Move Along, Nothing To See Here

I haven't been blogging much about my rides as of late. Partly because I've been so busy/tired, that I haven't had the energy to spend an hour typing up something interesting. But mostly because not much interesting has been happening. 

Well, cool skies are interesting.

I've been riding - well, Cisco at least. Phantom has seemingly recovered from her hoof abscess and I'm planning to hop on her tomorrow to see how she feels. She looked a little bit uncomfortable still at the canter on Sunday, but looked pretty good last night. 

My rides on Cisco haven't really been overly exciting. We've popped over some tiny little crosspoles a couple of times, and he's gone over them all on the first approach. He's still a bit wiggly to them and sucks back when we're jumping towards the scary end, but we're getting from one side to the other.

I decided that I would try one more bit for Mr. Fussy Mouth and ordered a Neue Schule Turtle Top Baucher. These bits are a ridiculous price in Canada (around $400!!!) so I ordered it from the UK. After I paid customs it was closer to $240. Still, a stupid price for a bit that I don't know will be liked.

So shiny!

Does he like it? I still haven't decided. Last night's ride was the third ride with this bit, and the best so far. He was trying really hard to keep his neck long at a trot instead of wanting to get a bit behind the bit. The connection at the canter hasn't been as good as it was in the other baucher, but the left lead canter has been stronger, so I don't know. 

He doesn't hate the bit, so we're going to keep using it for now. I thought his mouth was being a bit quieter, but once we popped over a couple of jumps last night he started clacking his teeth together. His mouth is definitely his stress indicator. 

I also finally broke down and put spurs on. Cisco knows how to move off my leg, he just thinks that it's a suggestion rather than a command. The spurs have definitely helped so they will continue to be used. I've just been using my very small nubby baby spurs and might need to go up to slightly bigger ones for a couple of rides on occasion but so far the baby ones have been enough to get my point across.

I've only been riding every second day because my groin is still quite sore after riding. I applied some kinesiology tape and I think it's helped a wee bit. I will need to see my doctor in a couple of weeks so maybe I'll mention it and see what she says - I'm sure it will be go to physio and stop riding, neither of which I want to hear!

Since we had so much rain over the last few weeks, the mosquitos have now come out in force. We tried a short ride down the road last night, thinking that the road would be safer than the grass to not get eaten. They didn't care. The poor horses were covered in mosquitos. Thus our outdoor evening rides will be no more for a while!

So, yeah. Nothing exciting. Just plugging away at the same things with some slight improvement. But riding is happening!