Here's my new saddle pad!

Here's a picture of my new saddle pad:



I did also order a Thinline pad because I'm paranoid about protecting Mac's back as much as possible and I'm a sucker for a "therapeutic" saddle pad. Since the Saddleright didn't work out, I'll give the Thinline a shot. I use one with my dressage saddle and like it, but that one is too small to fit the new saddle.

Now I need to hit the trails - soon!

Saddle pad searching

I'll go back in time a bit. I got my new saddle. The saddle pad I had doesn't work with it - the pad was slipping and the saddle rolled a bit. So I had the shims sent to me, but for the life of me I can't figure out what to do with them so haven't actually used them.

In the meantime, I got the pad I had on order - it is a Saddleright pad. I already have one of these pads for my jumping saddle, and I love it. I've had the pad for almost 15 years now and it is still in great shape. It provides a nice "shock-absorbing" (for lack of a better description) protection for the horse's back, and it also helps fit a too-wide saddle. Unfortunately, the western/trail version did not work with this saddle - it also slid back from under the saddle.

Woe is me.

Back to the drawing board. You cannot imagine how many saddle pads are out there and it is mind-boggling to try to figure out where to start. And part of the problem is that a lot of them don't have "trial" policies so if you buy it and it doesn't work out, you're screwed. (Saddleright has a money-back guarantee, which is why I tried it, but I'll have to send it back. :-( )

I had heard a lot of good things about 5-Star wool felt pads and I have a friend who rides in one and so she let me borrow it. It was a 3/4" full western pad, meaning it has square edges and is long enough that it is supposed to fit under a saddle with a square skirt. My saddle has a round skirt and it is also shorter than a lot of western saddles, so when I put my saddle on top of this pad, there was a LOT of pad behind the saddle. It is shaped for the withers and has a wither cutout, so that's good, but it slid back just a bit and then rubbed Mac's back at the back edge of the saddle, so that's not good. I did feel like I was on the right track with a thicker pad, though, so off to do more research.

Here's what I was thinking:

1) I need a thick pad
2) I need a short pad
3) Ideally I'd love to have a pad with a latigo/billet keeper like an english-style pad
4) I think I need a "shaped for the withers but not a wither cutout" pad
5) I want something with soft/rounded edges (no square edges like the felt pad)

So off I went to shop again. I emailed with the good folks at Riding Warehouse for a suggestion and in the meantime did my own research. Colin and I got out my old pad that didn't work, got the saddle, put them together, measured them together and separately every which way and came up with a Toklat Woolback round barrel saddle pad from the Riding Warehouse website. Funny enough, it is the same pad that was recommended to me by one of their customer service representatives. I ordered it last Friday and got it yesterday.

Today was my first ride with it, and . . . it is perfect!!! I used the latigo/billet keepers, but I didn't need to - the pad did NOT move. It is nice and fluffy and reminds me of the fluffy half pads that I've used with my jumping saddle. It gave a nice cushion underneath the saddle but wasn't too thick that I felt far away from Mac's back. It left his back nice and warm but not hot, there was an even sweat pattern, there was no rubbing on his back, and he seemed to like it by the lovely ride we had.

So big thumbs up and big sigh of relief, too!

I'll try to get a picture in the next few days - I forgot to bring my phone out with me when I went for a ride today.

Had the best ride today!

That Mac, he sure does keep me on my toes! After a couple weeks of not riding because it was snowy and cold, it finally got warm enough that my fingers wouldn't freeze off when riding. I've ridden in the new saddle a few times in the arena and on the trail and there's a bit of rolling side-to-side, so the saddler is going to send me some shims and I have a new saddle pad on order. I also ordered myself some offset-twisted stirrups so that twisting the fenders won't hurt my knees. I did get them pre-twisted, but with my right knee (where I had surgery), it still isn't enough. I should get the shims and pad this week and the stirrups will come later. Hopefully they'll do the trick. In the meantime, I have been on a few trail rides and LOVE this saddle for trail riding! It is really comfortable and one day I almost thought I had a heated seat! Really, I don't know how/why it would feel that way, but my buns were toasty warm and comfortable.

Until I get the rolling sorted out I've been doing arena work in my dressage saddle. We took a week off during the holiday when my parents were visiting so I just got on again the other day. Boy Mac was a spitfire! Some days he wants to play along and some days he just doesn't.

I got out my lunging caveson and so have been doing some lunging/groundwork before getting on (I was inspired by a Philippe Karl video that showed him doing groundwork with a young stallion before riding). A couple days we had lovely and impressive leaps in the air, but the last couple of times have been uneventful. I work on large circles, spiraling in/out, trotting over poles, and circumnavigating the arena with a series of circles. Then I do shoulder in and haunches in in-hand, and finish with some flexions in hand.

The past two rides I had were absolutely fantastic!!!!! I think it helped that he was able to loosen up and stretch over his back without me up first, and then after doing some specific exercises at the walk we went to the canter. That really seemed to get him loose and supple and so the rest of the ride was just great. I'm on cloud nine. It was one of those rides that I just want to tell everyone about, so here I am. We worked on transitions, SI/HI, counter canter, collected trot - medium trot, and some cavaletti pole work (cloverleaf pattern). He felt really straight and supple and light and forward and it was just wonderful!

I'll try to get a video or at least some photos in the new saddle when I've got it set up to my liking.

Happy New Year!

I got my saddle . . . yes, really!!!!

I received the saddle Wednesday evening but didn't have a chance to do anything with it other than take a picture, because it was time to feed the horses dinner and do my chores. If you'll remember, I got a Crestridge saddle - they built a Wade seat on a Sentry tree, since Mac had been fitted with the Sentry and seemed to like it. Based on his measurements that I sent in, they thought he'd need and extra-wide vs. a wide. I had tried both on him, but on different days so didn't have a complete chance to compare one to the other, but I do remember that he went better in the extra-wide than in the wide. The thing I didn't like about the EW, though, was that the twist (area between your thighs) was too wide. But I liked the width of the twist in the W tree. So they built up the seat so that it feels like a W even though the tree is EW.



Yesterday I went for a first ride. The bad news is that because it is so cold we drained the water out of our irrigation pipes so I couldn't water my arena and the footing is very hard and frozen. The good news is that I did get to at least make adjustments (took me forever to figure out how to lengthen the stirrups with the Nevada twist in there!) so that the stirrups are right for me! We walked around for a bit and went for a short trail ride.

I couldn't decide between a 15" seat and a 16" seat, so went with 15.5". I'm really happy with the 15.5" seat. The 15" would have been too small and while I think the 16" would work, I'd probably have to scoot my butt back to get into the sweet spot of the saddle, and then my legs wouldn't be underneath me as they are with the 15.5". With this saddle I feel more like I can move with him in the saddle vs. moving IN the saddle (with a seat that's too big), if that makes any sense.

Some things that I pay attention to with Mac to know if he likes a saddle or not will help me decide if/how well he likes it; so far the signs are good. Mac stood completely still for saddling and didn't try to bite the side of the trailer or the air or turn around to try to take a bite out of me. He stood happy and relaxed and patiently while I tacked him up (and spent 10 minutes or so trying to adjust the fenders); when I was feeling under and all around the saddle, he "dropped" and so I think he was pretty happy and relaxed! Another thing I monitor on him is how he walks down hill. When he's feeling good and he's happy with his tack he is very forward going down hill, which he was today for the short little ride we went on.

I love the color - I was worried that it might be a bit yellow, based on the color swatches on their website, but it is a lovely chestnut color. The craftsmanship is excellent and it looks and feels very well made - moreso than some more expensive saddles that I tried where I found irregularities and uneven work.

We're supposed to have rain and snow for the next couple of days so I think I'll be able to go for a long trail ride on Sunday - I didn't ride long enough yesterday to get a good sweat pattern to look at.

One suggestion I might offer to the company would be to number the holes on the fenders because I had to take the long strap down and count from the bottom to make sure I got them on the same holes. I don't anticipate changing stirrup length a lot, but it would have minimized some frustration up front when my fingers were frozen and didn't work very well!

Their saddles are made so that you can "center-firing" the rigging (use the back ring you see in the picture above, as well as the front ring - this stabilizes the saddle more on the horse's back). I'm familiar with this and have done it before on another saddle, but there are only 11 holes in the latigo (the holes only go halfway down the latigo) so I don't actually have a hole to put the cinch buckle in. My cinch is long enough that with other saddles I've tried I've been able to use this feature. So I'm thinking that my latigo should either have more holes or perhaps I need to get a bigger cinch? On their video I see that the cinch ring is right up by the bottom of the saddle but my cinch is only long enough to go just above the elbows.

Looking forward to a long trail ride on Sunday so I can get a better idea of how it feels for Mac, but so far I like it!


Susan

New videos!

Actually, I'll start off by saying I ordered a new saddle - a Crest Ridge. It will have the bars of the Sentry but the seat/horn of the Wade model. I hope I like it! I know the Sentry bars fit Mac and it turns out the extra-wide should fit him better than the wide. Now I wait for six weeks or so! Can't wait to report back with hopefully good news that we both like it!

Now to videos. I got Colin to video my ride on Sunday and I was so pleased. Usually when I get a video of my riding, I don't like it or it doesn't look like how it feels. Or when I know the camera is rolling I get tense and then don't have a good ride. But on Sunday I didn't have tension, had a great ride, and only had to edit out one small part that I didn't like.

Here is the first of four clips. This is our warmup where we did some baby lateral work like shoulder in and leg yield and then canter.



The second clip shows us doing trot work. It is hard to get a feel for what we were doing because the straightaways were sort of at the wrong angle, but we were shortening the stride on the short side of the arena and lengthening (which compared to a normal horse looks just like a regular trot!) on the long side.



In the third clip we are working on walk-canter-walk transitions on a figure eight. You can hear me telling him what a good boy he is after one of the transitions.



The last clip is doing a few small canter circles. This is new work for us and a bit more challenging because he has to keep himself together and not fall apart.



I'm trying to ride him in a more "up" frame (which is a word I hate, but you know what it means) and balance it out with stretching. These videos are finally a place where I can look back to see really great progress with Mac. He's doing so well in his work and even if he might get frustrated, he tries and he never says no. I love that horse!

New saddle!

Gotcha! I still don't have a new saddle!

I tried a couple McCall saddles - well, I actually only tried one on Mac because on the other one I could feel the stirrup leather on the underside of the saddle and didn't want to bother riding Mac in it because I'd be worried that it would be a pressure point for him. The other one I did try but didn't buy it for a few reasons - for one it was too wide and/or had too much rock in the bars. Another reason was that I was less than impressed with the workmanship - there were a couple of things that were not right in that saddle and it made me leery of ever buying one.

I've been to the tack store and gotten a few saddles on trial but none of them worked, either.

My saddle fitter came out again on Thursday and brought a couple Steele saddle tree forms with her so that we could put them on Mac's back and see what's what. Well, wouldn't you know - the trees that were the worst fit on him were QH and FQH. Of course that is what most factory made saddles are built on. They have too much rock and angle for Mac's back. And wouldn't you know what IS a good fit for him? A MULE tree! Mule trees are shorter in the bars and also have less rock than other trees. So now at least I have an idea of how to continue my search. While she was here I tried a Crest Ridge Sentry on him and liked it. I had tried one at our last appointment but found the twist too wide. This one that I tried was narrower and felt very comfortable - while the twist felt narrower, it didn't feel too narrow so that it felt like my seatbones were hanging off the side. Now I need to contact the Crest Ridge people to talk to them about trees and what they have in stock. Other saddles that were suggested were Allegany so I'll get in touch with them as well. Close . . . I'm so close!

In the meantime, Mac continues to do well in our dressage saddle. Today we worked on 15-meter canter circles and counter-canter. He seems to have grasped the concept of shoulder-in and so that has been a fun progression. We do a little shoulder-in, switch to haunches-in, then strike off into the canter. We do simple changes. We do fun cavaletti exercises with trot-canter transitions thrown in the mix. It is like weight lifting for horses! A trail ride is on the agenda for tomorrow, it is always nice to get out of the arena and goof around on a loose rein.

Sad news

It is with much sadness that I report that Tomato, my husband's horse, had to be put down a couple weeks ago. Tomato had an acute neurologic episode last year and since then had been managed with daily Previcox. A couple months ago the Previcox was losing its effect and Tomato became more ataxic to the point where he could not walk in a straight line. Instead of waiting for the time when he might fall down and hurt himself, or someone else, or when he would go down and not be able to get up, we let him go on a beautiful fall day after grazing in the pasture and enjoying a mouthful of carrots.

Rest in peace, Tomato. You were most definitely the best horse - full of heart and strength and leadership and kindness and I enjoyed our conversations. Even though Colin didn't believe it, I know you understood me and always answered my questions with a shake or nod of the head. Little girls loved you. We loved you, too.

We do now have another companion horse, Sunny. Sunny is a 16-year-old paint who is retired due to a suspensory injury. His only job is to be here for Mac so Mac doesn't get lonely. That is working out well, but Mac is not as nice a boss as Tomato was. While Mac hasn't hurt Sunny, he's not very friendly to him, either. Sunny is very happy to have green grass to munch on . . . and a bit of alfalfa at night doesn't hurt, either!