Iris time

[glenatron]

Since my contract ended, I have tried to take lots of opportunities to ride, both on Iris and out with my student Anne, who I have been doing frequent lessons with. As she has a really nice arena and we have a slightly sandy swamp, I have been taking Iris over sometimes when I'm teaching there, which gives an opportunity for us to work, new

Comments

[joycemocha]

I forget--how many rides does she have on her now

[glenatron]

I think she's doing great too- I don't know how many rides she has, but it's less than a hundred for sure.

I noticed the same thing with the rein leathers, I think I had my reins at just the wrong length there too- they either need to be shorter or longer. I'm working with this at the moment. I really like the mecate rein though, having that lead is so useful if you're doing much trail riding where you might need to get off and lead a bit, way better than regular reins and harder to drop than split reins...

[joycemocha]

I would shorten up the slobber straps. The original McCartys were horsehair which is a stiffer rope--I've seen them on a bosal. Mocha's leather snaffle reins attach to the bit by a strap which looks like a slobber strap but isn't, and is much shorter. Here's a picture that I have right now (when they were shiny new), I can take another one this coming week which shows more detail if you would like. It's a nice little braiding with a piece of thin latigo leather which holds pretty solid.

[glenatron]

I actually have a horsehair mecate but I tend to use the rope one on snaffle horses because it's longer and I like the rope in my hand. The horsehair one stays on the bosal, which I haven't used with Iris because she really hated it and it didn't seem worth arguing about.

I've noticed that people like Buck tend to actually use longer slobber straps which maybe are a little more stable with their point of balance further back - effectively like the rein-chains on a romal. I'm trying to find some video of them in use so I can see how that works in practice in faster or bouncier gaits.

[joycemocha]

Shorter rein length. But I also don't use rein chains on my romal, so again, it's a stylistic piece.

I'd use rein chains on a spade bit-trained horse, because that's part of the package. But for a regular curb--bit balance and signal isn't as crucial. Some of those other trainers also have pretty darn good seat and leg control as well, which is a prerequisite for that to work. I just don't have the hip flexors to do that.

[glenatron]

The other reason I understood for rein-chains was so on a long day's work your horse could take a drink without getting water all over your fancy rawhide...