Wizard Ride 170: NQR
Wednesday, 8/18/10
Wizard cut the front of his left hind cannon bone, right where he has an old scar. The cut was not deep, but it took off a good amount of skin. He was 100% sound on the leg and there was no heat or swelling so I decided to ride him. I put polo wraps on his legs to keep dirt from getting in the cut. I also rode him in a different saddle pad configuration- I usually ride him in a sheepskin pad with a Thinline pad between the sheepskin and the saddle. But on Wednesday, I rode him in a Lettia waffle-type pad with a gel pad over it. I also rode him in a neoprene girth instead of our usual fuzzy girth, mostly as an experiment after reading this post on the Chronicle of the Horse forum.
When we walked and began our trot work in the indoor arena, Wizard felt fine, but as our session progressed, I could feel tension. He tripped once or twice, and was very gassy. I stopped the ride to remove the polos, just in case they were bothering him (I’m not the world’s best polo-wrapper since I was blessed with Alibar, a horse with perfect legs, for 20 years). But even with the polos removed, he was still tight and tense. He never really stretched into the trot work, and his canter work felt like we were backsliding about 4 months. I did not push the issue, and when I got an acceptable and reasonably relaxed trot, I called it a night. I rode for about half an hour.
His appetite was 100% perfect, but he was definitely gassy. I scrubbed the leg, gave him his bedtime Dengie, and put him to bed. Hopefully it was a flukey night. Those happen to the best of us.
Rock and Racehorses: The Blog 
Interesting thread on COTH. I am a proud owner of the cheap dover fleece girth. LOL! But I have to tell you that Toby hates any other kind. And I had heard (but have no personal experience) that the neoprene girths become exceedingly hot on a horse’s girth on hot days. I heard that from a knowledgeable show judge that I trust. Ollie has a medium priced combo fleece on the edges/neoprene girth and seems to like it just fine. I believe it’s a Lettia.
But I am also not one to own uber expensive equipment due to my lack of funds… 🙂 So I try to use what my horses tell me is comfortable and spend the money wisely. Ollie has a nice new ($$/$$$) Albion SLK custom to him saddle and we use a waffle pad with a sheepskin 1/2 pad. Toby has a very old Albion SLK saddle that needed a little tweaking so I bought a Mattes corrective pad ($$$) and use 2 shims in the back which gives us a good fit now. Both were evaluated by an Albion saddle fitter and will be followed up on by the fitter. So I think I’m on a good program. At least I’m trying to be conscience about my choices.
The bridles are next… but the bits will be 3 piece loose ring snaffles. 🙂