A Monday Twofer: Transformations, and a Helmet Revamp!

“It’s just another manic Monday….wish it were Sunday…because that’s my fun day..my I don’t have to run day…its just another manic Monday”

Those lyrics would be true if I didn’t work Sundays, but lets just roll with it anyways. So, happy happy Monday everyone!

I’ve been reading a few people’s posts about their transformations from Then to Now with their horses started from Life of Riley and I thought I’d join in. I’m a bit embarrassed to show this video of our before, but it really goes to show how far Spot and I have come. A note before you watch the video, polo really, really doesn’t do any favors for your equitation or position at all. In fact, it pretty much negates proper riding form as it doesn’t matter how you stay on the horse,  but that you just stay on…oh and hit the ball too.

Ok, so here we go, this is us when I had first bought her in the summer of 2010

See what I mean about not really having a trot gear? Also, see what I mean about my horrendous riding form? ~hides under a rock~

Here is a video of us now: August 2014

Much better, yeah?! I’m so pleased with how far Spot has come, she really tries her little heart out. Can’t wait to read other transformations!

Now to the next part of this post: My Helmet Revamp!! 

After seeing FB Pony and her two helmet makeovers I thought I would have some fun with my old schooling helmet while the Hubs was gone for the weekend. I’ve been wearing my OneK helmet lately but I don’t want to get it all sweaty and gross as it’ll be my show helmet.  I got my inspiration for the helmet color from Isabel Werth’s fabulous gold helmet she wore in 2011.

But instead of gold I decided to do some sort of silver to match the silver piping on my saddle and bridle. However, there were soo many choices of silver to pick from at the store but I decided on Satin Nickle. From the caps it seemed that Satin Nickle would have more of a champagne silver color

So many choices!

I started off by wiping down the helmet, sanding it a bit, then wiping it down again before I started. I found out that if you abruptly stop spraying you can get some paint drips, so lots of fine misting at about 10 inches away worked well.

ready to go!

light first coat

3rd coat

“What are you doing out there, mom?”

I ended up spraying part of the harness that has leather (vinyl) on it, but if I did this again I probably wouldn’t as it made it sticky and didn’t dry well. I let it sit out on the patio for about 3 hours at first then overnight before I took off the tape.

So here’s the finished product in the shade and in the sunlight:

 

 

I love the rich champagne silver color it has in the sunlight! In the shade it definitely looks more silver. I’m going to try to get pics of it on the next time I ride. Anyways, it was a cheap, and fun project to do this weekend and I get a “new” helmet to boot! Thanks FB Pony and Shadbelly for the inspiration!

Hope you all had a fabulous weekend as well! 🙂