4 Odds and Ends

So I have 4 items that don't make up a post on their own, but together they do!

1. A great trail ride with Hawk and Fiction! Hawk showed me around the hay fields and up on the ridge on Easter. We had a great ride on a very beautiful day. When we came back, I hopped Penn over an 18" crossrail in the arena since I was in my jump tack. He completely overjumped it the first time, and then hopped over the second. That was enough for me, haha! Quit before I fall off from the combined effect of 1) not jumping seriously in several years, and 2) jumping a horse than has jumped less than 20 fences in his life. A side note, someone had set my cavalettis up on the highest setting to put up a tiny vertical last week and we jumped that a couple times! Wahoo, we're getting a little crazy, haha.

Buddies!

Looking around.

Attempting to fit Penn, Fiction and the beautiful scenery all in one shot. Nope, haha.

2. Penn has a lot of white ticking coming in. I noticed some white hairs in Penn's coat last fall, but there weren't too many. I gave him a vetrolin bath Sunday and took him out to hand graze and brushed him while he dried. As I brushed, I noticed a ton of white hairs near his flanks and then more and more white hairs over his rump and on his barrel. He has some white hairs in his tail (not anywhere near enough for a skunk tail), and I know Alla Czar passes on rabicano/sabino coloring to his offspring. Anyone know if rabicano white hair ticking gets bolder with age? Either way, it looks like it's manifesting stronger with this year's summer coat.

It doesn't show up far away, but there's a lot of white hairs in this bay coat!

3. I'm shopping for a new white saddle pad. I love my Classic Equine pad, but it's got a couple funny spots that I can't get washed out, they don't make that saddle pad anymore, and the drop isn't enough for Penn's saddle anyway. Saddle pad requirements: white, prefer no trim colors (I use bleach), square corner, no bigger than a 22" spine with a 21" drop (I like close fitting pads and these are the measurements of the BOT dressage pad that I do like the fit of). Also up for consideration: one with the half pad attached (and I will forgo the bleach).

I've had some excellent recommendations, and I did more hunting on my own. I'm torn between the Warendorf Dressage Saddle Pad and Equine Comfort Grip Tech Dressage Pad from Dover (plus some others sprinkled in the mix). Please vote for something.

Warendorf Pad- I love the black trim too (it would match Penn's fancy boots), and at $29.99 each, I could buy both!
A little concerned about the lack of curve in the spine.

Equine Comfort Grip Tech Dressage Pad- I like the puffy nature of the pad and I wouldn't use my half pad under it.
Possibly affordable at $114.99. The drop isn't quite long enough though. 

ECOGOLD CoolFit Dressage Pad - A more expensive version of the above? At $194.99, it's out. Plus I can't tell if it's puffy, and I'd want to use this in place of a regular pad and half pad.

Circuit Sheepskin Square Saddle Pad - Combines the pad and half pad. Not terribly excited about it (I wish it had a square corner), but I feel like $129.99 is a good price for something like this.

Total Saddle Fit Six Point Pad - I love love love this one, and I've wanted it for forever. Mikey was going to get one for the wither freedom, but I'm not so sure Penn needs it, and at $189 + shipping - possible return customer discount, this is expensive, and more than I want to spend.

4. I'm shopping for turnout boots. BO will put turnout boots on horses (yay! but I still have to check with her to make sure), and Penn is starting to interfere behind even more when he's out on his own (mid cannon height on the inside of the leg), and I'm terrified that he's going to hurt himself (he nicked himself this weekend and his leg had some slight fill). I'm mostly just looking for hind boots- he's good about the fronts. I was going to put Mikey's old DSBs on him, except I'm concerned that in the summer they'll hold in too much heat and then get waterlogged when it rains or gets too muddy. I'd like to stay away from fleece and neoprene simply because of the heat build up- he's going to be wearing these for at least 12 hours at a time. I really like the Equilibrium Tri-Zone® Airlite Allsports II Boots, but they're so expensive! I'd use them for trail rides too so they get more use than just turnout (also Penn hated the Roma ankle boots I put on him for our Easter trail ride), but it's still tough for me to justify that much money for turnout boots when plain splint boots would probably do the job. Also, the cost prohibits me from getting another set for his front legs. Any favorite turnout boots?

Possible solution to protect Penn's legs?