Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Spur Tag

First of all, I made it through the plane ride without getting a splitting headache. And the girls were stars. I was traveling without Craig so herding two kids under 5 can be a challenge, but they were both wonderful. In fact we got four compliments on our way to baggage claim in Cleveland about how good they were and how well I handled them. All the comments were made by businessmen, and since we were traveling on a weekday I can only assume that they'd had their share of flights that included unruly and unhappy children. I'm so proud of my girls!

Anyway, back to the Tag! Jewel over at
20 Meter Circle of Life put out a challenge/tag for all readers about their spurs. Of course, it was at the beginning of July and I'm just getting around to it now, but here it is.

The rules are link back to me and put up a pic of your spurs and an explanation of why you ride with them.

Here are my spurs.



They are what I'd consider medium length dime rowel spurs. I ride with them because I want to be able to use them if I need them. I don't use them all that often but Kaswyn and I have a back and forth issue about my left leg. My issue is that it's weaker than the right leg. His issue is that he chooses to ignore the leg sometimes even when I'm applying it strongly. I'm sure this is from years of my using it ineffectively and him getting used to squeezes that aren't placed right or don't really mean anything. So, in these cases, my spurs help remind him that "leg on" means "do something".

So, as Jewel said, if you're reading this, consider yourself tagged. Let's see those spurs!

3 comments:

20 meter circle of life said...

Very nice!! I aspire to rowels. Glad you made it home safe and are feeling a bit better

Anonymous said...

No picture, but I ride Hen in the 2" long neck spurs ( http://www.doversaddlery.com/product.asp?pn=X1-2511&&). Mostly because his heart girth is much narrower then his barrel (he's got a sprung barrel) and so my leg rides him short. I need the extra length to be able to reach his side when he needs a little reminder that forward doesn't mean slow down because he's feeling lazy.

Back when I showed, I used the same spurs you have as I wanted him a little sharper off my leg. For the most part though I don't wear spurs unless I'm doing arena work or a program. He doesn't need them out on patrol.

I think Mary will wear either rowels (my old show ones) or the ones that are similar but have that black ball on the end (http://www.doversaddlery.com/product.asp?pn=X1-25117&&). She wears shorter ones (same as your minus the rowel) for show jumping/cross country. He really responds to the ball ones, but they are not legal for eventing.

craig said...

Should I post a photo of my spurs? : )

 
Header Image from Bangbouh @ Flickr