I dreamt I rode with reins of velvet -- hey, they're REAL!

No, it isn't a dream, it's another Rolex wish list item from horsedreamimporters.com. I stopped at a small booth adjacent to the Tropical Rider booth. There was no sign, just a lone man sat behind a jewelry case of meticulously made horsey items. I think the reason I didn't make a purchase is because a) I was already beyond my budget, and b) is -- wait, who am I kidding, since when has a) stopped me? Well, c), the real reason, is because I could not narrow down which of the items I liked best at this booth.

To start, there are these amazing sheepskin girth covers -- velcro wraparound covers, "universal" covers that fit any girth, custom girths with detachable covers, you name it, in several colors and sizes.

Whips
The picture doesn't do this whip justics. The handle is covered with cushy/padded twisted velveteen-like material, and the whip is flexible for fine control, like an extension of your arm. For $49. Oh, I was tempted!



The reins
These reins are leather, but the part the rider holds are covered in a padded velvety suede-like material. Again the feel of these reins is just wondrously fine, flexible, and soft. The thing that prevented me from buying them, in the end, was the voice of my mother in my head. "How will you clean that?" My tack lives kind of hard, and the reins in particular tend to get dragged on the ground, or slobbered on, or caught on a door. Well, I should also mention they didn't have extra long reins at the show. Maybe that's the real reason I didn't yield to temptation. These are truly lovely reins. BTW, I later posted to the COTH forum, and one responder told me that these reins clean up easily -- which means they aren't real suede of course.

You'll be happy to know that this pretty much exhausts my Rolex repetoire :-). On to other topics!