I’m immersed in bits. Write a book, and by the very nature of the monumental task, you become obsessed with your topic. Suddenly, you see material everywhere, from the guy riding by your house, to the lesson horse at a local school barn, to your own horses’ bitting quirks. You learn to observe everything horse-related to assure you got it all down on paper, every single detail, and it’s right, or you look like a fool (gone are the days that book publishing houses employed fact checkers. Now most publishers employ 20 year olds for minimum wage that have only a basic grasp of English. Cynical? You betcha!).

I’ve suddenly noticed, for example, that Baleno has this habit of sliding his jaw side to side and tilting his head. I noticed it while I was teaching a lesson on him. I had to stop the lesson and examine the bit in his mouth. Was it rubbing? Was the kid holding too much contact? Was the bit in need of cleaning?

Baleno’s never really had a problem accepting the bit, but he does tilt his head. I always chalked it up to his weak right hind leg (overcompensation) and hip, but now, through this new lens of bitting, I’m starting to wonder if it’s time to try something new. Fundamentally, though, I’m aware that anything that goes wrong with a horse during riding is a training issue, not an equipment issue. As Julie Goodnight so eloquently told me during an interview for my book, “You can’t buy your way out of a training problem.”

So it’s back to basics again with Baleno, back to teaching him to stretch into the bit, and back to working on my own messy hands and occasional instability in the saddle. You can’t force your horse to accept the bit. You have to gently ask him. You’d think I’d know this by now, but alas, after 30 years of riding, I think I’ve finally figured this one important element out: It’s the journey, not the destination. And when you’re forced to retrace your steps, you see new things along the way.

This show is for retailers and wholesalers to stock up on all the equine and equestrian goodies—and it’s a wonderful show, too, for those of us with certain obsessions. For me, it’s been bits and bridles lately, although I’m a bit of a clothes…ahem…horse when it comes to breeches and high-tech tops. Yes, I love them. I own more than the average Jill and because I get to see the new cool stuff before anyone else, I feel very much fashion forward. Who cares if I spend most of the day in my pajamas? When I ride, I look sharp.

Some of the new cool things I saw this weekend included cowboy boots made of breathable rubber with the craziest patterns from a company called DAV, and Ariat has launched a new boot with hair on the uppers and patent leather on the toe (Sweet!). English riding makers are all showing a lot of layering for fall, with colors in lighter hues of blue and purple, with dark browns and greys to offset them.

Do I sound like a fashion writer? Well, I guess I am, in some ways, as a sort of unofficial trendspotter. I also keep track of the cool innovations—and believe me, the equestrian industry is always coming up with something ingenuous.

Two interesting new ones were the QuitKick, an electronic gadget that shoots a blast of water at the offending equine when he kicks at the stall door. Baleno, watch out! Your kicking days are over. The second nifty item was a plastic box into which you can place a flake of hay. The horse pulls the hay out through holes in the sides. This item would drastically cut down on hay waste, and would be useful for traveling.

The problem with going to these shows is that I all of a sudden realize that I need some new… whatevers…Like Pavlov’s dogs, send me to a trade show and I start to salivate. This time I purchased a fancy new bridle for Daisy, a light blue shirt from Kerrits, a nice new pair of breeches from my favorite company, FITS.

It’s always great fun to be around a bunch of people who have turned their passion into a business, and that’s the equestrian industry in a nutshell. 

The QuitKick

I also tend to get really out of sorts. Grumpy. Tetchy. Short- tempered.

It reminds me of how I used to feel back when I was a cigarette smoker and I’d run out of smokes, or had to wait until leaving a restaurant to light up. A certain edginess takes hold.

Am I addicted to horses?

To find an answer, I did what every modern person would do. I googled the word addiction and came across the Wikipedia definition. (As an aside, that is a sentence I never would have written five years ago, and for someone who owns an unabridged Oxford English Dictionary, I’m somewhat ashamed to write). 

To whit: “The term addiction is also sometimes applied to compulsions that are not substance-related, such as problem gambling and computer addiction. In these kinds of common usages, the term addiction is used to describe a recurring compulsion by an individual to engage in some specific activity, despite harmful consequences, as deemed by the user himself to his or her individual health, mental state or social life.”

Yup. Sounds like me. Only I don’t think a horse addiction is harmful. After all, I’ve been able to maintain my weight well into my forties without dieting or adding exercise. I have incredibly strong back, arm and leg muscles. I’m never lacking for fresh air although I probably get a little too much sun.

I guess you could consider the lack of disposable income harmful, or the fact that I actually quit a very lucrative day job so I’d have more time to ride.

So yes, I guess I’m addicted. And as I head off to visit family for a week in the city, I just spent a half hour in the barn just hanging with the gang—petting on Belle, Baleno and Daisy, giving everyone a good back scratch with the curry comb. Yup, there’s definitely worse addictions.

Box-o-bits

Interesting antique bits owned by a few of the collectors I've met.