New Trails

Last night the BO and I trailered over to G's place to go for a ride.  Her trails are absolutely lovely!  They wind along field roads through canola fields (yellow as far as the eye can see, thought they were mustard seed when I first saw them) then cuts into some woods, up and down hills (finally some hills!), to a river, along the upper banks of the river, and back to her yard.  It was a lovely ride, yet since the BO wasn't feeling too great (arthritis pain) we kept the ride to a walk.  Koda is showing how much of an interesting character he has.  We'll lead out on trail, blaze trails through the bush no problem, but will absolutely NOT put a foot in water until another horse has done it first, unless it is to drink from it.  Yesterday was our first deep water crossing (up to the stirrups) and he would only go if one of the others went first.  The moment the other horses went in, he'd splash right in not a problem.  This will have to be worked on, but happy to know that he will go in albeit behind another horse. 

Yesterday also showed that I need to swap my current reins for extra long reins on Koda.  With his extremely long neck (or maybe I'm just used to riding shorter-necked horses?) I was at the buckle when we were going down a short, but steep bank, and he could have used a bit more length.  Luckily I have a pair in my trunk, so will haul them out on our next ride.  Talking about switching up tack, it's about that time to get the show bridles out and fit them to Koda, make sure everything is in order and broken in to the point where it is completely comfortable for both of us.  I have two choices for a show bridle and am not sure which one to use at this point since one has a thicker noseband (not sure if it'll suit) and is plain raised and padded (my preference), and the other is a plain raised fancy stitch bridle with regular noseband but has a flash attachment that we don't need. 

Which would suit this head best?  Plain and thick nose band, or fancy and regular? 

Up next - mane, tail, and coat maintenance!