First ride in the hackamore!

Last week I got my horsehair mecate and so thought, what the heck, and after a fun trail ride with friends on Sunday, tried Mac in the hackamore on Monday.

I didn't know what to expect and was a bit nervous about it. I've ridden him in a bitless bridle before and he's been very good, but this piece of equipment is so new to me that I'm afraid of 1) ruining the lovely piece of art that is the bosal, and/or 2) ruining my horse. But, I'm so eager to at least try that I thought I'd do just a short 20 minutes or so of just walking and playing around.

After getting the mecate tied on, I took Mac out to the arena leading him with the rope halter and bringing the hackamore along so I could do some ground work first. Mac seemed in a fine mood, so I put the hackamore on, made a small adjustment to the length of the hanger, and then walked around, leading him. He was very responsive right away. Hmmmm...interesting. Then something in the bushes got him going a little bit and I had a quick decision to make. Whereas I may usually get those feet moving so he can both blow it out and I can get his attention back, I didn't want to do that with the hackamore. There's really not much holding it on his head, we're both not used to it, and I didn't want to get into any trouble. So I quickly decided that I'd focus on my own energy, talking to him, and asking him for little flexions with his head and lowering his head from pressure on the poll. It worked and he mentally came back to me. We walked around a little more, did some more flexions and basic leading exercises, and since he seemed to be in a good mood, I decided to hop on.

We pretty much just did the same thing under saddle as we did from the ground. Small circles, flexions, bending, transitions, change of direction, moving the shoulder/moving the haunches, and finished with a little backing. In all, we worked for about 20 minutes.

The bosal needs to be shaped to his face, as there's too much of a gap on the sides, as you can see here:



But he looks pretty handsome, doesn't he?!



I ordered him a black saddle pad that has inserts so we'll see how he likes that. Lots to update in the coming week!

Mac's bosal came!

Colin got me a bosal for my birthday - I took my own sweet time in deciding when to order it, but I finally did. I worked with Bill Black on custom sizing for Mac because his head is so big. It came in the mail last week! I tried it on Mac and I'm hoping the sizing is right.



Here's a picture from the side so you can see the space between his chin/jawbones and the heel knot.



I went out to buy a horse hair mecate the next day and have practiced tying it a couple times. The weather is supposed to be good tomorrow so will tie the mecate on, put the bosal on, and maybe give it a try just at the walk to see how it feels. I signed up for a hackamore clinic this spring so that should give me some formal instruction on how to get started.

Hopefully more pictures soon!

Another saddle / pad picture

Here's a picture of the saddle with a light navajo blanket on top.



We went for a trail ride today up in the forest where we don't normally get to ride in January (usually it is either covered in snow or too muddy), but due to the draught we got to enjoy a lovely 70-degree day in the pine forest. I wish I could get out on the trails more, but due to my work schedule I can now only go on the weekends, although I expect that when the sun rises earlier, I may also be so brave and try to hit the trails before work - we'll see.

Anyway, it was a great ride! We were alone, but Colin and a friend came along on their mountain bikes. We crossed paths on the trails a couple times and for such a big place, I only saw a couple other horses. Aside from the bikes, we saw a little John Deere Cushman-type cart with a guy who works for the camp and he was checking for illegal pot farming. And then when we got to a section of the trail that briefly crossed the road (a very quiet road) and walked along it for a little while, we saw roller-skiers! Mac wasn't quite sure what to make of them so we just stood and watched a few of them roll down the hill and then we went on our way. He was very good about it!

He's been a bit fussy in the bridle so the other day I put my bitless bridle on him for some dressage work in the arena. He was amazingly soft and moved out to the right rein easily (which he usually doesn't do without a bit of fuss), so I'll keep the bit out of his mouth until the dentist can get here in a week or so. Today we again rode with the bitless (which we usually do on the trail anyway) - he actually seems to be more relaxed in it. So that's given me renewed interested in getting a proper hackamore (bosal plus mecate) and I'm in the process of doing research on sizing and whatnot. I found a clinic in the spring that focuses on the hackamore so that will be a great place to start since it takes a couple months to get one made!

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