Okay, first things first. I hope you all got out and voted either in person today or via early voting (or absentee). Whatever your preferred method, make sure you get out there and do it!
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I briefly considered writing in Lisa Simpson for pres. But don't worry. I didn't do that.
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Okay, now on to the topic at hand. The time has come my friends. Hermie, my saddle, has sat on his last horse.
He's been through three seats, two sets of billets, and countless bars of glycerine. I've ridden SO many horses (and couple of ponies) with him. (He generally doesn't fit ponies well. But he's worked for most of the horses I've ever sat on.)
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Hermie was only about a week old here! His first show on my friend's horse Arizona.
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Hermie traveled to Holland with me to meet Rio and stayed with him his entire career!
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The only pony Hermie really fit. This was my old trainer's pony that I got to show when he was a baby. Float Your Boat was his name.
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Jasper and Hermie were well acquainted too.
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Hermie traveled to the Czech Republic twice to eventually meet Jampy. They stayed together his entire career too.
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Hermie fit my neighbor's horse Eddie well too!
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And Eros of course!
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Hermie's last rides were with Pammon. Though obviously, this is an old photo of them together.
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While I probably could have put another seat on him and kept him going awhile longer, the truth is, I don't really fit in him anymore. I was about 110 lbs when I got him nearly 18 years ago. I'm uh... quite a bit larger now than I was then. And the newer saddles have a wider channel underneath which studies seem to show horses prefer. So it was time.
I sold my used Voltaire and a second Hermes I had sitting around too. Took that money and got a new to me Butet to replace Hermie. (Fun fact, I also paid for the temporary Butet with that money, so I made out okay here financially.) For now, I'm going to keep the temporary Butet for Eros and use the newer one that fits me best with Pammon. Both saddles actually fit both horses quite nicely, so I can mix and match later when they're in the same barn. Eventually, I'm hoping to find a second one that fits me (and the boys) and sell the temporary one. But no hurry there.
So all that leads to today's confession: I actually felt a bit sad to retire my saddle.
Which is obviously really silly. To feel sad about an inanimate object. I'm going to keep him on display in my house. Once I get the area cleaned up and put together I'll share that with you all. Have you ever felt a little sad to retire something you've used for a long time. A little end of an era type feeling?
