to go out and buy a $3000 saddle, or other really
expensive gear. FWIW, I wouldn't buy an expensive stethoscope, either.

Oh - that reminds me of something I do carry that's really cheap, but worth
a fortune if you need it - tie wraps, like people use for wiring - the
little plastic ones that ratchet down. If you break a rein snap, or
otherwise need to fix your tack, one of those can save you. You can get a
whole bag of them for around $5.





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