This!

This is why equestrians have home gym equipment.... 

I'd rather not...

The other day I was cleaning and oiling my bridles. It is tough here in Houston to keep them looking nice unless they are kept inside. At the barn they are not. They end up dusty at best and fuzzy at worst.

As I was working on my English bridles I was thinking about this post. What is the one tack item you least enjoy cleaning? For me it is laced reins and almost all of my English bridles have them. Oh yippee! Heavy on the sarcasm there....

The reason I don't like cleaning laced reins is because the dust, crud and fuzz gets in under the lacing and is tough to get out. I will wipe mine down to keep them clean but for a deep cleaning, you have to get into all the nooks and crannies. Laced reins have a lot of them. It can be time consuming to do it right.

I wipe mine down as best I can to clean them off and then roll them up to fit in the bottom of a plastic container or tub and pour the neatsfoot oil over them. As I pull them out, unrolling as I go, I squeeze off the excess oil with my fingers and hang them up to 'dry'. If the leather is dry, it will soak up the oil quickly and may need another coat. Brand new leather may not dry completely and will require wiping down with a dry cloth. This may need to be done a few times until all of the excess oil comes out of the pores. For latigos on western saddles, they may 'leak' with each use as the leather is stretched a little to tighten the cinch.

Of course I don't do this often because it really isn't necessary and too much is not a good thing either, but when needed it is the quickest and easiest way to get the leather conditioned.

Another tack item I don't like cleaning is western saddles with excessive tooling. Hard PASS! Again the dust, dirt and crud gets in every nook and cranny and makes it a pain in the ass to clean. Honestly I will not buy a western saddle or even a breastcollar with a lot of tooling on it. The basket weave tooling is a little easier to clean but not much and can also be a pain. Back in the day at the Arab barns.... I can remember using a toothbrush on the show saddles to get the dust out of everything. Those saddles had tooling everywhere. Not my idea of a good time.

So which Tech items are your least favorite to clean and why?

Straightness

This pic was taken about 2 years ago. I was riding a young filly that was really coming along well in her training. As I said in my previous post, my posture In the saddle is not what needs the work. Out of the saddle is a different story.

When riding I have learned to sit up and look where I'm going. That didn't always happen. Lol I used to hunch over like I was carrying a football or something. This was worse when going to the right at the trot. Bringing my inside shoulder back solved that. A friend of mine had me widen my hands and open my chest as well as riding bareback once in a while to feel the 'how' of my weight distribution in the saddle.

Another long ingrained issue I had was leaning forward. For whatever reason I had the idea that any gait faster than a walk, required me to lean forward. Maybe I was leaning into the movement not to be left behind? I dunno, but I did it and it tipped me forward. Add the boobs and it didn't help the 'overall picture'. It also affected the horse's balance and way of going. It had them pitched forward and on their forehand. Not at all what we were working towards.

Although it looks like we were racing around in these pics, this filly had gotten the idea of slowing down and relaxing in her work. What we had been working on was picking up the lope and I would give her a few strides before I corrected myself, sitting up straight, relaxing into my seat and then collecting her and asking her to gather herself under me. 

When talking about straightness in dressage- ridden or driven, there is vertical and lateral straightness just like bending. The horse can travel straight down the rail as well as being straight thru their turns. Imagine riding a bicycle. You can turn the handlebars and remain straight vertically while going around the corner.  Now imagine riding the bicycle with no hands. You can lean to one side and still get the turn. Horses aren't much different. You can get straightness thru the turn, or we can lean into it causing the horse to lean as well. 

What works for me is to sit up straight and prepare myself for the turn. When I visualize keeping myself straight thru the turn, it helps me ride the horse vertically straighter thru the turn. Sometimes I have to correct myself by bringing a shoulder back, putting a little more weight into my seatbone, closing my hip or looking up. Correcting things in each of us is as individual as we are and our mileage varies. 

Once we feel the correct movement and have the A-Ha! moment of 'This is what it is supposed to be like!' then we need to maintain it. It may only last a few strides at first, but now we understand what we're looking for and riding towards. Good luck and sit up. Lol