For years my feet fell asleep when I rode. Laurie kept on telling me it was because I was jamming my feet forward. But I just couldn't stop it. I rode in a barn mate's saddle complete with those fancy wide-track stirrups. And my feet didn't fall asleep. So I set out to find a pair of my own.

Starting this year (December maybe, I'm not really sure) USEF rules will change and all black stirrups will not be allowed in equitation classes. Equitation is  my favorite division, so I set out to find non-black wide-track stirrups.

Enter Equiwings. Long story short, they were the only non-black wide track stirrups I could find.

First impression: these suckers are huge! And not foot bed is wide huge. Tall and thick huge. They are a good two inches taller than my regular irons.

The stirrups come with two sets of foot pads, rubber and cheese grater. I never rode in the rubber ones, because I am a cheese grater fan. These cheese graters are not nearly as sharp as the ones that go in my jointed stirrups. I like this texture better, as it doesn't scratch my saddle and leathers like the others do. The pad are attached with four screws on the underside. It should be simple to change them. It wasn't. The screws weren't long enough. It was kind of a pain to dig through the junk in my garage and find one that would work. I suspect that I got a mildly defective pair. Why else would the pad be bent slightly so that the screws didn't fit?

The foot bed is indeed wide, around twice as wide as regular fillis irons. The width is such that I cannot get my heels nearly as far down as I could before without losing contact with the foot bed. But since I was hamming my heels at a 45 degree angle, this is a good thing. First time I rode in them, I could immediately feel if there was jamming going on. They are very secure and I feel like I have a great base of support. The wider foot bed also distributes my weight better then my regular stirrups. My feet don't fall asleep in these stirrups. In my old irons they fell asleep every single ride.

The finish is a matte aluminum, not shinny like you would expect from a stirrup. I haven't tried to polish them up. Maybe I'll get inspired and report back on how well they shine up.

My biggest complaint about these stirrups are how light they are. When I drop my stirrups, they bounce everywhere. The aluminum bangs against my spurs and makes an annoying noise. If I cross the stirrups, the pads rattle and make a different annoying noise. I understand that light is a sought after trait for many people, but unfortunately, it isn't for me.

Over all, these stirrups were a fine purchase. They were only $71 and they keep me from heel jamming. They also come in black plastic and in the jointed version. I do wish they would make them in a regular weight, and height. I'm sure there is a point to ultra light weight stirrups. I just wish I knew what it was. I can't imagine a benefit to them being that big.

Some people take great care of their old horse show ribbons and hang them immediately upon returning home in a delightful arrangement. Some people *cough* me *cough* leave their ribbons in a box in their childhood bedroom while they go to college, start a career, go back to school, start a new career, get married and move around to 3 states before they finally get a wall of their own to hang them on. When those ribbons came out of the box, they were crinkly and wrinkly and rather unattractive. Here's how to make them smooth again.

Start with a crinkly ribbon. This is the first blue ribbon I ever won. It is from 1999.

Set your iron to the silk setting. You want to use the lowest heat that will still flatten the ribbon. If you go too hot, the ribbons will curl or discolor. Make sure to drain all water out of the iron. Using steam on the ribbon will lead to staining.

Lay your ribbon face down on the ironing board. Start with the center ribbon. Pull the other two sides of the ribbon back. Run your iron of the ribbon, making sure to keep it moving. If it stays still, you'll make a new wrinkle at the end of the iron.

Fold the second ribbon down, and iron it in the same way you did the first one. Then do the third ribbon the same way. Get as close to the base as you can.

If there is still a crease at the bottom of the rosette, turn the ribbon over. Place the rosette on the side of the ironing board and the ribbons on the top. Bend the rosette back. Now you can run the iron to the base of the rosette.

And here is the side by side. I promise you, the end result is much more dramatic in person. Simple, easy, and it looks much better on the wall.

Meet George. George is an OTTB (off-the-track-thoroughbred). You'll see him a lot around here. Because he is my horse. And a very good model. Because modeling things is one of the only things you can do when you are always lame, George is going to be modeling a LOT of stuff in the near future.

George is body clipped. He wears a number of blankets. And he can't go a night without them. So when sweet, gentle, lame George decided to rip a whole all the the way through his blanket, I had to fix it quick.

I can sew. Or, to be technical, I have a basic knowledge of sewing. I have a Wal-Mart machine and a needle and thread. My machine can't handle a horse blanket. So when a hole is too big to fix with a simple needle and thread I go to the iron-on patch.

Iron-on patches are awesome for fixing horse blankets because they seal all the loose threads so the patch doesn't fray. They are quick and easy to apply. You need no skills whatsoever.

This is what George's blanket looked like when I started. If I had been smart I'd have held this blanket up and had someone take a picture. But I didn't. Sorry. I'm new to this blogging thing.

He ripped it straight through. I could put my arm through it. I didn't, but I could have.

First I took a spray bottle of water and wiped the area around the cut down. You want to get off as much of the dirt as you can before you apply the patch. If there is dirt, the patch will stick to the dirt and not the fabric. I don't recommend putting the blanket through the wash because the wash will cause fraying. Fraying is the enemy.

Next take your iron-on patch and cut it to size with a pair of scissors. I don't have a picture of this step because  I forgot. And it is really hard to take pictures of yourself doing stuff. Turn your iron on and let it heat up to full heat.

Next, pull the sides of the rip together and place the patch over the rip. It doesn't matter if you start with the inside or the outside of the blanket. Place the iron over the patch and hold it there for 30 seconds. Do not move the iron. The patch will move with it and smear the glue everywhere. After thirty seconds, lift up the iron and allow the patch to cool off.

Do you see the gap on the edge of the patch. That is bad. If the edges of the patch are attached, leave it alone. If not, you have to iron again. You may have to adjust the blanket. Do not leave the iron on for more than 30 seconds or iron again until the patch is completely cool. This will result in melting. Melting is very, very bad.

Next we have to address the missing batting. This is absolutely not a necessary step. Your horse will be just fine without it. Quilt batting is kind of expensive, so don't buy it just for this. If you have some laying around like I did, break it out and use it. You can also use padding from a pillow, or a stuffed animal, or anything. It's going inside a patched horse blanket. This is not the time to get fancy.

You'll also need some spray adhesive. Which is spray on glue. If you don't have any, just use regular glue. Same your money for supplements.

Spray the adhesive where the missing batting is.

Lay your batting in place and trim it to fit.

Then seal the other half of the blanket using the same iron-on patch method.

And here's the finished blanket! For $4  I fixed my blanket in under an hour and George's butt is once again warm and happy. Or it was until he ripped it again two days. Good thing I buy the patches in bulk.