My new saddle blanket came! And OMG, it's HUGE! I know, I know, I ordered the double blanket on purpose, but it's bigger than I thought it'd be. Opening the package was like unwrapping a rug to use on my floor. "I'm going to put this monstrosity on my horse?!" Yes, yes I am.
And I did. And it looked ridiculous. It sat like a weird wool tent on my horse's back. Oh no! It doesn't fit! Then I remembered that, duh, you have to break in new blankets. Whoops! Silly me. It still looked pretty big, though.
I saddled up anyway with my English saddle and went for a ride. A short ride, and a slow ride, as my back has not been happy recently. Cherry seemed perfectly happy in her tack, and the saddle blanket didn't seem to bother her at all, despite running all the way from withers to rump (I told you it was huge).
The saddle also seemed to fit better with the blanket. Before it felt like I was being tipped to the back of the saddle, but with the new blanket I felt centered and like I was sitting where I should be in the seat.
Oh, and it's PRETTY! The pattern is awesome, and the colors are great. The light tan matches my girth, the brown matches my saddle, the black matches my bridle, and the sage green doesn't clash with my teal stuff. Great success!
I did discover the reason the damn thing is so big. It's the oversize model! Not just double, but oversized double. Ohhhhhhh. Of course, I made this discovery AFTER I rode in it. Of course I did. Instead of 32X64, its 36X68. No wonder it looks so damn huge. It IS huge. There must have been a mix-up at the company, but it's too late to do anything about it now. It's hairy and sweaty and mine. That's okay though, I don't think I would have been as happy with a smaller blanket, but time will tell.
Maybe I'll use it as a rug if it doesn't work out as a saddle blanket.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Made a Decision, Sort Of
I've made up my mind on the whole boarding situation, at least for the time being. If something comes up or changes, I'll have to rethink it.
I've decided to stay where I am. For now. Cherry is well fed, well cared for, and I know she's looked after when I'm out of town. These are important things for me, and at the moment they are worth paying for. Especially now, with winter coming.
Winter is when things blow up around here, boarding stable-wise. There have been other barns in the area who've run out of hay, had roofs collapse under a snow cover, not fed enough, not bothered to provide unfrozen water, etc. Those things haven't happened here for the last three winters, and it freaks me out to think that I'd move and then be screwed.
If I moved now, right now, I'd only have a month, perhaps two, to regularly ride. I'm not sure if that's worth the hassle. If it was June, that might be different, but it's September. It'll probably start snowing in November, and due to plenty of hills and a crappy 2WD truck, I can't always get around so good once the snows hit.
So I think I'm going to maintain the status quo for a bit longer. Cherry is not suffering, so there's no need to rush. It's just me that's depressed over the lack of places to go. I'm just going to have to suck it up and deal.
If I continue to take care of Cherry, it's quite likely that she's got several years of riding left in her. No need to be hasty, 6 months isn't really that long in the grand scheme of things.
I've decided to stay where I am. For now. Cherry is well fed, well cared for, and I know she's looked after when I'm out of town. These are important things for me, and at the moment they are worth paying for. Especially now, with winter coming.
Winter is when things blow up around here, boarding stable-wise. There have been other barns in the area who've run out of hay, had roofs collapse under a snow cover, not fed enough, not bothered to provide unfrozen water, etc. Those things haven't happened here for the last three winters, and it freaks me out to think that I'd move and then be screwed.
If I moved now, right now, I'd only have a month, perhaps two, to regularly ride. I'm not sure if that's worth the hassle. If it was June, that might be different, but it's September. It'll probably start snowing in November, and due to plenty of hills and a crappy 2WD truck, I can't always get around so good once the snows hit.
So I think I'm going to maintain the status quo for a bit longer. Cherry is not suffering, so there's no need to rush. It's just me that's depressed over the lack of places to go. I'm just going to have to suck it up and deal.
If I continue to take care of Cherry, it's quite likely that she's got several years of riding left in her. No need to be hasty, 6 months isn't really that long in the grand scheme of things.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
My Girth Smells Like Goat and Other Random Musings
I got my new girth! And it smells like goat. No joke. I opened the box and was like, "WTF is that smell?! Oh geez, it's the girth!" I supposed I shouldn't be surprised. It is 100% mohair, and mohair comes from goats. Just wasn't expecting to get a whiff of that.
Needless to say, the cat was thrilled and spent several minutes huffing the heady scent of goat BO. I guess that's how you know it's authentic!
Yesterday I trimmed Cherry, and today I'm soooooooooooooooore. There aren't enough o's to express how sore I am. My buns and thighs are sore from holding up her damn feet, my arms are sore from rasping, and my sides and abs are sore from who knows what. Just being alive, I guess. Sitting on anything hard, including the toilet seat and my saddle, just reminds me of how much I freaking hurt. If I had a bathtub that wasn't made for midgets, I'd have a soak, but since approximately 1/3 of me fits in the tub and submerged in water at any given time, I'm going to pass on that.
Oh, my finger hurts too from where I hacked it with the hoof knife. You know, before I got smart and put on my gloves. I'm such an idiot sometimes.
Today's ride did not help my soreness. Cherry thought it would be awesome to lug on my arms. Greaaaaaaaaat. They don't already hurt enough, please lean your gigantic head on them! Let me carry you, it's no trouble at all! You only weigh a goddam ton. Freaking horse.
The good news is that she's not sore at all from yesterday's adventures, and really wanted to careen around the field at Mach 10 after she warmed up and quit lugging on me. With her head in the air of course. Why not? After all, if I'm sore and tired I can't really make her work properly. Wheeee!!!!!!! And of course Energizer Pony just wanted to keep going and going and going and going.........
Ha! That reminds me. Cherry's nickname used to be the Energizer Bunny.Because she just keeps going. Forever. She'd be all tired out on the trail, we'd walk and rest for like, 5 minutes and then she'd be ready to go again! Now she needs to rest for more like 15 to 20 minutes, but it's still nigh on impossible to tire her out.
Damn Arabs. Gotta love 'em, though! Now if only I could get me some of that, we'd be in good shape.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Trim #3: Great Success!
I might even be brave enough to post pictures this time.
Today was trim #3 for Cherry and me. I must say, today's trim went MUCH smoother and easier than the last two. Possibly because I didn't have to use the nippers and was able to rasp, scrape, and cut everything. It took 1.5 hours start to finish, and pony is sounder and moving even better than ever. Hooray!
I made some changes in my method this time around. Like I said, I didn't use the nippers, I only used the rasp and hoof knife. It's rained a little here recently, so Cherry's feet have softened up a tad, which made it possible for me to use the hoof knife.
I started by scraping away all the chalky sole with the knife. While doing this, I also cut away a bit of the frogs. They were sloughing off a layer, and I helped them along and scraped out a bit of fungus too. As I removed the chalky sole, I noticed that the bars of her hooves were way too long and starting to fold over.
Carefully I cut away some of the bars, and found underneath them a TON of nasty, chalky sole just begging to come out. Smelled lovely, let me tell you! Once I got the worst of the folded bar trimmed away, I finished scraping out the sole.
Sole scraped, bars trimmed a little and frog trimmed, I started on the hoof wall. I rasped it at a 45 degree angle to the plane of the sole. In the areas where the white line is still stretched I rasped it all the way down to the sole so no hoof wall contacted the ground there. This will give the lamina a chance to grow in tight without being pulled apart as the flare grows out. Where the white line was tight, I rasped only to the water line, or halfway to the sole.
The heels were next. Rasped one and then the other. Before I'd tried to do them at the same time, rasping across, but that didn't work out so well. Much easier to do one and then do the other to match it!
After that, I put her hoof up on the stand and smoothed the outside of the beveled edge I'd previously made with my 45 degree angle rasping. I didn't file the outside of her hoof wall any more than that. Just smoothed the edge of the mustang role.
Last time I filed too high up the outside of the hoof wall. She didn't go lame, but she lost a bit of the concavity that was forming and didn't improve on the gravel at all. So I learned, and this time only filed about 1/2" up, and only enough to smooth that edge.
I must say, this is the best her feet have looked in a LONG time! I'm SO HAPPY with the results of this trim. I think I'm really starting to get a feel for what I'm doing. There's much to learn yet, but this is the first trim I feel really good about.
Great success!!!!!
Today was trim #3 for Cherry and me. I must say, today's trim went MUCH smoother and easier than the last two. Possibly because I didn't have to use the nippers and was able to rasp, scrape, and cut everything. It took 1.5 hours start to finish, and pony is sounder and moving even better than ever. Hooray!
I made some changes in my method this time around. Like I said, I didn't use the nippers, I only used the rasp and hoof knife. It's rained a little here recently, so Cherry's feet have softened up a tad, which made it possible for me to use the hoof knife.
I started by scraping away all the chalky sole with the knife. While doing this, I also cut away a bit of the frogs. They were sloughing off a layer, and I helped them along and scraped out a bit of fungus too. As I removed the chalky sole, I noticed that the bars of her hooves were way too long and starting to fold over.
Carefully I cut away some of the bars, and found underneath them a TON of nasty, chalky sole just begging to come out. Smelled lovely, let me tell you! Once I got the worst of the folded bar trimmed away, I finished scraping out the sole.
Sole scraped, bars trimmed a little and frog trimmed, I started on the hoof wall. I rasped it at a 45 degree angle to the plane of the sole. In the areas where the white line is still stretched I rasped it all the way down to the sole so no hoof wall contacted the ground there. This will give the lamina a chance to grow in tight without being pulled apart as the flare grows out. Where the white line was tight, I rasped only to the water line, or halfway to the sole.
The heels were next. Rasped one and then the other. Before I'd tried to do them at the same time, rasping across, but that didn't work out so well. Much easier to do one and then do the other to match it!
After that, I put her hoof up on the stand and smoothed the outside of the beveled edge I'd previously made with my 45 degree angle rasping. I didn't file the outside of her hoof wall any more than that. Just smoothed the edge of the mustang role.
Last time I filed too high up the outside of the hoof wall. She didn't go lame, but she lost a bit of the concavity that was forming and didn't improve on the gravel at all. So I learned, and this time only filed about 1/2" up, and only enough to smooth that edge.
I must say, this is the best her feet have looked in a LONG time! I'm SO HAPPY with the results of this trim. I think I'm really starting to get a feel for what I'm doing. There's much to learn yet, but this is the first trim I feel really good about.
Great success!!!!!
Breeches...........Are Not My Friend
I've come to the possibly somewhat premature conclusion that full seat breeches are not for me.
I've tried two pairs so far. The first one, Irideons, didn't even come close to fitting me. I swear they mislabeled an XS as an XL. I got them on alright, but they were painfully tight. Sent those suckers back!
Then I tried a pair of TuffRiders. The "full figured" version, which I ordered in tall. Tall? Ha! Tall my ass! I shudder to think what the regular ones looked like. These ones actually fit in the thigh and butt area, but the legs were soooo short! My socks barely covered the bottom. So I decided to try riding in them.
Well, first I had to get used to simply walking in them! That was a strange sensation, and I'm not sure I liked it very much. I bought them to ride in, not wander around in, so on to the riding test.
I must say that I LOVED how they felt in the saddle! Initially, anyway. Being gently "held" in place was AMAZING! I could really get used to that, which might not be a good thing. At the walk, all was well.
When we moved on to rising trot, though, things weren't so lovely. I'm used to my pants being more at one with me than my saddle, and I did not enjoy the fact that my breeches were hesitant to follow my ass as I posted. I felt like I was posting inside the breeches. Ugh! The seams also started to chafe my butt towards the end of the ride. I want to feel my horse, not my pants.
They also weren't as stretchy as I'd like them to be. Obviously the full seat material won't stretch, but the breeches themselves can! Oh well, these apparently aren't the riding pants for me.
Since I rode in them and got hair hair and dirt on them, I can't send them back. So they're going to be my spare pair of breeches or my "riding a new horse" breeches.
Ugh. Still disappointing, though. My Kerrits are still my favorite riding pants, and I'm awaiting the arrival of another pair of them. I opted for the bootcut ones this time, which have been described as actually long (gasp!) and like riding in yoga pants, which is what I would do if they didn't wear out so damn fast. Fingers crossed that these fit!
I've tried two pairs so far. The first one, Irideons, didn't even come close to fitting me. I swear they mislabeled an XS as an XL. I got them on alright, but they were painfully tight. Sent those suckers back!
Then I tried a pair of TuffRiders. The "full figured" version, which I ordered in tall. Tall? Ha! Tall my ass! I shudder to think what the regular ones looked like. These ones actually fit in the thigh and butt area, but the legs were soooo short! My socks barely covered the bottom. So I decided to try riding in them.
Well, first I had to get used to simply walking in them! That was a strange sensation, and I'm not sure I liked it very much. I bought them to ride in, not wander around in, so on to the riding test.
I must say that I LOVED how they felt in the saddle! Initially, anyway. Being gently "held" in place was AMAZING! I could really get used to that, which might not be a good thing. At the walk, all was well.
When we moved on to rising trot, though, things weren't so lovely. I'm used to my pants being more at one with me than my saddle, and I did not enjoy the fact that my breeches were hesitant to follow my ass as I posted. I felt like I was posting inside the breeches. Ugh! The seams also started to chafe my butt towards the end of the ride. I want to feel my horse, not my pants.
They also weren't as stretchy as I'd like them to be. Obviously the full seat material won't stretch, but the breeches themselves can! Oh well, these apparently aren't the riding pants for me.
Since I rode in them and got hair hair and dirt on them, I can't send them back. So they're going to be my spare pair of breeches or my "riding a new horse" breeches.
Ugh. Still disappointing, though. My Kerrits are still my favorite riding pants, and I'm awaiting the arrival of another pair of them. I opted for the bootcut ones this time, which have been described as actually long (gasp!) and like riding in yoga pants, which is what I would do if they didn't wear out so damn fast. Fingers crossed that these fit!
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Stretches and Hand Feeding
I've been doing "carrot stretches" with Cherry for a few months now, and I think it's helping her loosen her back and re-align herself a bit. She also loves it. I mean, it involves one of her favorite things in the whole wide world, FOOD and EATING. She's more than willing to reach around to her flank (and beyond!) for a cookie or bow for a carrot. If nothing else, it makes her happy, and I enjoy hearing her back and neck pop.
The one reservation I have with this exercise is the whole hand feeding issue. Especially in the bow, where I have a treat between her front legs, her teeth come perilously close to my fingers. One time she almost bit me. I know she wasn't trying to bite, she was just after the treat, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't have a hurt a whole lot.
This brings me to consider the whole hand feeding conundrum and how I'm such a raging hypocrite about it. I honestly believe that hand feeding treats to our horses can cause a lot of problems, but I do it myself. It's sad, I know. I do think that it can make them pushy, nippy, greedy bastards who will happily maul you for a cookie.
But Cherry doesn't do any of the above to me, so I think it's okay for me to hand feed her. Just me, nobody else. Because I'm special. And my horse is special. Oh dear.
I don't know how to reconcile this. I cringe when I hear or see others reap the negative consequences of hand feeding treats. Even Cherry got pushy about it after being at the riding school for two years and having her face constantly stuffed with carrots, apples, cookies, and whatever else the kids would bring. We had to have a "discussion" about it when we moved. As in, if she was a pushy brat, I would beat her sorry little butt. End of discussion.
Now she just resorts to looking cute and hoping to be fed. I'm ashamed to say that it occasionally works on me. I should know better by now.
But I'm still on the fence about hand feeding. I've seen hand feeding treats turn a horse into a monster. But I've also seen my own horse be perfectly sane about it. I don't hand feed other people's horses, and I don't encourage them to feed mine. But somehow I feel that I know my own horse so well, and I've been feeding her treats for such a long time, that it isn't a big deal.
I don't know. Cherry is such a mystery sometimes. Am I really that awesome or is my horse the amazing one who isn't a complete fuckup despite my idiocy? I'm leaning towards the latter, but I might be biased. Not something that's going to be resolved in the near future, that's for damn sure.
The one reservation I have with this exercise is the whole hand feeding issue. Especially in the bow, where I have a treat between her front legs, her teeth come perilously close to my fingers. One time she almost bit me. I know she wasn't trying to bite, she was just after the treat, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't have a hurt a whole lot.
This brings me to consider the whole hand feeding conundrum and how I'm such a raging hypocrite about it. I honestly believe that hand feeding treats to our horses can cause a lot of problems, but I do it myself. It's sad, I know. I do think that it can make them pushy, nippy, greedy bastards who will happily maul you for a cookie.
But Cherry doesn't do any of the above to me, so I think it's okay for me to hand feed her. Just me, nobody else. Because I'm special. And my horse is special. Oh dear.
I don't know how to reconcile this. I cringe when I hear or see others reap the negative consequences of hand feeding treats. Even Cherry got pushy about it after being at the riding school for two years and having her face constantly stuffed with carrots, apples, cookies, and whatever else the kids would bring. We had to have a "discussion" about it when we moved. As in, if she was a pushy brat, I would beat her sorry little butt. End of discussion.
Now she just resorts to looking cute and hoping to be fed. I'm ashamed to say that it occasionally works on me. I should know better by now.
But I'm still on the fence about hand feeding. I've seen hand feeding treats turn a horse into a monster. But I've also seen my own horse be perfectly sane about it. I don't hand feed other people's horses, and I don't encourage them to feed mine. But somehow I feel that I know my own horse so well, and I've been feeding her treats for such a long time, that it isn't a big deal.
I don't know. Cherry is such a mystery sometimes. Am I really that awesome or is my horse the amazing one who isn't a complete fuckup despite my idiocy? I'm leaning towards the latter, but I might be biased. Not something that's going to be resolved in the near future, that's for damn sure.
Best. Stuff. EVER!
OMG, I found my new favorite thing in the whole world. Passier Lederbalm.
It smells so freaking good! I opened the can today and just stood there smelling it. I even contemplated rubbing it on my skin like lotion so I could smell like it all day.
Do you think Passier would make this into a scented candle for me? Or a perfume perhaps? I would so buy it, even if they charged top dollar for it. Smells better than most of the designer perfumes that I've ever encountered!
My saddle is currently marinating in quite a liberal coating of the stuff. And it smells AWESOME! Then when I ride in it my butt will smell awesome and therefore I will smell awesome and and and AHHHHHHHHH!
Ahem, excuse me while I wipe the rabid foam from my chin. Ah, that's better.
Moving on. I'm hoping that not only will it help keep my saddle in good condition for many years to come, but it will also help solve the slick seat problem. I've heard that it leaves leather not exactly sticky per say, but not slick either. Anyway, I don't care anymore. I'll use it just for the amazing smell.
This stuff makes me want to clean my tack every single day, which is a feat in and of itself. I've literally gone months without even owning saddle soap.
Maybe I'll buy another can to keep at home so I can smell it when I'm not at the barn. Yes, I am strange.
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