Favorite Finds 54
Spring Loaded Girth Tip
If you have ever used a girth with spring buckles, you know how easy they are to tighten, especially while you are sitting in the saddle. I really like spring loaded buckles on girths, sometimes they are a pain when you are untacking but, in general, I do appreciate them. If you would like your girth to have spring buckles but you don’t want to replace your girth, try this easy tip. You can take a mane band and put it through your buckles as shown in the video below to make your buckles have a similar feel.
Visual Aid to Understand Contact and Connection
I often find myself describing what needs to happen in a horse’s thoracic sling, hind legs, etc to get the horse reaching to the bridle. It never starts at the head or in the hand, the hand simply allows for the reach and connection to happen. This video describes in a basic way, what happens in the horse’s body when we compress the neck, trying to “put” the horse on the bit versus allowing the horse to reach out to our hands. Of course there are a lot of variables that play into the roundness and connection with a horse but a basic understanding of the horse’s anatomy and spine is important in understanding how to get a horse to come round in the bridle. Make sure your volume is turned up when watching this video, if you try and click the sound button on the video itself it says it has no sound so make sure your volume on your phone or computer is turned up to get the full description.
MelEeCreation
MelEeCreation Etsy page offers tail and jacket ribbons for everyone. There are informative ribbons such as visually impaired, para rider, stallion or moody mare ribbons but also humorous ones such as wild pony or shiterider. The informative ribbons are so helpful at a show or clinic where you may need other riders to be aware of something and watch out for you in the warm up arena.
I plan to buy some of the funny ribbons as gifts for my barn friends because if you can’t laugh at your equestrian journey than you’re not doing this equestrian life correctly. These would make great additions to any horsey gift and would be extremely cute clipped on a bottle of wine.