Blanket adventures

Working late again tonight, working early AND late tomorrow, then early again Thursday. It's almost painful, because it's a gorgeous day out there, warm and kind of soft, but then again ... work pays the pony bills, right? Plus, the job isn't bad. :)

A good horsey weekend, though! My friend/horse sharer Michele came out and had a lesson on Apollo on Saturday. That's the first lesson he's had in months. So hooray for that! We also discovered that Apollo had destroyed his last warm blanket. Sigh. The front t-buckle holder is bent beyond use, and the waterproofing had given up the ghost in the heavy cold rain we'd had. The waterproofing isn't a huge deal, but replacing the buckle in a way that he won't immediately rip it off is.

Or, I should say, the waterproofing wouldn't be a huge deal if he hadn't already destroyed his OTHER warm blanket by ripping it to bits and tearing the belly band t-buckle holder off the body of the blanket. :/ Again, that needs to be fixed in such a way that he won't immediately destroy it again. The only other blanket I have for him is too light for a clipped horse this time of year, so that was out.

THEN we discovered that he's trying to come down with rain rot, due to the lack of waterproofing.

Sigh. That horse has the most fungus-prone skin, I swear.

So. A new blanket of some stripe was required. Michele didn't have one in his size, so off we went to the closest FLTS. We ended up finding Just The Right Blanket -- it even had Apollo's name right on the package! It was even bright royal blue! In his size! It was more than Michele wanted to spend, but since it was the FriendlyLTS, we asked about any discounts. The woman at the counter said no, no sales or discounts, buuuuut ... she'd had the blanket in inventory since 2012, so she'd cut us a deal. :D

Apollo is now tucked into his nice warm blanket, with EquiDerma on his various spots that need it (this stuff is amazing, truly -- the spots we found on Saturday were all but gone on Sunday!). He got good rides on Saturday and Sunday both, from me and Michele, and I would be so excited to ride him tonight, but ... alas.

Anyway, I have to say: the EOUS blanket rocks on toast. I love the way it fits Apollo, and I especially love the belly band buckle assembly. It's got the heavy duty webbing on the outside, a full loop for the t-buckle, and a shorter loop of heavy elastic inside the webbing loop. If the elastic stretches, the heavy webbing will catch it! Less chance of tear-age on those buckle ends! The stitching is tight, the manufacture is good, and overall, I would completely invest in more EOUS blankets if I needed a few more. Highly recommended. 1680 denier, too, which I hope will hold up to the hooligans in the pasture. :)