Old Western Film

I felt like I was in an Old Western film today buying a consignment western saddle and trying out a new western bridle on my OTTB, Yada! She has never had a western saddle, western bridle, or western bit before in her life! She handled it well after a little bit of playing with the bit. It's a Myler barreling bit. Got it complete with a bridle and another bridle with a different western bit at a yard sale my high school music teacher held! She gave me all of her horse things for $50! There was a saddle rack, 2 bridles with bits, a breast collar, saddle pad, water bucket heater, sponges, leg wraps, a padlock, 2 lunge lines, a lunge whip, 2 crops, a bunny feeder, gloves, and other miscellaneous items.

This is the type of bit I have:

The "new" saddle:

She wasn't huge on the fact that the bit has the part going on top of her tongue and kind of holding it there, but she soon got used to it. The other part of the bit was how the reins were connected. A little bit of pulling puts a lot of pressure on her mouth so I used very slight movements to not hurt her and not make her hate her western bit. Besides, I hate it when people pull on horses' mouths. More pulling makes the horse experience pain, discomfort, and can desensitize them so they the horse requires even more pulling! I want her mouth to stay happy and sensitive. Makes her easier to ride in the future when we start doing harder stuff like jumping and really fancy dressage stuff. She's still only three years old, so jumping is a couple years off but might as well get her ready now!

I will have pictures of her in the new western tack tomorrow for modeling purposes and to see how she does! And then I will ride her bareback a bit since, to my knowledge, she has never been ridden bareback before! I was going to yesterday but there was too much hay and equipment in the ring to even ride. Today I tried to go on a trail ride with my mom on Louize but the trails were overgrown and the ground was soft and squishy. Plus, I was only guessing where the trails were. I have no clue, really! I did find one area that looked promising but Yada refused to go forward. She just spun in circles and backed up. Apparently there was something there she REALLY did not like, so I gave up the endeavor. Maybe another day.

I also got new halters for my horses! They look so cute now!

These are the brightest colors for anything I have ever gotten for Louize or Yada but I thought it was high time for something different! I also figured the natural horsemanship of the rope halters might be better for them since they both get rub marks from their other halters. I had to have fleece on their halters before to keep it from stripping away all of their hair! These should be much more comfortable for them! Louize usually looks amazing in greens so that's what I usually got her but she does look pretty good in that super crazy orange! Yada looks amazing in just about any bright color. Blues are definitely her color but I think her purple, pink, blue, and green halter goes with her quite well!