Product Review: Bit of Britain's English Stitched Halter

English Leather Triple Stitched Halter

I wouldn't necessarily classify Tristan as tough on halters, but he has destroyed his fair share - somewhere in the double digits, but not more than 20. (When I write it out like that it looks more dire than it really is...) When he finds a turnout buddy he likes, he is a halter tag champion. He also rolls a lot, and when he rolls he grinds his face into the ground, which tends to weaken buckles and other fittings.

I am fairly fanatic about always having him in - at minimum - a breakaway or leather halter, and strongly dislike rope halters in all situations, so that really leaves a leather halter as my best option. On top of that, he is a tough fit for a halter: he has a whopping big head but an old halter scar on his nose that means if I don't get just the right fit, the hair on that bump is gone in no time flat; more than 48 hours of rubbing and it's probably going to open up again.

So for several years, whenever he trashed a halter I would have a cheap breakaway nylon halter in reserve with fleeces and the hunt was on for something else that worked. I found some good one-offs but was never thrilled with the quality, or the fit, or the general handling of them.

Enter this halter. About three years ago, he destroyed a halter just before Hannah and I left for the Area 1 Championships at Fitch's Corner. I knew I needed a new halter ASAP but didn't have time for a leisurely tack store visit. I paid a visit to the Bit of Britain truck at Fitch's (dangerous, seductive place) and came out with this halter, in black. It was a gamble, but when I brought it home and put it on his head it fit perfectly.

And here we are three years later - a record for a halter. It's faded and beat up, but the only real damage that's occurred to it is the loss of the extra leather piece from the chin piece - the stub leftover after fitting it to his nose - which doesn't change the functionality of the halter at all. I'm really, really pleased with it and would recommend it to anyone.

Topline Exercises

Every time I handle Tristan - whether it's just a grooming day, a longeing day, a hack day, or a riding day - I'm doing a series of exercises with him to work on his topline. They're like strength or core building exercises that isolate the right muscle groups. I've been really, really pleased with the immediate visual way I can see his muscles engaging with both of these.

The first is a belly lift.

Placing one knuckled hand - or stiff fingers - on either side of the tail, at the point of the croup, about 1" to either side of where the tail begins. Draw a straight line down, with moderate to heavy pressure, to just under the point of the buttock, or about halfway down the gaskin. Watch your horse's withers and back while you're doing this; every horse will have a slightly different trigger point. As you trace down, his back will lift. When you reach the gaskin, it will be about as high as it can get.

I started doing 5 of these, and now I do 15 every time. I hold the lift in the back for a good solid 2-3 seconds. You can also adjust to focus on one side or the other depending on how your horse is standing, or where he's turning his head. A head turned to the left will give extra lift to the left side of the withers; the opposite to the right. Ideally, they should be square for most of them but it's fine to turn their head for some of the exercises if you're trying to even out an imbalance.

This isn't just a back exercise, either; though you can't see it from the back, the back lift is at least partly because this technique causes the horse to tighten his abdominal muscles. It simulates crunches in humans. So it does double-duty, lifting the back and tightening the stomach.

The second exercise is a sternum lift.

Reaching underneath your horse's chest, find the sternum with your fingers. It'll be about midway, and when you push up through muscle/fat (and in my case, winter fuzz) you should feel a clear thin line of bone. Using stiff fingers, dig into that bone, perhaps wiggling your fingers a bit, and keep your eye on your horse's back: it will not rise as obviously as with the belly lift, but it will gradually fill in and have more of a "finished" look than with the first exercise.

I do these for 10 seconds on, 10 seconds off, working up from 3 the first time to 5 now. This one targets different muscles (though there is some overlap) and activates them in a different way. In a way, this one teaches them to hold the lift themselves: watch closely, and you'll see how long they hold after you remove your hand.

We'll have to wait for updated topline photos in another few weeks to see if these are helping along with the rest of the work we're doing, but judging by the evidence of my eyes, and the way the muscles are being used in these exercises, I'm very pleased with them.

Five Things on My Christmas List

Thanks to Cob Jockey for a great idea for a meme!

Some of these things are a bit of a reach, and as such, I haven't actually put them on my Christmas list. (My parents don't believe in Christmas lists; they take them as a challenge and a list of things not to buy. My boyfriend's parents are very good about lists, but because of that I tend to be careful about what I put on there. Ahhhh, relationship Jenga.) But if I could put together my ideal Christmas list? These would all be on it.

1. Sore No More Gelotion

I love this stuff. I will take as much of it as I can get. I enumerated the reasons why it is my favorite in my product review of a few weeks ago.

2. Dublin River Boot

COVET. I love the look of them, I love the idea of them, I want them. I want them with a fierce lust that I usually reserve for new books and heavy duty pick up trucks. (Yes, I'm kind of boring.)

3. Saddle Stand

Believe it or not, I don't own one. Usually I put my saddle on the side of my truck bed to tack up, but that's getting kind of old. This would be great to have for tack cleaning, too.

4. SSG 10 Below Winter Gloves

I seriously need to step up my winter glove game. It's really starting to get cold now, and the fleece gloves I use right now are not cutting it.

5. Smart Shape Base Layer Tights

I feel pretty good about my base layers up top, but right now I just have the winter breeches on bottom - and they are glorious, but I'd like the option of stepping up the ante when I need to.

So, what do you want for Christmas?

Accountability: Week 1

Each Sunday, I'll write down what I've done for my own and for Tristan's fitness for the week. My hope is that putting these things out there will hold me accountable to those handful of you who read this blog. In that vein: if you think I could be doing better, or if you see me slacking off from the previous weeks, say something!

Monday
Me: 30 seconds planking, 18 situps, 5 leg lifts R & L
Tristan: 40 minute lesson

Tuesday
Me: 30 seconds planking, 10 leg lifts R&L, walk downtown x2 (40 minutes)
Tristan: Rest

Wednesday
Me: 30 seconds planking, 25 situps, 10 leg lifts R&L, walk downtown (20 minutes)
Tristan: 35 minutes longeing w/ chambon, over cavaletti

Thursday
Me: 30 seconds planking, 10 leg lifts R&L, walk downtown x2 (40 minutes)
Tristan: 45 minute ride

Friday
Me: 30 seconds planking, 10 leg lifts R&L
Tristan: Rest

Saturday
Me: 45 seconds planking, 15 leg lifts R&L, 33 situps
Tristan: Rest

Transitions

After our lesson last week, I cleaned my dressage saddle. It was a long time coming. I thought briefly about posting a picture of how filthy the water was after I'd rinsed the sponge a few times, but then I tipped over into "too embarrassing." So you'll have to take my word for it: blech.

I decided to leave my stirrups off the saddle for my next ride. We started off with some nice marching walk work, forward into the bridle, with bending on the turns to the cavaletti incorporated into each turn around the arena.

Then we moved on to trot, and this is where my plan for the ride started to unravel. My sitting trot is decent - not great - and it wasn't quite clicking. It wasn't awful jackhammering, but it was just bouncy enough to make me think that if I was really trying to get him to relax and work through his back, this wasn't helping. Our two passes over the caveletti definitely confirmed that: on the plus side, I don't think I'll need chiro for my back! I probably could have worked through it but by I would've done more harm than good.

So I held onto it for long enough to warm up, about 10 minutes in big passes around the ring, and focused instead on transitions. We started with walk-trot and back on a circle, shortening time in each gait and sharpening the transition, and then moved to trot-canter, back and forth. Eventually transitions got sharp enough that I was able to do halt-trot transitions, then walk-canter and back, then a couple of actual honest halt-canter transitions. They weren't very pretty, but they were prompt and they existed, so victory!