Finally, maybe

First things first, let’s discuss the contest Hillary is having on her blog, Equestrian at Hart. As soon as I read the title of her post, I got excited. I had recently read about Higher Standards Leather Care on COTH, and was feeling tempted to put it on my Christmas list. While I do have a fair amount of tack, I know that Hillary has one horse and more bridles than I do with two, so she is a good tester!

I’m always in search of a great leather cleaning and conditioning product. I do like Mad Cow Leather Care the best of the items I have currently. It leaves my tack soft and grippy. It works great on my bridles and Pessoa saddle, but for some reason my Butet runs so dry that I often end up adding a coat of oil or the Beval Akene conditioner afterwards. I would love to find something that could remove a step! I would love to try either Starla’s Sugar & Spice or Phinney’s Cinnamint, they both sound like they would smell awesome.

If anyone has suggestions for other leather care items to try I would also love to hear them!

In other potentially exciting news, I have purchased a saddle on trial. Really crossing my fingers that this one will work out and I won’t have to be in a constant fight with the saddle when I ride P! I don’t want to get into details and jinx myself, so I will provide more details after it gets to me in the next week or so.

Mr P in the field last Friday

Stampede was great for his Sunday lunge, although he was fairly lazy. Sometimes I have to actually touch him on the butt with my whip. He will scoot forward for a few steps then resume a normal trot. Silly pony.

Rode Mr. P bareback last night so I could stay warm. The snow was falling (why in November?) and I should have worn another layer under my breeches. I worked on convincing P he doesn’t know what I’m going to do next, since he likes to anticipate. Once you canter one direction he is certain that you are going to ask for it in the second direction. This comes from the fact that most times I trot both ways before I canter so he is more warmed up. If you trot after you canter he is certain you are going to ask for canter again any second so he wants to go fast. P is also pretty sure that if you cross the diagonal he better change leads too. He will do anything you ask, but you may spend some time convincing him it’s not what he thinks you want.

On the positive side, P is always read to take instruction because he pays attention to what we are doing, even if he may become over-excited about it. When we used to compete, he would land on his leads 95% of the time, all on his own.  His ability to think ahead is helpful in a lot of ways, but sometimes it reduces his rideability since he’s so convinced he knows what’s coming.

Stampede on the other hand never anticipates anything. He never gets quick at the trot coming from a downward transition and he will hold a counter canter across the diagonal or change leads based on my signal. On the other hand, you may ask for a canter on the flat and he will have those few seconds where the signal has to go from his side to his brain and down to his legs (long distance 🙂 ). Unless Stampede is showing or mad at me for missing the distance at a previous jump (oops! I usually get two tries…) he pretty much just lopes along like a hunter pony. Plus he has the big stride that makes the lines easy.

Funny how different my boys are. 🙂