Beautiful Saturday Ride!

John, being the wonderful husband he is, carried Paisley out at the barn and hung out while I rode Boomer.  

Boomer is doing well, especially considering I am only getting out to see him about once a week.  I wish I cold see him more, but that is life.  Paisley is on a bottle strike right now, so I am unable to just leave her at home with John and go out to the barn.  And yes, a bottle strike is exactly as much fun as it sounds like!  

Anyhow, I rode Boomer in the arena and he did pretty well.  He is actually surprising me by being very connected and rounding up into the bridle.  Most of the time.  He did throw a bit of a fit when I asked him to canter, but after some stern words (ie, kicking) he straightened right up and gave me quite a few nice canter circles in each direction with several good transitions.  We ended with some serpentines at the trot with very nice direction changes and stretchy trot circles.  He was very good!

When I ordered my new saddle- Circle Y Expedition- it came with a free Reinsman Tacky Too saddle pad.  I am interested in testing this pad out more before forming an opinion, but so far it seems great.  It had really nice grip and kept the saddle from sliding, which has been an issue lately seeing as how Boomer has taken on a rather... round... shape which isn't great at holding a saddle.  After riding for about an hour and getting rather sweaty the pad had not retained heat and was surprisingly cool and dry on the underside!  I don't know if it will retain heat on longer rides, but I sure will test it out!  My main pad, that I love, is the Toklat Coolback.  It breathes, keeps Boomer's back cool, dries in minutes- which is great at vet checks, and washes in the washing machine!