So I could wear my FITS deerskin paneled breeches.  This was good because I totally gave up on using double fold Western saddle blankets with the Stubben Siegfried.  So I put my Corrector back in its “sock”, apologized to the horses for any anxiety caused by the saddle blankets, and I suffered an immediate deterioration of my lower leg.  Now is the time for Arts and Crafts with Mia‘s saddle blanket!

Sunday I rode Cider in the EZ-Fit treeless saddle, and since I could…

Last weekend my husband and I went up to Maryland and I got my yearly lesson from Karen Fenwick at North Fork School of Equitation in Jefferson, Md.  I found this long trip (around 1,000 miles round trip) totally exhausting.  By the time I got to North Fork I had been traveling for three days and I was not in top shape physically because I was very tired.  But autumn has finally come, North Fork is in the foothills, and it was cool enough so I could wear my deerskin…

I did not get to ride Sunday because Shannon had hurt her shoulder.  Then on Sunday my son cut a gash across one of his knuckles (2 stitches) so he could not help me with Mia on Monday.  My husband was home so he kindly took me out to ride Mia, but he had strained his hand so I had to do all of the currying, brushing, hoof rasping, tacking up and applying fly spray.  My husband did manage to clean out the hooves and put in the thrush medicine.  By the time I got to the ring…

This week I experimented with my Western woolen saddle blankets on the Arabs I ride.  The previous three weeks I rode Mick with just my triple-fold woolen Western saddle blanket.  While he showed great improvement with relaxing the muscles in back of the saddle he was not too sure about the front of the saddle, and he just was not moving as freely as he did when I just used the Corrector pad.  I came up with the idea of putting the Corrector in between the top and bottom of…

Last Sunday was not and miserable, so hot and miserable that the rest of the herd did not come when Shannon caught Cider.  Cider was NOT happy at all, why should she be forced to work when her friends were back in the coolest part of the pasture?  I was not doing too well either, the night before I did not sleep well so I was planning to just walk.  I am glad I was not more ambitious.  When we went into the ring Cider looked around for her buddies and NO ONE WAS AROUND, and…

The last few weeks I have been suffering from an attack of the MS exhaustion.  I had been doing too much and it finally caught up with me.  I had started walking 3x a week for 10 minutes in order to get more fit so I could build up my endurance--that got dropped.  I found out that it was not a good idea for me to stop using my slicker brush on Mia when there is a lot of summer rain, her fungus in her coat came back and by the time my son noticed it had spread over her croup…

This week, while musing over my new found security in the saddle I suddenly thought, what about the frictional grip of the saddle to the horse?

When I started riding pads were not considered necessary for English hunt seat or saddle seat saddles.  I was told (and read) that a properly fitted saddle made of vegetable tanned leather with wool padding did not NEED a saddle pad if the bottom of the saddle was cleaned with saddle soap after each ride with occasional…

As my readers know I have been seeking security in the saddle for years.  I have Multiple Sclerosis and I was blaming all of my riding security problems on my MS, my lack of balance, my great weakness, my exhaustion from the least physical activity, my lack of a proprioceptive sense and my general lack of coordination.  I figured that there was NO WAY I would ever feel as secure in the saddle as I did when I was younger.  As it turns out I was blaming the wrong thing (my…

I have been thinking lately a lot about how hard it can be for middle-aged and older women to either get back to their long interrupted riding or to start riding.  It is not easy.

We know we can get hurt.  Many of us have osteoporosis and many more have arthritis.  Our youthful figures have gone away, our once athletic bodies have dissolved, and we just do not feel as sprightly as we did when we were younger.  Medical issues pile up, kids and families threaten all of…

Gee, this is my 200^th blog!  When I started blogging here on Barnmice over four years ago I never imagined that I could find enough to write about to make it to 200 blogs.  I want to thank all of my readers for reading my blogs each week.

Last week I had decided that feelings of security were more important than feeling cool.  That idea just lasted one ride.  Debbie could not give me my regular lesson…

Wet.  Humid.  “Tropical air”.  5.35 inches of rain in the last 7 days.  Dew points in the 70’s F, heat indexes hitting the low 90’s F.

Last Tuesday I ran down to my “local” tack store and asked Donna, the owner, if there were any breeches or tights cooler than and as secure as my FITS all-weather breeches.  She picked out a Kerrit’s full seat tight and a FITS Treads Lite breech with rubber dots where the FITS full seat paneled patches go.  I got the FITS breech…

Summer weather has definitely arrived here, hot, muggy, and lots of afternoon thunderstorms.  NC has been in drought most of the past decade, but this year the rain seems to be determined to make up for the whole drought, we are 6 inches over “normal” instead of 6” below normal.  Everything goes “squish” now.

This time of year my seat riding usually disintegrates rapidly and the horses I ride get irritated at me for my unsteadiness, often telling me that I better…

Since the weather turned into summer down here in NC (hot and muggy) I have been getting pretty tired riding.  Two weeks ago the weather was particularly fine, cool and with low humidity, but Debbie was having a summer riding camp and I could not ride there.  Then the humidity came back but after riding only once in ten days, I am quite happy to be back riding three times a week and getting tired!

Because of the heat and humidity I tried to use my super, super, super…

This week has been full of rain down here in the Piedmont of North Carolina.  We’ve gotten about four inches of rain over the last seven days.  I just got to ride once.

Debbie had to go off Wednesday so I did not get my lesson.  I went out to the stable anyway, I wanted to see if Mia was still responding to my increased stability, and I also wanted to take care of her.  I was tired from a dentist appointment on Tuesday and I forgot to bring my hard hat,…

My apologies for missing several weeks of blogs.  I was just too exhausted from riding and something had to give.  I refuse to cut down my riding if the weather is good, so I stopped writing my weekly blog. 

A few weeks ago I went to my “local” tack store and asked the owner to show me the coolest (as in not too warm) riding pants she had since the weather had gotten too hot for my wonderful full seat breeches.  She directed me to the Kerrits Flow Rise Performance…

Last Tuesday I went down to the tack store to pick up my Stubben, all ready to ride with new front billet straps.  It did not take very long for the local tack specialist to replace the billets and it just cost me $87.00 USD.  Now I do not have to worry anymore about a billet strap breaking and I can relax and enjoy riding in my ancient 43 year old saddle.  When I got it home I put on stirrups and stirrup leathers, my sheepskin seat saver and my…

I have been thinking a lot about the new challenges Shannon’s Arab-Welsh mare Cider has been presenting me.  I went through my old calendars and I started riding Cider regularly in 2006 until January 2012 when I switched to riding Merlin and Bobby until I could get Cider a saddle that fit her properly since her back had changed.  At the end of those 6 years Cider was super responsive to the bit (Dr. Bristol snaffle), aware that a twitch of my little finger was a valid aid to…

Many, many decades ago Piero Santini wrote in one of his books that one reason to wear the knee high boots was that when the leather of the boot was against the leather of the saddle flap the rider’s grip was stronger.  It has been decades since I rode in the high leather boots, but I do look back at them with fondness, and every once in a while I consider getting high boots again but they look so HOT.  With my MS anything that makes me hotter makes my MS symptoms worse so I…

This has been a slow week for me since I have not gotten back my energy after being sick with a head cold weeks ago.  By the time I get to the stables, the horses are groomed, tacked up, and I get to the ring and mount I am already tired, and after the second trot I am exhausted, wrung out and hung out to dry.

Wednesday I got my lesson on Mick, using my new EZ-Fit treeless saddle of course!  This time I decided to go back to the Mullen mouth bits since I seem to have…

After a long week and a half of no riding I was excited to get out this morning.  Last night when I talked with Shannon she told me that her mother was sick and would not be out, so I asked if I could ride Cider (an Arab-Welsh pony mare), and she said yes!  Cider is one of the horses that I got my EZ-Fit treeless saddle for and I was really wanted to try it out on the widest back that I ride.  Since it is finally getting warmer down here in NC I went out an hour earlier,…