Thoughts on Leg Protection

Izzy has approved this message.

Since my review of the Eskadron Climatex Wraps, we've had a little discussion about the appropriate use of leg protection and it's application. I figured that I might as well discuss my theory and practice on that topic instead of summarize another stirrupless dressage ride (although I did have my best sitting trot ever!!).

I see leg protection as specific to an individual horse. In my case, I'm dealing with a mature-bodied diva mare who really doesn't interfere much under normal circumstances. Since she is a horse, normal circumstances involve standing in the pasture, moving around the pasture, and eating a lot of the pasture.

Thus, when I ride her and she is standing around, eating, and moving in a generally straight direction, I see precious little need to boot or wrap.

However, not all of our rides are trail rides.

I believe in leg protection for rides on which I'm asking her to do something new or difficult that would increase her chance of injuring herself. In addition, I always weigh the risk of leg protection gear vs the risk of bare legs.

For example, Izzy is pretty new to the whole trail thing, which would qualify us for leg protection EXCEPT that I think the risk of heat buildup and sand/weeds accumulating under the boots and rubbing her is greater than the risk of the occasional misplaced hoof.

When we had our absolutely fabulous dressage ride on Saturday, I had her wrapped all around. I knew that we were going to be going at a much faster clip than usual, and with the addition of lateral movements, I wanted that extra bit of protection.

I always boot for jumping. I use open fronts so that she can feel the rail if she knocks if, but if anything else knocks her, she should have protection. When doing grid work or cross country, I will boot all around. If we're just jumping single fences, I see front boots as plenty.

All that is held in the balance with the current weather. I live in Idaho, and it is warm in the summer time. Heat build up is a major risk for soft tissue injuries, so I always weigh the risk of that versus the risk of the activity we are doing. Generally, I'm more worried about heat than an occasional knock. Then there's winter. We get that here, albeit a lot less than most of you. That means that I switch almost entirely from wraps to boots, because my fingers are too cold to wrap properly, and an improper wrap is definitely worse than no wrap at all.

In case you're looking for product recommendations, here are mine:

Eskadron Climatex, obviously. Best hot weather polos on the market.

Classic Equine 3DX Bell Boots. The high neck gives gives extra protection and they are sized for actual horses, so they fit Izzy.

Roma Open Front Boots. They're cheap, they look good, they fit Izzy. I actually had Eskadrons here and sold them because I just didn't care for them.

Tack of the Day dressage boots. Don't have a link because they're only periodically available, but they cost $20, look like the more expensive models, hold up well, and are easy to clean.

PSA: If you do not know how to wrap, just don't do it. Boots are easier and safer.

So... thoughts? Agree? Disagree?

Things to Think About

I'm taking the plunge and buying something for myself today. I go through breeches at an incredible pace. I always have. I have a friend who patches them up for me, but even that's getting expensive. I asked Cathy about the durability of the more expensive breeches, and she gave me a great little cheat secret: jeans. I know this sounds obvious, but I almost never wear jeans to the barn, except my nasty old pair that I muck in. I don't like how they feel in the saddle and they don't really bend well. She said that Fred Meyers carries a type that is pretty elastic and pretty cheap, and they last her quite a while. So, much as I hate shopping, off to Freddy's I go when I'm done at work.

Do you remember the bit experiment? (Sorry Shannon, I know it's not scientific at all.) I put Izzy in a loose ring KK to see if she liked it. Well, Sunday it was precipitating a lot, so we used my old bridle and the eggbutt french link. Guess what? She hated it. She has become a loose ring kinda girl. Oh well. Thankfully, Cathy still doesn't need the bit we're using, so I'm ok for now.

Our ride today was pretty darn good. The canter transitions are coming along. I feel like the more I clarify my aids and understand what I want, the easier it is to respond. We also did a lot of lengthen/shorten work in the trot. Have I mentioned that her lengthen is amazing? It's like flying. Ahhh... So good. We did a little bit of leg yielding. I like to keep her listening though, so we rarely just go down center line and leg yield to the rail. I prefer to start at the rail, leg yield to the middle, and then leg yield back to the rail. That way, Izzy is responding to my aids rather than just falling over.

So, do you think jeans and half chaps will look cool, since denim breeches are ridiculously expensive, or tacky, because they aren't real breeches?

Mon Dieu! Le cheval a de côté.

Yes, that's right. More French! This time, the horse went sideways. ;-)

Fortunately, the other morning cleaner showed up this morning, so I was off the hook (but I did have my muck boots). Instead, Cathy and I took our horses over to the neighbor's outdoor arena. Cathy did because her horse HATES the Doom Bubble, and the nieghbor's outdoor was relatively ok, despite all the rain. I did it because it's more fun to ride with other people, and hey, it's a new experience for Izzy and I.

Lunging was a mess. A nightmare, even. Izzy is still in a covered pen, so she doesn't get to stretch her legs a lot during the day. That means that if she has a day off, like yesterday, she is completely nuts when I get her out. Rearing, bucking, spinning, you name it, she did it. I can tell my confidence is improving, because it didn't bother me to watch her. I just waited until she was done, and then we went on.

When she'd had her fill of silliness, we mounted up. We did a lot of transitions through the halt to really get her listening to me. I need her to be able to focus on what I'm asking no matter where we are. And then, we did something we've never really done before: a leg yield. Yay! The horse went sideways!! More specifically, I focused on my body being correctly positioned to influence her, and I asked her to move her hips over more than her shoulders. It felt wonderful!

Then I had Cathy watch us, because I was so proud that we were doing something cool-ish. She had me do a small half-halt every time I asked Izzy to move over, to check her forward momentum. It did help, but it also confused Izzy at first. Poor pony. I also tried to incorporate a concept I heard about this summer; every time Izzy did something really well, I dropped to a walk and let her stretch and think about it. Good halt? Walk and stretch. Nice leg yield? Walk and stretch. If she focused on something outside the arena, I did pick her up immediately and go back to work. I wanted her attention on where we were. The breaks were only 10ish strides, but I want her to understand that she did something well.

The other change I tried to make was that I realized I need to keep better track of time. Iknow it takes me about an hour and forty-five minutes to groom, lunge, ride, cool out, and re-blanket, but I'm not sure what the time distribution is. I had my phone on me today to check the time, but I completely forgot to look at it. Oh well. Next time, I guess.

And here are some pictures of Izzy from earlier this summer. I should get some current ones, but she's all fuzzy...
This is back when everything was still white. I need to do some serious washing.
And this is her cute pony face. <3

Brand New Saddle

I would post a picture, but, typical of me, I forgot to bring anything like a camera out to the barn with me. Whoops.

Anyways, it came late Thursday night, exactly as described. It's an older Ansur KonKlusion, which is their eventing model. It's treeless, but it does have a gullet of sorts. The new model can be seen here: Here's a picture that the seller sent me:

It's a bit darker right now because I very thoroughly cleaned and oiled it last night before I went to bed. The scuff marks are mostly gone, but some things are just a part of an old saddle and that's why we love them. For those of you who are adamantly opposed to Ansur business practices, this one was actually made in the Peter's Tack era. (For the record: I am neither for nor against their business practices. I just like their saddles.)

It definitely feels different than the Classic I was riding. The Classic looks something like this. A Classic is basically a glorified bareback pad. There is no gullet. You sit on on (or into, I guess) the horse. Horses for the most part seem to really like them. I guess I'm so used to it that I didn't really think about gullets and spine clearance on Ansurs. Here's a picture of my best friend riding Cassie in a Classic:

It was one of Cassie's first rides this spring and my friend hadn't been on in over a year, so they look pretty good considering. The KonKlusion (or KK) has a seat to it and almost a twist. Maybe the newer models do have a twist; I'm not wealthy enough to find out. It's a bit more secure feeling than the Classic, but it sure was different.

At any rate, I'm unfamiliar with gulleted but treeless saddles. When I put the new one on Izzy this morning, it looked like the pommel was going to rub her, so I put a little wedge pad underneath it. That kept the pommel off her withers, but after I'd ridden for a while, the gullet was right down on her. So... I don't know. It wasn't hurting or pinching, because her head goes straight up in the air when something hurts. All Ansur saddles are built on the same basic Flex Core, and the Classic sits on the horse's back directly, so maybe it's ok? Still, it seems like a gulleted saddle ought to have gullet clearance.

If that's true, there are various pads made specifically for this purpose. They're kind of spendy, but maybe I can find one used. You'd be surprised what a little dedicated searching can turn up. ;-) Still, if it's not bothering her, is it a problem? I don't know.

In other training news, the weather changed this weekend while I was gone. That always gets the horses a little excited, and as such, Izzy was pretty distracted when I was riding her. When I asked her to move off my left leg and she wouldn't and then I made her, she threw a fit, complete with a nice buck and a lunge forward. After that, we finished out the day by doing lots of bending left and right with little leg yields. We didn't canter because I want to know more about the saddle issue before going much further.

She's a Princess in Her Own Mind

Keeping in mind the advice about lengthening attention spans, I decided to work Miss Izzy a little harder today. We've had several days in a row where I got on and she was so good that after about 10 minutes I just got off again. While I definitely believe those days are a part of training, so are the days where we ride for longer than that. Besides, I'm leaving tomorrow morning to be out of town for three days, so she'll get a nice break.

My plan for the day was something like: get her stretching and bending in the warm up. Do some big trot circles to get her going forward. Work on trot/walk/trot transitions. Work on trot/canter/trot transitions. Do a little turn on the forehand/turn on the haunches, and then finish up with some nice walk trot transitions so she doesn't think she's done after she canters. While executing this plan, I wanted to work on remaining loose and supple in my body, because I know that my stiffness will make her stiff and resistant. (See? We're finally incorporating some dressage principles.)

Sounds reasonable, right?

It ended up being a pretty hard workout, but we did pretty much stick to the plan. However, there are things that Izzy has been doing that I've been letting her get away with. Today, I decided that it's not ok anymore if she just wants to run straight through her shoulder. She does need to respect/listen to my leg and seat rather than just try to lean on my hands. She did not think those things were nearly as important as I did. Our transitions weren't as pretty as they've been other days, but by the end of the ride, she was doing them. We did a lot of exaggerated bend/counterbend type stuff, with a little leg yielding to get her to pay attention to my legs. I think I'll be sore tomorrow and I'm sure she'll appreciate the day off, but I'm glad we did what we did. I want her to actually start listening to me now.

And my saddle is supposed to come today. I'm pretty psyched.