New Boots - New Bruises

I spent Saturday flitting around Ikea and Maison du Monde, as well as an outlet center just over the border in Belgium before getting back to the yard in time to haul the girls in for some TLC I'm the form of pedicures & hair cuts.

Sadly I'm a muppet & didn't nab any before/after clip pics
 and this is as much of Kika as will be seen on
the blog today...read on for reasons

Sunday was "testing" day for my new booties. As has become the norm, I started with Nancy while Kika spun on the walker.
N was a very good girl in spite of the fact she hadn't been sat on since the Sunday before and our previous attempt at arena work on the Saturday had been rather an epic fail with her forgetting how to walk straight and not bend to the outside on the left rein *sigh*
She did try to get away with inverted squirming on the same rein this Sunday, but unlike the previous week i had remembered to bring my whip and a couple reminders behind my inside leg and we got back on the straight and narrow. Including some brief but lovely canter work where we got all our leads and didn't spend 10 minutes working on re-balancing the trot after our downward transition.
My new boots felt awesome! I ride Nancy in a dressage saddle and the longer stirrups totally played into my favour as i found out later when I hopped up on Kika in the GP.

Nancy & I pre-ride, shiney new boots & my ♡ eurostar jacket
 and ADE flight breeches...i felt like a million bucks *blush*
 Now to hopefully start riding better!

Kika on the other hand was an absolute wagon. True a horse was on the treadmill outside the arena we were working in...True it was making quite a racket, however she has heard it before and just decided that that day it was her turn to give me the finger as she had been so good of late.
We walked around fine on a loose rein, but once I gathered the reins to start working towards some trot work She started to loose the run of herself. For Kika this means a loss of her front end, her head comes up she jinks from side to side as she finds things to offend her in the arena panelling or any excuse really. And if i dream of attempting to sponge the reins or touch her face in anyway she throws her front legs about and reminds me in her not so subtle way that she does rear.
Now she didn't attempt to lift a front paw off the ground, but she was still being a pain in the ass! Un-surprisingly considering her mood, she got worse when the horse was taken off the treadmill & the noise stopped. *eye-roll* Search me - she is an enigma...we'll not really, she was just on a one woman mission to piss me off.

Adding halt to my laundry list of things to work on ;-)

When two other riders joined us in the arena and she continued her cap - we were literally only walking at this stage without any semblance of her listening to be perfectly honest. The arena was getting progressively smaller as she jinked, snaked and cut corners wherever she could. Feeling insecure in the new boots to pander to her cap, I hopped off and went to get a lunge rope & whip.
Back in the arena this time, she was like a different horse. 100% listening and  responsive on the lunge. Grrrr - she knows just how to push my buttons.
I had changed out of the new boots to lunge and was back in my trusty windmeres. Stupidly i forgot my whip when I gathered the lunging gear so when I hopped back up after some walk-trot-canter transitions on the lunge i was hopeful that I wouldn't rue that fact.
She was still being an ass wipe, but we did get transitions done and worked all three gates without descending into a full on argument. I call that a win considering how the spin started.
Due to her carry on, there were no mirror selfies taken on Kika that day. #sorrynotsorry

Conditioner i used - LINK to product info & photo credit

I have two nice bruises at the back of my knees (one for each knee) and am looking forward to them dropping a little to stop catching me there when I walk. Thankfully I have (as yet) no bruising on the front of sides of my knees which bodes better for the fit of these vs the larger size which managed to bruise my right knee when I only tried them on and walked up the stairs once!
I found them easier to ride in with the long stirrups of Nancy's dressage saddle - although to be honest Kika was hardly being a model citizen so i will have to try again with the GP tomorrow. Although for those first 15-20minutes of her shenanigans i was very aware of them pinching me behind my knees - however in saying that I would not be surprised if i was subconsciously gripping with my knees Lest she opt to practice her circus pony act.
I was a good girl and conditioned my boots post ride. I am hopeful that I can get into the habit of doing my tack & boots once a week (preferably a sunday) admittedly i will alternate the girls tack each week rather than set myself up to fail by pretending i will clean two saddle, two  rides and boots every weekend. I know myself better than that! Higher Standards will be coming with me to the barn *shame-faced* Yes it has been living nice & cozy in the house