jewelry around horses... what holds up best?

[lilblackhorse]

I don’t take them off, my knuckles are too big, and I would lose them if they were off my fingers.

My engagement ring was a lovely 1 carat diamond solitare…the prongs are thinning, as it is old, and it sticks up too high for my comfort. It lives in the safe deposit box.

Then I had a wedding ring made…channel set, but I should have complained that he set the baguette wrong. I was supposed to be recessed as well. Who knew you could break diamonds? Well, I did-I chipped the sides of the baguette–it now lives in the bank too. I have now officially given up on a nice sparkly ring…

I can’t have anything that sticks up at all (I’m with etbw on this)…Mine fill with horse feed, dirt, you name it. Plus the glove issue is a problem. I have now settled on a silver band I bought in 1980 in a surf shop in australia, and another cheap silver band I found at a ferry port in Vancouver BC…On my right hand I actually wear my anniversary band, which is a platinum band from Ireland…it has lovely celtic knotwork and claddagh designs.

I am just too abusive for nice jewelery-I wear the same pair of earrings that I have for the last 20 years (I changed them for the wedding day)…my watches are Timexes bought on sale and strewn throughout the house. I have three I think, so I can always find one. They have cloth bands and seem to be waterproof and shockproof.

I looked at lovely channel set claddagh rings at a shop in Portland this weekend, but sighed and knew I would wreck those too. I have good taste, but am just too hard on my hands)

The gene pool could use a little chlorine.

[gwen]

The hubby got my ring in platinum set low with baguettes on the side of my solitaire and i wear it every day and have NEVER had a problem with it. My band is a channel set band in platinum as well always wear that too!!! They do get in the way when I ride and I get blisters but I always forget to take them off.

He knew to set it low because I am a clutz!!

BARB*

[Blinky]

Insurance-YES! A “rider” for jewelry isn’t that expensive.

I personally find cleaning stalls to be very theraputic. Nothing like seeing immediate results .

[commodore]

By the way, it doesn’t look that big–I definitely am not going for the dripping-in-jewelry look and I could never stand the tacky, fur-clad, diamond-covered horse show moms that I would see at Washington or teh National, who ONLY came to those shows and had never pet a horse in their lives. My ring is just simple and beautiful and not distasteful at all, IMO.

[Silly_Mommy]

sits in the box with my “REAL” engagement ring. They come out to play once a year or so.

Hubby bought me a “plain” wedding band for our first anniversary - it’s soooo worn!

BREATHE!!! Oxygen is a good thing!

[Pixie_Dust]

Hehee, Commadore, that’s what I was meant!!

[kt]

I can’t believe no one has mentioned this yet… (oops Laurie B beat me to it)

I promise I am not trying to be rude, but do you know how dangerous it is to wear rings around horses? I have heard countless horror stories of people getting their fingers ripped clean off from incidents (even with quiet horses) that happen so quickly you wouldn’t believe it. I love my wedding band, engagement ring, earrings, and bracelet but I don’t do anything with the horses until I take them off. Things just happen too quickly. My husband is a police officer, and as much as I would like the world to know he is MARRIED ( ) while he is working, we would both much rather he have his ring finger at the end of his shift, so he doesn’t wear his when he works. Freak accidents happen WAY too easy. Just my opinion though.

---

The hardest to learn was the least complicated.

[Kestrel]

EqChick, think of a round stone with metal surrounding it all the way around. It protects the thin edge of the stone called the bezel, where the top and bottom halves of the stone meet.

[_jazmataz]

My endurance riding friend rides hundred mile races regularly, and has quite the ring. Not that it has a huge 3 carat diamond or anything, it has 4 smaller diamonds but they are set quite high, sort of assymetrically. I think her ring is neat because each diamond is set at the top of a “tube” of gold and her husband had it designed this way so that the diamonds are protected and don’t catch. She never takes it off and believe me she gets her hands dirty at the barn, self-boarding her horses.

[Blinky]

I take off my engagement ring and only wear my wedding band while at the barn for several reasons. I’d freak if I lost the diamond (it is after all sentimental) and it snags on gloves and manes. I went with the nice solitare, 1.5k, surrounded by other diamonds and a very plain,thin wedding band. I keep the band on and have had no problem. But-I’m the type that shows up at the barn sans makeup, no jewlery and old clothes. Not the type that looks like they are going to Saks after they ride. I can’t stay that clean!

[commodore]

Not to sound snotty, but that is what I’m saying (reread post)–I don’t clean out stalls, I don’t do any “heavy lifting,” all I do is ride (and groom when I can, b/c I love the horseys) so I am not taht concerned about injuring myself with a small rock, even if it is 3 carats.

[CluesGirl]

…a completely recessed 5-carat (YES - 5 CARAT) solitaire. It is absolutely gorgeous. She ponies and exercised racehorses, plus grooms and mucks and …you get the picture!

She has a thick white gold band (wide and tall off her finger) with a square cut perfect massive diamond set down into it. You never have to worry about prongs being bent, etc. but it is hard to clean between the diamond and the band.

Funny thing (well, funny now after 8 years) … her husband was my boyfriend through high school. Damn, that would’ve looked nice on my finger.

If you’re a cowboy and you’re dragging a guy behind your horse, I bet it would really make you mad if you looked back and the guy was reading a magazine.
–Jack Handy, Deep Thoughts

[hobson]

<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>
So am I the only married woman in the country that doesn’t wear a wedding ring? Anyone have any barn friendly marriage symbol ideas - it’s not like I have any regrets being married or anything - my SO is a wonderful husband!
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Don’t worry, you’re not alone! Mr Hobson and I don’t even have rings-- engagement, wedding or otherwise. I don’t like wearing rings very much or often, and he does even less. We also didn’t like the popular symbolism of the rings. Our “barn-friendly” solution was to buy a 2-year-old not-yet-to-the-track thoroughbred instead. Our 16.1 hand hairy chestnut icon of love.

[katarine]

It only comes off when I scuba - otherwise I wear it.

It’s white gold, so iodine will stain it -eek the first time I forgot that! But, I had it plated with something ( starts with an R- sorry!) and it’s shiny and happy. There’s simply no way for it to ‘hang’ on anything…which is why I chose it.

My husband is an electrical contractor, so he doesn’t wear one. I need him alive more than I need the world to know he’s married

[Heather]

I wear my wedding ring when going out to a social occaision, or to run errands, but I don’t wear it to walk around the house, work (in the house) and I’ve never worn it in to the barn except for a quick, throw-the-boys-some-hay type errand. I don’t want it dirty, lost, scratched, broken, nor do I want to have my finger surgically re-attached which happened to a former barn mate of mine when she fell off and the reins became entangled in her ring (she was wearing gloves, so the finger was savable, though completely pulled off.)

It just wouldn’t occur to me to wear it to the barn or around the house or anything–my horses don’t care I’m married, LOL.

[Everythingbutwings]

My jewelry (bgoosewood, it came from his years in the pawn business, the evidence of many failed relationships ) is usually covered in horse spit, sweat and wormer.

Whenever he gifted me with the latest “OH S**T, it’s her birthday!” present, my usual response was “How many board feet of fence, bales of hay, etc, can I get for this one?”

I lost a marquise saphire surrounded by tiny diamonds under a new round bale in the snow one winter. He located it the following spring with a metal detector.

Sticky-up settings will RUIN your lovely riding gloves.

Leave the good stuff at home or string it on a chain and tuck it under your shirt. How sentimental will it be when you have no finger to show it off on? (Or, if you are lucky like me, you just plain lose the jewelry somewhere in the field?)

Friendship is Love without his wings
-Lord Byron

[SophieGirl23]

I will never wear my ring while I’m at the barn again. A little over a year ago I was cleaning the barn. We had to go up a fairly steep ramp to dump into the manure spreader. It was raining and I slipped. I smashed my finger when I fell and broke it. I was wearing my engagement ring and was not able to get it off. My finger swelled to several times it’s normal size and I ended up having to get it cut off. That was not fun. Now, I wear it all day unless I’m at the barn. When I get there, I take it off put it in it’s “special place” do what I need to do and then I put it back on. I haven’t lost it, I haven’t ruined it, and hopefully I won’t have to get another one cut off.

[Pixie_Dust]

People with 3 carrat diamond rings should not be cleaning out stalls…kind of like driving a Jaguar and living in a one bedroom bungalow.

Lettin’ the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin’ it back- A Cowboy’s Guide to Life

[Kestrel]

Any full service jeweler should be able to polish either platinum or titanium jewelry. Onyx is a pretty durable stone so it is well-suited to class rings, etc.
How fragile a stone really is depends on the type and number of inclusions (flaws) in the stone. Little included crystals don’t effect durability as much as fractures or cleavages. If you’re going to mount the stone in a prong head, go with the highest quality stone (clarity) you can, and pick one with crystals over cleavages.
Even though I’ve been in the trade, my engagement ring stone is quite small. I hang all the big stuff around my neck or on my ears, and save it for occasions when “Power Jewelry” seems to be in order. I’m too afraid I’ll lose my tennis bracelet to wear it riding, and spent hours searching for someone’s bracelet in the schooling area at Bend this summer. (Their footing is now much more valuable).

[flypony74]

My engagement ring has an 18k band with four platinum prongs, and after two years mucking stalls, throwing hay, fixing fence, etc, my rock is still tight and beautiful. The band has some tiny surface scratches, but almost any metal will scratch when subjected to an active person, and the jeweler can “refurbish” it…somehow they polish it and remove the scratches. My rock is about 1/2 carat (I wanted QUALITY, not QUANTITY…and I have tiny hands too) and is a simple Cathedral setting. It is somewhat raised, which took some getting used to, but now I’m used to it (I previously didn;t wear ANY jewelry). I really like it a lot.

My jeweler has a warranty with regards to losing your stone. As long as I have my prongs checked every six months (I have a card that I take and they fill out), if my rock falls out, they will replace the diamond for free. It is also covered under our homeowners insurance.

The main thing, don’t worry about getting something HUGE, because it will just get in your way, not to mention being expensive. Go for something of high quality, and go with a size and setting that compliments your features. My best advice, go try on some rings. You’ll feel goofy at first (I did!), but you’ll have a better idea of what you like.

“Dream as if you’ll live forever, and live as if you’ll die tomorrow.” – James Dean