Bentaiga’s Beautiful Tack

  
Just a short post today about some truly beautiful tack. Take a look at this saddle, as you can see a lot of work has gone into it’s creation but I think it’s safe to say the work paid off, this is probably the fanciest saddle I’ve ever seen.

  
And take a look at this double bridle, it too is very fancy even the bit is crafted with beautiful designs on it, and personally I rather like the horse head bust the bridle is displayed on too.

Very small photo I know but I think you can probably get an idea of how nice these stirrup irons are too.

If you liked the tack you saw here why not check it out and lots of other beautiful tack here at the Bentaiga website.

Niko’s Back in Business

After a very long holiday Niko has finally returned to work, he’s been back in work for a bit now and I’ve mostly just been doing flat work with him but the other day I did jump him a little but more on that in a moment.

  
Here are a few photos of Niko and I on day two of Niko’s return to work, I was really happy with how well he behaved.

  
Here you can see I am leaning back too much but I still rather liked the photo, Niko certainly has a lot of energy in his canter work at the moment, perhaps too much.

  
After a few days of work I took him into the big paddock to do some work and it went very well. But, he did do a very big buck, which I was not expecting in the slightest, so off I went over the front and under the hooves. I am quite bruised now but nothing is broken and I had a lovely ride and popped back on after the trampling and it all went very well.

  
Also I’ve done a little bit of jumping with him, it started very well and then went down the plug hole so to speak and was absolutely horrible, but we finished on an ok note so I shall be happy with that.

 In other news I’ve got a load of the rings fitted to the stables so I finally have somewhere to tie my horse :)

And everyone is feeling their feet now spring is here.
 
Anyway that’s all from me now I hope you are all enjoying the nice weather.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

  
I recently watched Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, the most recent of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and I can say it did not fail to please, with a great cast of new characters and of course a few of the old ones it really was good.

  
While it isn’t a horsey movie it did have a few of our four legged friends in it, with a very exciting chase through the streets of London, after Jack Sparrow.

Here Jack Sparrow was making his escape atop many different carriages, I won’t say anymore so as not to ruin the movie for anyone that may have not yet seen it, but I would say it is well worth watching.

Seeing this movie reminded me of Heath Ryan’s freestyle dressage performance, which was inspired by Pirates of the Caribbean with its music.

2010 Bates Australian Dressage Champs - Heath Ryan wins FEI Hamilton Island Grand Prix Freestyle from Peter Haynes on Vimeo.

Take a look, he is certainly riding a “black pearl” of a horse ;)

March So Far

I’ve been a little absent on Blogger lately. I hope you’ve all been having a great March so far and that the rider’s that follow my blog have been getting better weather and a chance to enjoy some nice riding. I haven’t begun riding again yet but I hope it will not be long now.

  
Recently our suppliers of scented shavings ran out of them, but had this Bed Soft blend, so we got it. I was very pleased with just how much there is in a bag and it’s really nice as well with no dust.

We had a little snow storm earlier in the month and a lot of rain while the weather has improved greatly it’s still a bit damp. I put Murphy in his Newmarket fleece for a bit while it was cold but sadly couldn’t get a decent photo, which reminds me I never got to use my Newmarket ride-on rug this winter, oh well I am happy with the better weather.

I also recently did fat scoring on all the horses and ponies. For those of you that don’t know what fat scoring is, this is it in basic: You check your horse/pony over in three different sections the front, the middle, and the rear, you score each with a five point system were zero is emaciated and five is obese, you score each separately because equines just like people carry weight in different places so scoring each section gives you an overall idea of your horses weight.

I am happy to say Murphy, Madeline, and Tipper are just about perfect. Niko is a little on the chubby side, oops. And Pip is a little on the skinny side. Both of them aren’t anything to worry about, just not perfect, Niko will probably soon lose the extra fat when he starts working again and Pip is getting plenty of food so I am putting his weight down to the fact that he is young stock and is prone to growth spurts that generally cause weight loss. Here is a link to a blog with loads of videos about fat scoring.

Also on another note I am very happy because all our equines have been through the winter without even spending seven day’s in all put together. Anyway I think that’s quite enough babbling from me, hope your all having a good March.