Don't forget - Sunday 14 May is Mothers' Day!!!  But there's no need to panic.  If you've got a Horsey Mum, we are sure we'll have something in our store that she'll absolutely love!  And don't forget, ladies, that you are all "mums" to your horses (and other fur-kids) yourselves!  So shouldn't you treat yourselves to a little present on their behalf? Go on, you know your fur-babies would want you too... ;-)

If you're looking for Mothers' Day gift inspiration for the beautiful Horse Mum in your life, here are our tips:

Sporty Mums are always on the go.  They love to keep fit and active and are more likely to be seen in their gym pants and sneakers than anything else.  Technical performance wear, on and off the horse, is a must for this type of mum.  Consider our Tottie Maven Zip Polo in stunning berry.  We are predicting that this colour is going to be huge this season. Just $70.00.

If your Horse Mum is more the pearls, silk scarf and elegant country-chic sort, she will love our Caldene Country Collection.  Check out our Caldene Melford Jacket - a very smart trench-coat style waterproof mac perfect for those trips into town to do lunch with the ladies.  This waxed jacket has a distressed finish and is fully lined using Caldene's exclusive vintage horse print (so gorgeous it's enough to make you want to wear the jacket inside out!).  You'd expect to pay more for a jacket this stylish but it is just $180.00.  Be quick though, it is selling out fast! (You might also want to check out Caldene's gorgeous Bradenham Silk Scarf which also features the Caldene vintage horse print, making it the perfect accessory to go with this fabulous jacket ($95.00))

What mum, or any woman for that matter, doesn't like a bit of bling?!?  A Horsey Mum is guaranteed to love any of our equestrian jewellery.  New to our range just in time for Mothers' Day is this larger version of our every popular "Lucky Charm" horse shoe necklace.  Perfect for the woman that likes her jewellery a little more noticeable. Both the large ($110.00) and the small ($80.00) versions of this neck;ace are 925 sterling silver and team nicely with our "Tiny Hooves" earrings ($55.00).

If the Horse Mum in your life spends her life in white competition breeches, why not get her the perfect, stylish accompaniment to those breeches - a Caldene belt?  Our Caldene belts are extremely popular.  They are all made from the softest, vegetable tanned leather (which is much better for the environment than the chemical tanning process - extra brownie-points from green mums!). Our favourite at the moment is the Patriot Leather Belt which features a gorgeous inlay of blue, red and silver diamantes in dark brown leather.  These diamante colours seriously compliment any navy and/or red in competition outfits and will delight any mum with this colour scheme in her competition wardrobe.

Matchy-Matchy Horse Mums are the epitome of style.  They love to deck their horse (and themselves) out in matching saddle-pads, ear bonnets and leg protection.  If this is your Mum, then our Caldene matching croc range is really going to make her Mothers' Day.  Check out our matching black croc range - saddlepad (dressage and GP), ear bonnet, tendon boots, overreach boots and belt! Matchy-matchy heaven!!!

Even if your Mum isn't into horses, if she's crazy about cats and/or dogs, we still have something for her.  Our "Pet Hair" tee, which features the slogan "All my other shirts are covered in pet hair" is guaranteed to give the cat/dog/horse mad mum a laugh.  All our tees are printed here in Melbourne on soft 150gsm cotton tees that will wear well wash after wash. Very affordable at $45.00

If you're still not sure what your Mum might like, we have two words for you: Gift Card. We have gift cards available on our website in values of $50.00, $75.00, $100.00, $150.00 and $200.00 so that your mum can buy whatever she likes from our exclusive range of products, whether online or at one of our pop-up shops.

We hope this helps your Mothers' Day shopping! To all the Horse-Mums and Mums-to-Horses out there, HAPPY MOTHERS' DAY!!!!

This month's edition of Stable Talk features a gorgeous bay mare who caught our attention on social media.  We had been admiring her apparent flair and talent over the cross country course and her elegance in the dressage arena.  When we saw a photo of her modelling a Caldene dressage saddle pad we knew this mare and her human, Suntosha Barker from NSW, must have style! So we wanted to find out all about them...

How long have you been with your human Suntosha and what were you doing before you found each other?
​I have been with Suntosha for 12 awesome months. I am having so much fun with her and am loving all the experience and opportunities I am getting to have with her.  My journey with Suntosha so far has been a smooth and exciting ride!  Before I met Suntosha I was living in QLD with an amazing eventer named Charlotte Price. Charlotte had been doing eventing with me and training me, so I could go on to someone who would love to do eventing with me, someone that could train me and together as a team go up the levels and have a great time doing so.

What have you done so far with your human, and what would you like to help her achieve this year?
So far we have been doing lots of dressage training with our coaches Ann Behringer and Di Jenkyn.  Suntosha and I both love dressage training as every time we train together we are starting to figure out more and more about each other and develop a fabulous bond. We have also been doing a bit of showjump training with our show jump coaches Clint Beresford and Grant Hughes and love every opportunity we get to have a lesson with them.
Suntosha and I have formed a wonderful bond which I love and cherish lots!!  This year Suntosha and I have been to Canberra eventing in March, which was such a lovely event.  We did very well and I am happy with my human and how she performed.  I would love to help her achieve lots of great goals and to help her out by being the best horse I can be.  I believe if we both put our minds together and believe in each other we can be the best team possible!

What is your favourite phase of eventing and why? Is this also your human's favourite phase?
X-COUNTRY!!!. I love X country as it is something I am strong and brave at. I love the thrill and adrenaline rush I get when I am galloping out on the open field with the wind flowing through my hair and jumping many different fences and working on my pace and control, I feel brave and fierce out on course as my human is always encouraging me and at the end she always gives me big pats, kisses, cuddles and my favourite Carrots!! Suntosha's favourite would also be X country.  She always tells me she loves it because she feels safe on me loves it when we work as a team galloping up to jumps and dropping down banks. We both agree we love the feeling of working as a team and pushing each other to our safe limits!

What other things do you like to do with your human?
We are always traveling together, so when we are at home Suntosha likes to gives me brushes and pats while she plays music and we always have fun doing that. I also love taking pictures with my human and going and playing in the water.

You seem to have a natural talent for modelling.  Do you have any other special talents?
I do love the limelight, cameras flashing and humans calling me saying "Sphinx over here",  "click click" . When I am away from all that I have a talent for taking selfies, my human Suntosha is either taking boomerangs of me for Instagram or we are taking a selfie with funny filters on it.  I also have a special talent for being a good girl while my human is plaiting me up and getting me looking beautiful ready for me to trot down that centre line looking flawless.

Do you have any paddock companions? Do you get along well with them?
Yes! His name is Nugget.  Well, his real name is Brenwon Saturn or his human calls him Captain Nugget or Mr Nugget.  He is a light bay horse and quite stocky and manly.  Yes we get along very well, he looks out for me when I am sleeping and we also have a great chat at the end of the day about how each other's day was and life in general.  Sometimes we plot things together about our humans just to be funny.

What are your favourite things in the world?
Carrots! Carrots! And more carrots!

If you were a human celebrity, who would you be and why?
My human believes that if I was a human celebrity I would be a younger Sally Pearson as I have got the spring in my jump and I can run fast like a sprinter. Sally and I also share in common jumping and both love to do it!  I think I could also be Gigi Hadid as I love modelling.  Gigi has the whole "goals" look going on and I believe I could pull off going down the runway of a fashion show and modelling brands.

Last weekend was the 6th competition in a row for BK and I.  Ssshh, don’t tell my husband - I tend to spring them on him late in the week hoping he has forgotten the week before. Of the 6 we competed in we won 2, came second in one, came fifth in another, and of the two in which we had to jump in we hung out in the double figures experimenting with all sorts of crowd pleasers like dropped rails and refusals at the last jump. BK did however try extremely hard in the jumping comps and I believe is getting marginally better. I have high hopes of blending into the majority of SJ competitors who know what they are doing in the short to medium term future.

Our first win was at the Wandin Adult Riding Dressage Day. BK performed a lovely couple of tests and we were surprised to find ourselves being called over the loud speaker.  Upon presenting to the secretary we found that they had no record of one of our tests!  Despite our inner beauty BK’s general brown-ness can see us blend into the crowd and we seem to have been slightly unmemorable. Mental note to investigate fluoro coloured saddle blankets and experiment with original ways of presenting to the judge (high 5’s perhaps??). Anyway, luckily we had a video of the test which helped to sort out any confusion.

The next weekend we had our Top Teams combined training.  One member down increased the pressure on our ability to get around the show jumping as our score would have to be counted for the team. A good dressage test had us near the top of the leaderboard and clear SJ rounds from our other team members before me meant that as a team we were doing ok. There were a few scary jumps and we were jumping indoor too. BK bravely tackled all sorts of unfamiliar objects after some careful training at home with our own brick wall. Though unfortunately he knocked a white plank, relegating us to double figures and the team to 15th overall.

I like swimming and I like riding, so our last event last Sunday gave me an opportunity to do both at once! I also do some running (at least as far as running late), so I am pretty much a triathlete. We battled some soggy weather in Melbourne to nab our first EA win!  A number of combinations less equipped to deal with the cold than my hardy ACT bred horse stayed at home in bed or in front of the fire, lessening the field size which may have been a contributing factor to our success. BK already thinks I am deranged for the strange things I do to his hair, so he only gave a small sigh when I pulled him out of his paddock between thunder rolls to head to the competition. Someone (a fiendish competitor perhaps?) had attempted a bit of a Tonya Harding and had erected a tyre near the arena. BK was petrified that I had left my senses and had not only decided to ride him in a storm but attempt to event him in said storm.  When we passed the tyre without attempting to jump it he was so thankful he repaid me with a good dressage test. His warm up for our second test involved standing in a stable away from torrential rain aghast with fear at the parked tractor in front of us.