For anyone that knows me, over the last 18 months, I have become pretty obsessed with cleaning my tack after every single use - whether I have a hard session in the arena, go for a gentle stroll, or opt for a lunge session for Louie. I detach my bit, wipe down my bridle, girth, girth straps and saddle with a cleaner & conditioner every time - it takes literally five minutes (so no excuses with time!)
Last week, I received the Sterling Essential leather cleaner and conditioner in lavender fragrance, and I was really excited to see how these products stacked up against my existing everyday product. I'd heard really great things about both products from Laura at Boudica Equestrian - the only UK stockists - & I'd also read up about Sterling Essential's careful development of a pH formula that of leather.
Although September means the end of the summer, I do love the autumn season, with all the beautiful colours that it brings and especially those fabulously fresh mornings - clear blue skies, sun shining strong but the ground is full of dew and the air is crisp and cool 🧡
As the season changes, we all start to think about what we need to do to prepare for the coming months - clipping, what rugs we might need, feeding, turn out & field shelters. I popped a post up a couple of weeks ago with my top tips for horse care in autumn & winter.
But for now, Louie and I have carried on throughout September just as we are...
It had been around four weeks since our last dressage training session and I'd been working hard to practice what we'd done in the last session in between - mostly keeping Louie's neck supple and improving his forward reaction off my leg. However, in between, we'd also been to our first dressage competition since the end of February, and we'd had a couple of showjumping sessions. If you caught up with our most recent showjumping training session, you'll have heard that we were struggling at home a little in between too.
