Caroline and Peter have their horsemanship class this afternoon.  This will be Caroline’s first lesson since she decided to take their friend Garrett’s place in the class (he fell off a horse and broke his arm last week).

Caroline needed some riding equipment.  On Saturday, we found a helmet for her at Green’s Feed and Seed in Charleston, which was relatively easy.  Finding a pair of riding boots for her, however, proved to be a much more difficult matter.  We didn’t have any trouble finding riding boots for Peter several weeks ago when he first started the horsemanship class.  We got him a pair of nice, moderately priced boots made by Old West at D&D Outfitters in Teays Valley, which was the very first place we looked.

On Saturday, we headed for D&D Outfitters in Teays Valley, thinking we’d have the same luck with finding a pair of riding boots for Caroline.  She wears a size 8 in women’s shoes, and all of the boots in that size were in the $100+ range, in addition to being extremely Western-looking, with a pointed toe, fancy stitching, etc.  Besides the high prices, none were really suitable for English riding. Then we went to K-Mart, several shoe stores in the Charleston Town Center (including another D&D Outfitters store), and Shoe Carnival, all with no success. 

On Saturday night, we did some grocery shopping at Wal-Mart.  We checked out their selection of boots, and Caroline saw a pair in the men’s section that she liked.  They had sort of a Western look about them, but not as extreme as the boots at D&D.  They were more like suede work boots.  Unfortunately, they didn’t have the right size, so I told her we’d look for them on Sunday at another Wal-Mart.

Yesterday, we went to two different Wal-Marts, and neither of them even carried that particular style of boot.  As a last resort, we decided to go to the Huntington Mall.  We looked at Shoe Department and Payless, but neither store had any boots whatsoever.   Before heading to the Food Court for a snack, we stopped at D&D Outfitters.  The sales clerk was very knowledgeable about boots and horses (she barrel races), and she directed us to a pair of English riding boots made by Justin.  They were regularly $169.99, on sale for $59.99.  Luck was with us, because they had a pair in Caroline’s size.  She liked them, so we bought them.

Since they are real leather, they’re still a bit stiff.  Caroline wore them around our house all evening, and she also cleaned them with saddle soap to try to soften up the leather.   

Here is a photo of her boots, with her new Troxel riding helmet in the background.