What's Up Wednesday

 

Just a short update today as I have very little to report. First and most important... I discovered I can get a margarita with my Mexican food delivery and that's probably the highlight of my winter so far. 

It was strong. I had to dilute it. So solid purchase if you ask me. 

In horsey news... 

Al is still off but is improving. My farrier came out last night and put the testers on him. He didn't find anything with the testers, but said he still isn't ruling out abscess. So more waiting. The vet will be out at some point next week too. On the bright side, his dermatitis is nearly healed up since he hasn't been in work. So I guess that's the positive here. 

Eros is perfect in every way. We had some saddles come in for him to try on Friday. Neither is a perfect fit, but we're getting closer to figuring out what will work so that's promising. We have another coming soon to try next. I had hoped the rep was coming out Monday with it, but she had a scheduling conflict so TBD when she can get here. Soon though!

This is the one I found the most comfortable. It's not quite wide enough on his shoulder though.

This is actually the one that originally came in for Al that didn't work. 
On Eros, it doesn't really work for either of us. Funny how different 
a saddle can feel on each horse.

So we're still looking, and may end up ordering something. But we're getting closer!

Shiny is doing much better after her little leg booboo last week. The swelling is gone and she's feeling sound. I do think she has a little bruise as she gets annoyed when I palpate on it still. I think she'll make it though!

And that's really it from here. Hopefully we'll have some more fun stuff (and maybe media?!) next week. Time will tell! While it makes for boring blog posts, I don't mind a little quiet time during these winter months. 

How are all of you doing? Horses good? Working hard or enjoying some quiet time?

Truthful Tuesday: Saddles again.

 

I've always been a little old school with saddles and saddle fit. I felt that for the most part, most saddles can work just fine on most horses. And while I realize this isn't a popular opinion, generally, I still think it's true. However, I'm not so naive as to think that there aren't exceptions. Of course there are! You'll remember that last year I finally bit the bullet and got some better fitting saddles for the boys. (And me... My butt did NOT fit in my old one anymore.) I'm not sure if I've noticed a big difference in how they go in all honesty. But it is nice to know that they are comfortable in them as confirmed by my body worker and vet. 

My exception to the "most saddles fit most horses rule" has of course been Shiny. When she first arrived (nearly two years ago already!) I plopped my saddle on her only to discover it couldn't work, not even temporarily. At the time, I had my Hermes with the teeny tiny 3.5" tree. Fortunately, I also had the old PJ that I had used on Mowgli. It still wasn't wide enough, but worked for a quick first few rides with her. I got super lucky with an ebay search and found an extra wide Butet with short flaps for a ridiculously good price and that's what I've been using on her ever since.

In reality, French saddles are not shaped like British/American ponies (she's welsh/quarter horse). Not even a little. Shiny here, is basically a wine barrel with legs and a neck attached. Even this extra wide Butet isn't really quite wide enough for her. An extra wide Butet is only 5" wide. For reference, below is Pammon's wide Butet (4.5" tree) that I plopped on her to look at how the flaps hit her:

It's like the Lincoln Tunnel... You could drive a dump truck through there!

This has a slightly forward flap, so you can see where that's not ideal.

So I've been casually looking for something that would fit her. I mean, with all of our issues lately, I can't help but wonder if saddle fit is part of our problem. My realization was that nothing I like would work for her. 'Cause I love me some French saddles. The bright side to that is the saddles that would fit her tend to be a lot less expensive. So, bright side I guess?

What I needed was something round, with a 17" seat for my lady size butt, but nothing with long or forward flaps. Not exactly easy to find. I really had hoped to find something with a short flap, but also, near impossible with a 17" seat. 

I've been stalking used saddle pages on Facebook and the internet in general, and following along on all the ISO's that people post for anything similar. I promise I'm not a poacher! I only inquired if OP's passed. And finally, this past weekend, I think I've found what we've been looking for. It's not exact, but I'm hoping it will work.  It's a county with 6.25" tree.

The flap is about the same length as Pammon's which might be a little long for her (especially since this one would be sitting a lot lower thatn P's!), but it's not as forward. I hate the idea of the flaps taking up half her body, but I think a comfortable tree is probably more important. It was cheap enough that I'm confident I can resell it without losing money if it doesn't work. Also, it's wool flocked so that leaves more room for improvements too. It should be here Friday, so cross all your parts that it fits her please!

Do you have any experience with County saddles? It seems like they mostly do dressage and all purpose type saddles, but this is obviously a close contact. Hope I don't hate it. But if it fits her, I'll learn to love it, amiright?!

What's Up Wednesday

 

We're still plugging away over here getting used to our new schedule. But I have started signing up for lessons so that's some added "fun". And by fun, I mean angst and exhaustion. But like... the good kind of course. I have very little media this week. I take a lot fewer photos at the boarding barn. I think because it's more pressing I stay on schedule. But I'll try and do better next week. Let's go horse by horse for this week's recap.

Bellino
I just flatted Baby B on my own on Saturday. He got a little annoyed with me when I really asked him to lift his belly and move through his shoulder. But once he decided to try it he was happy again. Sunday I did a lesson with him. The flat went fine, though we were riding outside where it was COLD and WINDY. Instructor had us open up the canter for a little gallop and I maybe got a little run away with... Lol! Nothing terrible though, he was just excited. We started jumping outdoors which began just as terribly as last week. I got very left behind over the first one. It's like I just have no idea where this horse should leave the ground. It's pretty embarrassing. Fortunately, Baby B gives zero shits about my idiocy so we carried on and it eventually got better. We wound up moving inside to jump which went an awful lot better for us. Below is a little clip from our last mini course. Not sure what happened to the quality, but you can see him being a VGB. 

Pammon
Pammony pony is working as usual. I think chiro is finally coming out tomorrow. So I'm hoping she'll find something (preferably something she can fix) and we can get moving along a little more. He's been a good boy. Our rides have improved significantly since adding Mr Tappy to our rides.

Shiny
Shiny pants has been pretty great! We haven't lessoned yet, but I'm going to find her one for the weekend to join. Probably one with some little kids so we can just pop a few crossrails for the first time. We haven't really jumped much in awhile. I rode her bareback on Sunday though and barn owner let me break the no jumping outside of lessons rule and we jumped a teeny tiny x bareback. It was adorable. She's just the best pony.

Eros
Of COURSE Eros has been his perfect self. That's what he does. We joined a flat lesson last night and let me tell you.... It was a lot. Definitely more work than either of us has been doing, but I don't think it was too much. Well. Maybe the no stirrup portion. That was a bit much for me... At one point I wasn't even holding on with my legs anymore. They were just numb. All finished. Checked out. No legs for me. Eros was hilarious you guys. I swear that horse has a timer in his head. After 25 minutes he just starts pulling me out of the tack. He's like times up lady! Time to stretch and go back inside for snacks. But we worked through that and finished the lesson. Phew. So out of shape. Both of us.

In other news, I took a saddle on trial for Eros. It's nearly perfect except it is lacking knee and calf blocks. Those are easy to add though (it does have padded flaps). In a rare instance of good timing, there is a saddle fitter/repair person coming out to the boarding barn next week so I can get that done right away. I'm going to ride in it one more time to make sure I like it and double check the fit. If that goes well, I'll get the blocks put on next week. And then I'll ship the temporary saddle off to Redwood Tack. She offered me just $100 less than I paid for it so that's practically breaking even if you ask me! And then this whole saddle shopping adventure will be OVER! Phew!

That's about it from here. Did you all have a good week? Getting lots of horsing done? Or are you tapering off for winter?

Truthful Tuesday

 

Today I am confessing that I was horribly wrong... 

For awhile now (at least a couple of years), I've been convinced I wanted the Hermes Cavalle saddle. I was CERTAIN! I mean, it's beautiful. It appears to have the same balance as the very old Essentielle I'm still stuffing my bum into. And I mean... it's Hermes. What's not to want? Well. I FINALLY found a used one to try. It arrived Thursday literally as I was tacking Eros up. 

I mean, look at it. It's art. So pretty. So soft. But. (You knew a but was coming.) It was a bit too narrow for Eros. I made him try it anyway because it wasn't terrible, and I figured if I still liked it, it would probably work for Pammon since he's a little more narrow.

So I get on. And it fit me very well. But (yeah another one), it didn't make my butt sing. Well. That's not true. My butt liked it well enough. Like a happy humming, as opposed to a full on ecstatic song. I just didn't get that secure feeling I have in my other one and in the Butet's. Like there wasn't anything especially wrong with the fit, but I felt a little like I was sitting on top of it instead of in it. If that makes sense. So, with a strong feeling of disappointment I packed up this beauty and sent her back. The good news is the same shop has a Butet for me to try instead. And even better it's about half the cost of this one. So saving money is always nice. 

I have one other confession today too... Pre pandemic, I used to stop for McDonalds at least once a week for lunch. It was the only food place on my drive between home and work. And I do like crappy food now and then. But I haven't been since lockdown happened. There isn't one near where I live and who drives out of their way for McDonald's? Not this girl. (Though Taco Bell is a different story... Haven't had that either though!) But um... I'm not sure how it happened. At some point I re-discovered the frozen White Castle cheeseburgers you can get at the grocery store. And I've been eating them occasionally. They are delicious! Terrible for me, surely. But so good. So yeah. That's confession #2.