Tack, Tack, and more Tack!!!!!

This week has been pretty quiet, just a lot of moving around. On Monday Amy was assigned a new horse, so she then had four horses to ride. well I only had two, but then one of the girls wanted to ride Elli. He was originally supposed to be her project but she got pretty busy for a bit. She wanted to try to get back into the groove with him. Now i only had one. So i took over Frosty for Amy. So now she has three and I have two so while she rides her last horse Ill do little chores around the barn. Maybe cleaning tack, organizing the tack hooks, raking, etc. We have also added to our little collection of horses. A man who was at the ranch for a couple weeks had two really nice horses that he brought with him to sell. One of them sold. He let Amy ride the other one, she fell instantly in love. Her name is Kit. She is a high energy, but yet controllable horse. she is very tentative and responsive. She knows her job. She is a finished barrel horse that has been trying to sell. But the majority of people who look to buy at the ranch are kids. They don't feel as safe because she acts a little hot, but she wont do anything to you. Shes simply antsy. Well her owner had to go home for a couple weeks and left Kit here in Amy's hands. So now I have MY horse to ride and Amy has hers. We both something to call ours. But horses haven't been the only thing we've been moving around. This week Martha wanted us to use different headstalls. We would also usually use a tie-down (kind of like a halter only it is clipped to the cinch to try to keep the horses head down.) now we use running martingale. it is clipped to the cinch only it has two pieces that come out with rings at the end. you put the reins threw the rings. It is to help the horses break at the poll (tuck their head in)The bit we now use is called an O-ring, it also is used to help horses break at the poll. You want a horse to break at the poll because it helps them use they back and hind end. If you think about it you want your horse to move as if you picked up your horse by the withers (The bone connecting the back and neck.) his head tucks in and his hind end would come under neath him making his legs move loosely and fluently. So the more you can try to accomplish this the better you will ride the better your horse will move. I had to use a really old Martingale that actually snapped in half on me while i was riding Mario. i had to get off and use another one that was a home made one made of string and double end snaps. It took me quite a while to figure out all the knots and adjusting it etc. but after maybe 20minutes i got it figured out and i was bale to continue with my ride on Mario. So i've learned to always over look especially older tack and to keep track of what your are using and if it coincides with where you and your horse are at training and competing wise.