Recent content by Skib

Rockin S Raised Sweet Iron 3 Piece Snaffle Mark Rashid is a fan of these bits. http://www.markrashid.com/about/rockin-s-snaffle This bit became available in UK shortly before my old share retired. "TWS has been selling these bits for years, and has also had many positive comments and...

I agree about lengthening your stirrups although you do need to be abe to lift your seat out of the saddle ready for trot or canter. I ride with my stirrups longer than most people. However, I dont agree that your legs need to be still. They need to be relaxed and to move with the horse. In...

I ride in Sprenger straight stirrups. The first thing I do when I get to any yard is to put my own stirrups and leathers onto the saddle I am going to ride in. But moderation is a great factor too. Years ago our RI advised me not to canter long distance on two consecutive days.

I know nothing about fitting a saddle to a horse. But I know that due to a bad lower back and thus, like you, pain referred to my knees, I am best on a narrow horse. Also that I am in pain in a proper dressage saddle. I was once sent out in a much prized Jessica saddle when my usual one was...

While I got soaked, my uni friend in Rohan overtrousers was dry, so I bought myself a Rohan light mac for summer walking on rainy days. It rolls up in ones rucksack. This is not a riding mac.

Not so. I may not be a star rider, but I am known as a good sharer. I am an elderly weekday rider. I have always been on time, paid the same day, ridden regardless of weather, and untacked and returned the horse to her stable. I agree. That is why I didnt ride till our kids had grown up and...

I can comment here. In the early days of the internet many people, myself included, put up home made websites. They were made with a MS basic HTML editor which later became part of MS Word. But pne viewed the plannedsite as a text file. To get a vaguely academic site, I copied the code used for...

That is irrational . Leather workers and saddlers have a craft that involves touch and judgement beyond the scope of IT. My ancestral surname is Sadler and I am proud of it .

This is the catch 22 situation. Most riding schools are required by the licensing authority and, I think, the BHS as well, to have all clients supervised by a member of staff when riding or handling a horse. Thus I never ever rode my great favourite solo. But one is allowed to ride a share...

Sabre and I ride in their plain leather reins as well. But my ways were set 20 years ago

Not always fair. I had shared and hacked solo for years before I learned to put on a bridle and that was only with my present share who takes the bit in her mouth and shows me how to do it. My previous share was known to bite peope and was only to be bridled by staff. I did eventually bridle her...

In her final year, I rode my old share Western style in her Sabre bridle but without a noseband. I removed it because she had a full cheek bit and if she got her head down to graze while I was riding (if I let her because I had stopped to chat with a dog walker) the cheek piece got stuck under...

I was an old age beginner so I never did competing and didnt have the stamina to ride a whole test without stopping for a breather in the middle. But I read about the history of dressage and how it was originally a prepartion for horses which were going to war. In many ways this seemed to me...

Sabre. But that was recommended by the saddler who came to my previous yard where I rode in a Sabre bridle. I bought Sabre reins for my present share.

Miller who wrote the authoritive 19th century book on Polo reported on the year when he had kept the best ponies stabled over winter and the not so good ones were turned away, unrugged but with some supplementary hay. When spring came, the polo pones that had been out all winter were in better...