to ride... or not to ride...

that is the question! At least sometimes when one has got a bad day. I had such a day yesterday, when I didn't really fell well.

Nevertheless, I went to the stable and collected Julia from the pasture. She was in a rather wicked mood and tried to chase any horse that was a few meters away grazing peacefully away from us. I assume, there have been some changes in the hierachy of the herd lately and that Julia has once again managed to increase her rank a bit. She tends to get extra dominant then. :P

Anyway, I had had a bad day so far, so my intention was to take a look at her, groom her a bit and assure nothing is wrong, then let her go back to her favourite leasure time activity, grazing. Well, as intended, I started to groom and while I was at it, someone else came back from riding her horse. And we talked a bit, and eventually during our talk I told her that all I would do today is groom a bit. She looked at me with a rather confused expression and pointed at Julia. And she asked why the horse was saddled if I wanted to let her go outside again and not ride. Doh!!! Routine took over! I did indeed started grooming, then saddled.. and.. well, since the saddle was on... went for a ride. :P So much for not feeling well and taking a day off!

As you all know by now, I'm riding 'western' style. Currently, I'm considering buying a new saddle pad and am not too sure which one to take. I'm thinking about a felt pad (full felt) or maybe wool and felt. I'm wondering what works best with all the curls. The fleeze one (Reinsman, I think it was) seems to be a collector of curly fur during shedding times and stops transporting sweat as it should thanks to all the tiny curls stuck to it. I tried brushing them off, but it's pretty useless and I gave up after several attempts. Any suggestions on which type of pad works well with curly fur? (I'm only taking high quality, long lasting products into consideration).