Waverly Horse Fall sale

 The finale to my epic "All Things Related to Horses" week was the Waverly Iowa Fall horse sale. Wednesday afternoon I went with my friends again, this time to meet her trainer at Waverly to pick up a horse she had sent to him. This horse was her Gypsy Vanner Autumn, a black and white 3 year old filly.  And the horse was riding nice and Rhonda was happy with her progress. Before we left we looked at the horses that would be in the sale, and I saw plenty that should come live with me 😉.  

  Friday was the day we were waiting for, and Rhonda was looking at several horses she planned to bid for. And the Hubs & I were planning to meet her there for the day. We were going for fun, as Hubs had never been to this horse sale.  So let's see some of my favorites from that day

This 2 year old Freisian stud sold for $16k

Gypsy Vanners foals

Baroque type Freisian 

Gypsy vanner mare

Paint draft/ Gypsy cross

Team of Blue Roan Percheron Geldings. I think they were nearly 9k apiece 

This mare reminded me So much of my beloved Kajun...

Gypsy youngsters

Of all these, they went high and none came home with Rhonda, or us, though Rhonda tried. 

   But shocker, Hubs actually did make a go for a 12 year old palomino paint mare bred to a black overo stud. She was grade, and needed groceries, but papers aren't a thing to me. She was confirmed bred by ultrasound by the salebarn vet. I was so flabbergasted that he was going for it that I couldn't find my bid number out of my bag, but we quickly got outbid anyway. He ran it to $500 though. Later he said maybe we'd have better luck in the spring sale when he had more cash flow. So I will just keep my eyes open. But I think of this mare sometimes yet and hope they got a good home. But maybe I was spared alot of worry too, as she was an overo. And being bred to an overo stud there's a chance that the foal would be lethal white. That would be heartbreaking. So this epic horse week culminated in Hubs actually trying to buy me a horse. Even if it fell through, the fact he tried was pretty awesome. I just keep faith something will work out in the future...

A new Tack Shop, and Haul

 This day brought yet another adventure for horse type things. A trek through some pretty countryside to a secondhand tack store. Now I love the idea of such! I also can't wait to get back. 

What I found there was some nice things- and it was all about the English this time too. I ended up choosing some gear that she hadn't had a chance to clean yet, but that's never been an issue for me. So before and afters! 

A driving bridle with brass trim, from the bargain bin. $2. I'm hoping I can get this cleaned up and possibly fit to use. If not, it'll still look cool on the wall as a decoration. 

The First bridle I chose. A Plain Raised, well used but nice leather English bridle. Very dirty, but not too crispy dry. $15

Another brown English bridle, Plain Raised with a flash. Nice leather but very dirty and rather dry. $15. 

Here is the Flash bridle, all cleaned and ready for use. It is beautiful leather! The reins I also bought from the same place, they don't fully match cuz they are fancy stitched, but I was close on the color. It's so hard to tell on dirty or dry tack what the color actually becomes once clean.

The first bridle, it too turned out beautifully. Another set of fancy stitch reins ($10)  from the same place but the color matches pretty well.  I look at these now and think wow! 

The 3rd bridle I chose was like the other 2, Plain Raised, but much darker. $15. As I was applying Passier Lederbasalm the stitches popped on one of the bit keepers. I plan to take this one in for repairs as it's still very nice leather. 

This beautiful set of dressage reins was in the bargain bin, I got them for $1. They're missing thier stud hooks but looks like an easy repair. I'll be taking these as well to the shop. 

Close up of the fancy stitch reins on the 2nd bridle. They were dirty and dry but turned out beautifully. The other set is nearly identical. I paid $10 for each pair. 

Bridle- $15.⁰⁰

Reins- $10.⁰⁰

I can't believe that this beautiful rig was waiting under all that dirt, grime and neglect. As it looks now there's no way $25 would buy it.  
 

Dressage reins- the 2 "droopy" sets came from this store- they are nice quality! $10 and $1 for the broken hooks set. The stiffer set of reins came in the Keiffer saddle deal. Here a closeup of those stiffer reins.

This set of dressage reins also needs a new stud hook on one side. (These came with the Saddleseat bridle/Keifer saddle deal) They are a medium quality, I'll see what the repair shop says if they're worth fussing about. 

It's been a wonderful streak of bargain hunting this fall, especially in these past couple weeks! 

Gypsy Iowa Classic Show

My week of "Horse Related Awesomeness " continued with the Gypsy Iowa Classic show!

I was so fortunate as to attend this show with a couple of friends, as spectators, and it seemed like a great weekend from what the competitors were saying. 

So many beautiful Gypsy Vanners!!

The warm up arena

A grulla filly weaning I just love 

 

This guy had such cool markings!

Tiny Tim the stud - I didn't know small Gypsy Vanners was even a thing. But check out his impressive mustache 😅

We watched lots of the classes, and wandered around meeting horses and thier owners, and the vibe of this show was fantastic. Everyone was helpful to everyone else, and encouraged others, and it was great to see. Especially the way things can get so crazy in competitions- but that wasn't the case here. I felt that if I ever managed to get "show ready" that this would be a great one to be a part of. But I don't even have a Gypsy Vanner yet. 

I didn't get many pics but for more information and loads of pics, check out the Facebook group Gypsy Iowa Classic 

 

 

 

Bridles that came with the Keiffer dressage saddle

 This was a mixed bag of tricks you could say- either these bridles were high quality, or absolute junk. So let's see some "before " pics (before being cleaned and conditioned) 

I guess I didn't have "before " pics saved of the Maroon browband Saddleseat bridle.  But it was the same quality and in the same dirty, dry shape as the Red one. It came with a set of reins that were nothing really special, but I will try to keep getting them soft and flexible. The bridle is at least Full size, but seems huge, maybe 0/S.

Note that the Red Saddleseat bridle is also a double bridle, and had a bradoon bit on it as well, with a matching fine narrow rein. Sadly the other rein wasn't with it. Also I couldn't restore the noseband and browband from where the black material had flaked off.  Perhaps in future I'll take on making replacements myself.  But honestly I'm not much interested in Saddleseat, and know very little about it. The bits look rather intimidating though! But then, I guess everything does if you don't know the nuances of it, so I can't judge something I know so little about. 

At any rate, these bridles are clean and I'll just have them in my collection. 

The rest of the bridles were "all the black stuff" the seller had managed to find, which included miscellaneous pieces and reins. They were even more dirty and drier than the Saddleseat bridles. 

When all was said and done, there was a nice dressage bridle with no cavesson, shown here.

 It'll be a hunt now to find a cavesson for it. There was also a nice set of black reins that probably went with it. 

  And the rest was junk. There was a complete Silver Fox bridle, some pieces of a bridle, 2 sets of reins and one odd rein?  that had rings stitched in various places. I haven't yet cleaned this odd item or researched what it actually is. 

I've never owned a Silver Fox bridle but read enough reviews that they're absolute crap. I see why now- nothing has worked to soften the cheapo leather, if it even can be called that, but at least they're clean and won't mold the rest of my gear. At best I'll take them apart for using as patterns for making good bridles someday. But that's the only use I can think of for them.

All in all, I wouldn't have bought any of these had they been offered individually or as a lot, but they went with the Keiffer saddle, so there you go. 

 

Epic English Score

 Yes, my haul just rather exploded this month, as I found this gem of a saddle on Facebook marketplace. I drove 2 hours to get it, for the awesome price of $150- with a bunch of bridles thrown in.  So let's get the details.

It's a Keiffer. A Keiffer.... 

A Keiffer Lech DL II Professionell

 Here it is, in the condition that I bought it. And really, it's just really dirty and dry. The panels underneath are really curled but some tlc should fix that. There are some scratches on it but nothing major, in fact it looks hardly used at all. Even the gold foil on the inner flaps is nearly perfect. 

     I was happy dancing all the way home having found such a beautiful deal. 

 

 So first off, a good scrub with trusty Kirk's castile soap was in order, and rinsed, and left to to dry. Next was a few light coats of warm olive oil and that left to sit for a few days as well.   Followed by some Passier Lederbasalm rubbed in, and this saddle just bloomed into something so beautiful. It looks practically new - as shown here 

 

And from what little I've researched, these saddles are very good so to find one in such good condition for so little is rather like stumbling upon a unicorn. 

It didn't come with stirrups or leathers, the guy couldn't find them but that's fine. I'll just try to find some on my own. 

For training, I'll probably rely on the Wintec but having this means that I can chase this dressage idea alot better. And honestly I'm tired of just dreaming about it, and with Twista gone, I'm pretty much having to start over for a horse that does much english riding. 

As for the bridles that came with this purchase, I think it'll be best to do a separate post about them- they're an interesting thing unto themselves....