Black Friday Purchases

Cupid and I have pretty much stuck to walk-trot work since the show because he has a scrape on his leg that seems minor but has felt a little warm and was a little swollen some mornings though that seemed to go away with movement.  And he has been moving out quite nicely, so my trainer and I decided to keep it shorter and no cantering but continue working.  We are making progress and getting a lot closer to being on the bit.  I feel myself improving too; my elbows are not quite so rigid (though I do still go to a leading rein sometimes, or cross my hand over the neck, and my right wrist still likes to rotate down), and I'm sitting up better.  A minor adjustment to my seat - tilting my pelvis forward a touch to not have so much weight in the seatbones - has seemed to make Cupid noticeably happier.  We haven't had any balky transitions into the trot, knock on wood.  It feels like I have to disengage my waist a bit when I do this - so the pelvis is tilted forward but my upper body is upright and it was weird at first but has helped me with the sitting trot immensely.  I think that disengagement is where I need to absorb the bounce in the trot.

I also tried to do the majority of a walk around the property day in two point.  After reviewing my photos and video from the show, I realized I need to work on sinking into my heels so that's my newest goal.

Here are some of my purchases from black Friday:

Dura-Tech Wool Blend Quarter Sheet

Even though I live in California, the place I board Cupid gets pretty cold.  Cupid is noticeably slower to warm up when the temperature drops, and some days I can't feel my hands or feet!  So I thought a quarter sheet might be nice for those days.  Plus I was thinking of it for winter shows we can wear it for warm up if its raining.  I decided to go for wool instead of fleece for a little extra weight as it can get pretty windy.  SStack had these nice wool blend sheets at a very good price.  Of course since I got mine the weather has warmed up again, so I've only used it once but so far I'm impressed.  I just had it under my leg and it felt warmer than without. 

HDR Anatomic Girth
Cupid has slightly big shoulders and a forward girth groove, so sometimes it's hard to get his saddle placed properly.  I've thought of trying an anatomic girth for a while, but kept putting off the expense.  I have a Total Saddle Fit girth for dressage and was thinking of getting their jumping one, but decided to try HDR's cheaper version, which as an added bonus I think matches my HDR bridle and breastplate/martingale.  I ordered the same size as my current girth, 48".  It is a bit shorter, but I don't know if my old girth has stretched out.  Regardless, it currently fits on the first hole on one side and second on the other, so I think with a little use will be good.  I've only used it for one light right so far, but no complaints.  For my personally, I can't tell the difference between this and a more expensive version (though I'm assuming there probably are quality differences), so I'm happy with this purchase so far.