Tuesday Schooling Rides

As I continue videoing routine rides on my horses, I lean closer and closer to getting a new phone just so I can upgrade the video quality.  My phone is several years and many versions older than what is currently available, and I'm seriously coveting the better images that can be captured with current models.  

In the meantime, here are my favorite stills from today's ride on Highboy.  No surprise his stretchy trot made me happy.

Even though the lighting isn't fabulous on this one, I love it because Highboy and Rizzo have their legs in nearly the exact same position in their strides.

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I do have yellow kinesiotape on Highboy's hamstrings, applied in such a way that the tape encourages his hamstrings to relax and lengthen, ideally helping him reach further forwards with a longer step especially using his right hind.  Unfortunately I didn't have him clean enough so the tape didn't stick for the whole ride.  When we were done I washed his haunches with soap and water to remove any oils from his hair, so tomorrow the tape should stick better.  I did feel a difference in him when the tape was sticking at the beginning of the ride, though.
This is the video for Highboy for today:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_FHT4CTHJI

I also rode Dewey this morning and this time I recorded his warmup.  He's not moving quite as well as he normally would, because I absentmindedly put on Raven's dressage girth instead of Dewey's.  He's a good sport and doesn't complain, he just doesn't move with quite as much spring in his step.  I didn't realize that was the issue until the end of the ride, when he turned his head around and bit at the girth straps, then gave me a pointed look.  I apologized to him, and made a mental note to use the girth he likes next time.  

Despite both being thoroughbreds with high withers and close in age, Dewey and Raven are shaped just enough differently through their chests and girth grooves that they have distinct preferences for girths.  Raven's girth is this one:

It has lots of stretch to it, with the elastic at the center and the sections of girth that expand.  I also have made a sheepskin liner that sits between the girth and her sensitive skin.  This girth allows her to take deep breaths and move more because of how much it expands, without rubbing or irritating her.   It's also shaped with a bit of a curve, which accommodates Raven's girth groove being more forward. 

Raven has a wide rib cage and a narrow chest, which creates a gap behind her elbow.  That is conveniently where the leather padded buckles rest against her sides but don't create any pressure.  Dewey doesn't like this girth because the buckles (though resting on leather padding) press into his sides since he doesn't have the same gap behind his elbow that Raven has.  

 This is the girth that Dewey prefers for dressage:

Dewey likes it better because there is even pressure across the whole thing, and no curve to its shape.  His girth groove lies directly below the saddle billets, so a shaped girth (like Raven's) kind of creeps forward between his front legs.  He also prefers the buckles to be completely covered with the fluffy sheepskin-like fabric so they don't touch his sides.  

They're small differences, but they significantly change how each girth feels to each horse.  I want them to perform at the best of their ability, so it's my responsibility to ensure that their equipment is exactly right. Thankfully Dewey is a forgiving sort so he didn't make a big fuss about me putting on the wrong girth today.  Raven is not so magnanimous and will create a big scene with rearing, kicking, and biting at me if I accidentally try to girth up with the wrong one.  She also won't let me get on if the girth is wrong.  So I give a nod to Dewey's gentle temperament, and make a note to myself to be sure I use the girth that fits him next time!

 

Here is the long-ish video of Dewey's warmup today.  If you look closely you can see that at the beginning of our trot work he stretches his head forwards and down, but does it tilting his ears right and his nose left.  He does this for about a half lap of the arena, and then straightens out.  I suspect it's because I have a bit in his mouth, and I've mostly been riding him in just a hackamore recently.  Once he acclimated to the sensation of the bit and realized I wasn't going to ride him any differently with the bit in his mouth than I do with the hackamore, he switched back to traveling normally.

His trot is also much better quality after his canter in the warmup.  This is because the canter is a gait that naturally gets the horse to lift and stretch his back, so after a good relaxed canter the back is much more supple when we return to the trot. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbIrsJ54ClA