Horse Update, June

 Lots of new this month:

1  New bell boots for Camaro because he AGAIN pulled a shoe off right before he was due to have a reset.  GRR.  Keep your fingers crossed this does the trick. Until April, he'd been very good about keeping his shoes on after I switched farriers back in Sept. 2020. . . 

2  Homemade bit wipes! Because my increasingly cruddy bit was affecting my self esteem even though I'd been in the habit of dunking it in his water bucket after every ride.  That quickie rinse just wasn't doing the job.  So I found an easy recipe online for bit wipes using shop towels, peppermint extract, and water.  Since DH has mulitple rolls of shop towels, and I have peppermint extract, and we have well water at home, this was basically free to make.  I did buy a set of lidded Rubbermaid storage bowls so I'd have a container to put my newly made wipes in, but I was in need of some lunchbox sized food containers anyway. . . 

These wipes work great!  And Camaro never hesitates to bridle up now.  Win-win!

3  Silicone seated riding tights, for me.  I'm really old fashioned, and I have bemoaned how difficult it is (as well as expensive) to find full seat breeches with real leather seats anymore.  Even the fake leather seats seem to be phasing out for the sticky silicone kind.  After many years of debating the merits of silicone seated riding apparel, I finally dove in and got myself a pair.  Seeing them mentioned on a dressage blog I follow, as well as a sale coupled with a discount code kind of tipped me off the fence.  Plus, I saw them in green, (GREEN!! my favorite color) and next thing I knew I was pushing the add to cart button.  

Hunter green full seats!  

*swoon*

I was really leery of 

a) tights, because while I'm not svelte anymore (middle age *cough cough*) I have never had hips either so I've been reluctant to buy tights for fear of them just sliding right off my waist and down to my boot tops.

b) that mysterious silicone seat.  Would I love it?  Would I hate it?  I've been not so fond of the not-real-leather seats in breeches the last decade or two (oh my, I'm getting old) and I'm just not a fan of plastics in general.

Well, they arrived, I tried them on, decided while looking like the lumpy aging rider that I am (never been curvy; I went from boyishly board straight through the lower abs and hips to lumpy) I do love the color.  It's even better in person than in the photo.  It took a few days before I got to ride in them, due to our oppressive heat and humidity for half a week running.  After their inaugural ride, I do have to say I didn't notice a huge difference in performance from my beloved old-school real leather breeches.  And, with a belt (they have belt loops, hooray!) there was no issue with them sliding down to unseemly positions.  So, I guess I'm a grudging convert to tights and silicone seats.

If you're interested, they are Esprit PRO tights, the old model which is currently on sale in limited sizes and colors (darn, because I decided I liked them well enough I wanted another pair in tan but when I looked my size was sold out in that color).

Riding wise, Camaro and I are making progress. Some days it's great canters, some days it's leg yield at the trot, some days it's more than 3 steps in a row of shoulder in at the walk.  We're also riding outside as weather permits.