Poor Riles was quite hot by the end of our ride; he's so hairy, you'd never guess he was clipped about 9 weeks ago. Meanwhile Zipper was done around 7 weeks ago and his clip still looks fresh. The difference is astounding. I'm not sure I want to clip Rileigh again this late in the year, but I may have to, we'll see.
Rileigh today
Despite the heat, I had a lovely ride on Rileigh today. We did trot & canter sets as well as some cavaletti. I switched him to the Stubben "Golden Wings" gag for jumping about a week ago, and the difference is wonderful. Rileigh can be very heavy and extremely difficult to get back after fences, and I was really resistant to putting him in anything but a dressage legal snaffle for the longest time, worried that then he wouldn't be able to go easily back to a dressage legal bit when needed. I'm so glad I made the decision to put him in a mild gag. Today, doing cavaletti lines, we were actually able to come out of the line at the same speed we came in. Fantastic! And so far he's been flatting in a snaffle just as well as always.
I'm pleased.
I took the bay boys(Riles and Zipper) XC schooling over MLK weekend. Zipper's first time, w/ my timid friend riding him. He was quite good for her. Rileigh was fantastic as well. We schooled a lot of training level fences and he was really solid over everything. Unfortunately I forgot my camera(and I've misplaced it!), but my friend took a couple photos of Riles and me w/ her phone. I'm hoping to do a derby at Novice sometime next month ...maybe at Longwood?
Not a great photo, but what can you do? ...maxed out Novice slanty corner type thing
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