EAH Blog Hop: Keep It Clean

Equestrian At Hart asks: "In this weeks blog hop lets talk about what cleaning products you use on your tack and why?"

First things first: thank you for not asking how often I clean my tack! I suspect the answer would have made some of you cringe in really painful ways.

My tack cleaning preferences have evolved over the years. I am not (yet) a devotee of Higher Standards. It's not for lack of curiosity. It's a combination of ingrained Yankee practicality and lack of financial wherewithal. I already have a whole jar of saddle soap that I really like, and can't justify buying more.

What's the soap I really like, you ask?

MOSS Saddle soap, which stands for Morgan's Original Saddle Soap. My jar looks nothing like this, but I do have the citrus basil scent. I've been working on it for almost seven years now. It soaps up nicely, cleans nicely, smells divine, and leaves my hands soft. My only complaint would be that it doesn't cut through really truly heavy gunk - we're talking the layers of rubbery stuff you have to peel off reins with your fingernail. (Are you cringing yet?)

As for conditioner, for years I used Leather Therapy's Leather Restorer. I really liked it for strap goods - it was great to work in with my fingers while watching a movie. I was always kind of meh on it for my saddles; the liquid nature of it meant it ran everywhere.

Finishing up my last bottle happened to coincide with Tristan's spring saddle fitting. I've known and liked my saddle fitter for years, so with my older saddles in front of her, I asked her what she would use to help bring them back. She suggested Stubben Hamanol, and I bought some from her and started using it.

Pros: I freaking love how it works. The thick creamy nature of it means that I can really slather it on and leave it to soak in. Noticeably softer leather after just one application.

Cons: It smells like MTG. If you've never had the pleasure of smelling MTG, imagine a pan of bacon left out in the sun to go very rancid. Now bottle it. Yeah, like that. Considerably less than appealing.

It's worth it, though.

Explain to Me: Equestrian Socks?

I came up through the horse world in a slightly atypical way. I was not your typical barn rat. Not for lack of desire, but rather lack of opportunity. It's a meandering sort of story I will explain at another time.

Sometimes, that means that I don't get things that other people take for granted.

Lately, here's one I've been wondering about: equestrian socks. The long thin ones that presumably you wear with breeches.

You know, like these.

I have literally never worn a pair of them in my life. I own two pairs, both acquired through holiday Yankee swaps. 

All my breeches go down to my ankle. I have long-ish legs, so I vary between a long or a regular in breeches, and buy appropriate to brand. (Not that I've bought breeches in 5 years, which is another post.) I wear ankle-length athletic socks under those. Then I put on my tall boots or half chaps.

I actually love cute socks, but I've never been able to figure out how and why to wear these. Why add another layer? How are you supposed to wear them?

Someone, please, shine some light under this rock I'm currently inhabiting...

Stupid Question Theater: Which side is outside when you're traveling straight?

Last night, I found that Tristan had enough natural forward energy that I decided to use it and put him on the bit a little bit, to increase the amount of push through his hind end and thus the difficulty of our hill walking.

I was taught to put a horse on the bit by using inside leg to outside rein, having one rein as a steadying one to help create that mix of self-carriage and impulsion.

Last night, I found myself wondering: if I'm traveling straight, ie down a dirt road with no arena walls, which side do I make the outside?

What do you do? Swap sides, much like you do for posting during long trots? Work on your horse's weaker side? Some other solution?

I ended up simply flexing Tristan a little bit both ways to soften his mouth, and concentrated more on getting him soft and low rather than strictly speaking on the bit, asking for a little bit of straightforward carriage instead of flexion/bend/outside rein.

Continuing Exploration

Longer hack, up the road and took a new sharp left to see if I could indeed explore these fields without riding across them. The dead grass you see in a line ahead of Tristan's ears is in fact the remnants of a tractor road, with fine footing for walking. We went to the tree line and came back. We'll definitely head back.

Tris was an utter shit for the first 10 minutes out, wandering across the road, flinging his shoulders everywhere, walking soooooo slooooooowly. He wanted to be back in the barn eating hay. About a half mile in he eased in to the work and most of the rest of the ride was quite nice. We had a few short trot stretches on good footing. He did have one ugly moment later on, when we exited this field and I turned him away from the barn to keep going. He flung his head around and danced and backed up, and put one hind foot worryingly close to a dropoff by a culvert. I lost my temper for a moment, yanked his head around, and booted HARD, basically shoving him into a trot for 100 yards down the road.

Our walk back was good, and I took a bit of a hold of the reins and asked for a little coming through the bit, which he obliged. We got back to flat ground and his hind end went all wobbly! So we walked on the flat road for another half mile to help him work out of it, which he did nicely. So this ride definitely accomplished what I wanted it to - hard hill work - and it's good that he has tonight scheduled off.

Wordless Wednesday