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?

She goes nicely forward for her current condition and experience, I'd say. Still working on muscle tone and balance, but that comes with time and work. She's moving like I would want to see a nicely started greenie move.

(That said, I'm not wild about the rope reins with the slobber straps because I feel they add a bit more noise to the signal on the rein. But that's a mileage-will-vary thing--I ride my snaffle with latigo leather reins that are reasonably broke in now, and I prefer that feel in my hand. Mileage varies. I don't even like round lunge lines, so it's definitely a mileage thing).

ETA: Just wanted to add that the forward thing is a really, really big thing in my book. I see a similar level horse at my barn who does NOT go forward, does NOT move from pressure easily, and is not afraid of crashing into other horses/doesn't respect their spaces when being ridden in a lesson group. However, he's much improved from before the owner started taking lessons again! (the "before" stage was scary. He's a tough one.) So Iris is doing very, very well! I think with regular work, you'll see some good stuff.

[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.

With the splits, you cross the rein ends over the neck. That has a bridging effect that is much more secure than with the ends dangling down from each hand, and you can ride with a longer rein. Those reins Mocha is wearing in the pic are seven feet long. After eight years, they're nicely broke in, and I love to ride with them. I have my romal for her curb and I wouldn't ride one-handed in anything else (even with the snotty comment by a trainer at the last show that I couldn't cheat easily like she could in splits because of the difficulty of doing hand adjustments. Ahem. Practice). But I like the feel of a good solid leather rein in my hand, and get fussy about anything with webbing on it.

[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...