Keeping Up with your Tack!

Merry Christmas to Everyone! Hope you and your four-legged friend(s) enjoyed the holidays. Ruby got plenty of presents, including cookies, that she almost didn't get after this lesson...

"Do you have any duct tape?"

Connie set up the following exercise for me for this week

     oo                       oo                      oo

I did not get any pictures of this lesson (unfortunately) but I am going to try to describe in words how this worked:

The jumps were set up in a line in the middle of the ring. This is essentially nothing more than a serpentine: approach the first jump to the far left (the one near the gate of the ring in my case), come down the jump, make a half circle to go up the jump in the middle, make another half circle, and come down the last jump to the far right (the far end of the ring for me). To switch things up, make serpentines and circles with this exercise- this can be done going either direction. Seems simple right? With a fit and limber horse, yes. With a tight, out-of-shape, airhead -no.

I anticipated Ruby running out on me the first time we went over this simply because she did it to me last week over the first obstacle. Sometimes, however, the anticipation is what gets you in trouble. Anyway, here is what happened: "trot, trot, trot, HOLYSHITthereISsomethingTHERE!"

In this case, I can't blame Ruby too much for what happened- she simply was not paying any attention whatsoever to what I was asking her to do. It almost seemed like she was off in Rubyland and was startled by the fact that there was a pole in front of her. Unlike last week where she slammed on the brakes and ran out just to be an ass, she saw this jump and had a heart attack...and jumped 6 feet to the left. Unfortunately, I did not go with her (at least I did manage to land on my feet!).
     For those who are wondering, I fell off, held onto my reins, and talked to her until she calmed down. I then stepped away from her, asked her to come toward me, patted her head, asked her to back up (I did this a few times just to make sure she was entirely focused and listening to me), and then led her over the jump at the trot. With Ruby, it is very important that I get her to focus on me as soon as I can when she spooks (and her IQ hits 0). I got back on her (Connie went to my car and grabbed some electrical tape I had in there), taped my reins back up, and finished the lesson with no more issues.

Worst part of the lesson: through the process of having a meltdown and trying to calm her down, my reins snapped in half. Why? Oh yeah, because I hate cleaning tack and they were nice and dry. As much of a hassle as it can be, keep up with your tack! There are many different brands of saddle soap, oils, and conditioners. Some riders will clean their tack after every ride. Although this might be a good idea, I realistically will only clean my tack once a month or so. As far as oils go, I highly recommend Neatsfoot oil. For saddle soap and conditioner, I have always used Oakwood Saddle Soap and Conditioner. It cleans, hydrates, and conditions the leather without leaving any sort of residue, so you ride on the saddle after cleaning without worrying about ruining your breeches. The conditioner also makes the leather more supple, and has actually helped with areas that were already drying out or cracked.

My new reins are in the mail.