H&H blogger, Leonora, talks us through her key pieces of kit to use at home and shows us a standard flatwork session, plus a tour of her lovely yard
Hi everyone,
I’m here with Walton’s Top Flight and I’m preparing him for a normal day’s flatwork session. As you can see, I’ve already put four bandages on, which is my personal preference for all of my horses, just to give their legs a little more support.
Under the saddle, I use a ‘sticky’ (a sort of gel pad that goes underneath the numnah) which helps to keep everything in place. I then put a standard saddle cloth over the top of the sticky, followed by a riser pad for this particular horse as it gives him a little more cushioning on his back. I then use a Butet saddle with a sheepskin girth which is soft for the horse. I never do the girth up too tightly to start with, in order to keep the horses happy before we start a session.
Continued below…
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Bridle-wise, I use a very basic snaffle when riding most of my horses on the flat. A gadget I love to use, is called an Abbott-Davies balancing rein, which are almost impossible to find and buy and the one I have is probably older than I am. I love it because it’s somewhere between a normal rein and a draw rein and it has leverage. This means that when the horse is in the correct outline, the Abbott-Davies is soft, and it only kicks in when the horse is in not in the correct outline.
Before I start my schooling session, I’m going to take Waltons Top Flight for a stroll around the track for 15 minutes just to get him nice and loose.
That’s it from us for today. We’ve got lots of exciting shows coming up and we’re really looking forward to sharing everything with you guys.
Leonora
