Bye bye Money

 After the show, Cinder had a pretty easy week. She had Monday off, a light lunge in the Equibands on Tuesday, and for my lesson on Wednesday we went on a trail ride. I did opt for a free lunge before our trail ride, as she humped her back, squealed, and trotted off as soon as I got on. I do appreciate the fact that Cin let's us know pretty quick when she's feeling fresh. 

They've been working on the electrical at the barn and the hot wire wasn't hot for a few days. A certain chestnut mare figured it out, and proceeded to let her and her pasture buddies into the drainage ditch to get the good grass. She got to wear a grazing muzzle for a week till the fence was hot again.

After running around like a lunatic, and falling down once, Cinder was perfect for our trail ride. She was content to walk on a loose rein and only had one mini meltdown on having to walk through some deeper mud. 

 Friday of that week, the vet was out and we opted to inject Cinder. She had said to the animal communicator that her hocks were sore, but x-rays showed that the stifles were worse and probably causing compensation in the hocks. I decided to do both hocks and stifles at once, and hopefully knock everything out of the way in one go. Per my vet's recommendation, we injected with RenoVo, a biologic. Trainer A has seen great results with it in her horse, and I liked the fact that it's not a steroid. 

post injection hand grazing and lesson watching

Cinder then got three days off with turnout, and three days of light riding. Trainer A rode her last Tuesday and then on Wednesday we had the saddle fitter out. Thankfully my saddle still fits and we decided to add a breastplate to help the slipping issue. Part of the slipping issue is just Cinder's build, and the new sheepskin girth I got doesn't help. Adding a breastplate fixed our issue, and I'd much rather pay for that than repaneling my saddle, or having to get a new one. 

Saddle Fitting Round #2

 I have fallen behind on my saddle fitting recaps, but I'm going to try and remember what happened. The Voltaire rep did in fact keep her appointment and we ended up trying three different saddles that day. She did want me to try a fourth, their monoflap, but since I want to focus on the hunters and eq with Cinder, monoflaps aren't going to work. I'm sure for schooling shows I'd get away with it, but I know at rated shows that would be a big strike against us. 

The only pic I took when the Voltaire rep was here

I ended up liking the Voltaire Palm Beach. The Stuttgart felt like it put me in the back seat, while the Palm Beach felt much more balanced and my leg fell perfectly into position. We also tried the new Essential saddle, which is a semicustom, interchangeable gullet saddle. Basically, it comes with a narrow, medium, and wide gullets, and you can pick your seat size and either a short, medium, or long flap. I didn't like it, felt like it put me in a chair seat, but it was a 17" seat while I usually ride in a 18" so that could have part of the issue. 

The rep did note that Cinder is deceptively wide, especially through her shoulders and since she's still filling out, will most likely need a flap modification for her scapula. For Voltaire saddles, the rep recommended their Fin panels, instead of the Pro panels. All the saddles she had that day were Pro panels, so I couldn't see what that Fin would look like on Cinder. I did find a used Palm Beach with Fin panels in a 17.5" and a short flap, so I'm taking in on trail. Should be here Monday.

Anyone know how to read this?

 

In the mean time, I'm borrowing friend A's old Crosby Equilibrium saddle. It's a narrower than my County, and Cinder seems to like it currently, so yay! It's not a great fit for me, and is slicker than snot, but if works for Cinder I'll make do.
 

All Checked Out

 I wanted to get a few things about Cinder checked out once she was back home again. Mainly have my farrier look at the shoeing set up training farrier gave her (my farrier isn’t familiar with this type of shoe), have the chiro vet check her out, and have a knowledgeable eye check my saddle fit on her. 

Monday was farrier day for Peebs, and while Cinder was at 3 weeks and not ready to be done, I did have my farrier look at her. He had talked to training farrier a few weeks ago at a seminar, so he had a little more background info on her set up. He still wasn’t 100% sold on the special shoes but we have a plan moving forward. And if we run into trouble I told him I’ll have him and my vet out together to see what we need to do. 

Chiro vet came out on Wednesday and was able to check both Cin and my saddle. I was worried that my medium wide treed saddle wasn’t going to fit, but it’s actually not bad. Maybe a tich wide, but it makes pretty good contact along her back and has plenty of wither and shoulder clearance. With my half pad, it should be good. 

As far as chiropracticly, Cinder felt great as well. Chiro said her back felt strong and she had a nice top line for a lightly worked 3yr old. I had been thinking that Cin was a little under weight, but chiro said she didn’t think so. It’s more that she’s still gawky and gangly, and that she’d rather see her in this shape than overweight especially since she’s still growing. Cin is also just going to a bit of a leaner built horse than I was expecting.  To completely dash my hopes, chiro thinks Cinder is going to top out closer to 17.1 hands, than the 17 I was wishing for. 

Magical Unicorn Saddle

We had the saddle fitter out on Saturday to do Peebs and another horse in the barn.  While the mare seemed to be a quick fix (she just needs a wide tree saddle) it doesn't look as easy for Peebs and I.  Apparently we are on the hunt for a magical unicorn saddle.

Homeboy might be getting this plastered on him

Being the super awesome horse that he is, Peebs needs a wide to extra wide tree on an English made saddle (no Antares, CWD, Devocoux for us) possibly a hoop tree, while I being the short, squat person that I am needs an 18" short flapped saddle. Do you know how many of these mystical saddles are out there used?  Nada.  And I've been searching multiple used saddle sites multiple times a day since Saturday. I will admit to feeling a bit discouraged over the weekend.

For what I'm going to pay for our new saddle it might as well be gold

It was a bit funny, when the saddle fitter told me that I needed a bigger seat size with a short flap she seemed almost embarrassed, like it was a secret that I'm short and fat. I told her that I realize that, that I've had to deal with too long flaps my entire life and that I know how hard it is to find short flaps.  She let out a breath and seemed quite relieved. 

I do have an email into the local County rep to see about getting an appointment to see how much $$$ it will be to get a new custom saddle for us. I rode in a County years ago and absolutely loved it and the saddle fitter on Saturday said those saddles would be a good fit for Peebs. County is currently running a 0% financing right now, so we'll see if we can make it work.  It's my birthday at the end of the month and if nothing else I've asked for money towards the saddle and it will be one big ass 30th birthday present to myself!

Saddle Shopping: Oh Crap

Our "before" confo shots.  That neck makes me cringe a little inside.

I knew my saddle wasn't a great fit for Peebs and have been planning on getting a new (or more likely a new-to-me) saddle in a year or so.  I figure his topline was going to develop more and he'd fill out a bit and why fit him for a saddle now when it could all change. 

I'm pretty sure there isn't supposed to be daylight between my saddle and his back

But over the last couple weeks Peebs has started being different under saddle.  He's a bit lazier than normal, wants to stop more, and every time I went to pick up my reins from a walk break he'd stretch his head down and put out a front leg like he was going to rub his head on his leg.  But he wouldn't rub; he'd just stretch down and not want to go forward. The first couple times he did it I thought he was complaining about his boots so I took them off and used polos.  And he still did it so off came the polos and he went with naked legs.  And he still did it. I might not know this horse well yet, but I could at least figure out something was wrong.

Peeb's wither tacing

One of the other boarders in the barn has a good friend who is a saddle fitter at Pelham Saddlery and directed me to her.  I sent in some confo shots, and tried my hand at wither tracings, so she could get an idea of what we would need to be looking for in a saddle.  Other boarder is having a local saddle fitter out this weekend to look and and reflock one of her saddles so I signed us up for an appointment with her as well.  Other than I know that my saddle doesn't fit, I'm not exactly sure what I should be looking at/for.  Luckily for now my BO has a saddle that fits better, but still not great, that we can use and while I've only used it twice, he hasn't done the head/necking stretching thing. 

The Peebs Test: Ogilvy vs EquiFit

I've been using my Ogilvy pad for almost a year now, and while I like some things about I really dislike others. My jump saddle didn't fit McKenna all that well and I bought the Ogilvy because McKenna seemed a bit sore with my EquiFit T-form pad and the ThinLine sheepskin pad was way, way too much padding with my saddle.  I sold the ThinLine on ebay but kept the EquiFit as a backup, just in case pad.

When I first got the Ogilvy

 To me the Ogilvy seems too bulky under my saddle and too much padding between me and the horse, but not as much as the ThinLine was. I do think it helps relieve back soreness in both the horses and myself.  McKenna seemed much less sore and happier with it, so I kept using it.  But with Peebs I wanted to test the two pads out again.  I have the same bulky problem with him even though my saddle seems to fit him better, even though it's still not a prefect fit. Ironically even though I have a jumper style Ogilvy, it fits a lot better on both horses with my dressage saddle.

Someday I'll take this pic at Thermal, someday

I've used the EquiFit pad twice with Peebs now, one flat hack day in the indoor and one little jump day outside.  I like the look of the pad much better; it seems neat and tidy to me instead of a big floppy pillow.   While Peebs didn't seem sore, at least to palpation, after the rides or the day after, he didn't seem as happy under saddle.  Both days he was less willing to go forward, would stop or break gait easily and often (part of that might be rider induced), and just seemed a bit more meh than normal. The big thing that told me the EquiFit was no go was when I went to sit deep in the canter to push him forward and every time he fell into the trot.  While that happens a bit with Ogilvy pad, it's not every. single. time.  I'm just as happy to perch forward in a hunter hunch as much as the next floppy ammy, but sometimes you need to sit and drive your pony forward and not have them fall out of gait.  So for now it's the Ogilvy unless someone wants to buy me an EcoGold to try out.

I like how you look EquiFit, but function must follow form

As the Withers Turn

Tia is very hard to fit saddle wise; she has those shark fin TB withers. I was riding her for a while a few years ago, and borrowed her for a medal final, and had a hell of time trying to get a saddle to work for her.  The only saddle in the barn that fits her really well is a Wintec all purpose that I hate.  I can't get my calf on her and I can't get out of the saddle over the fences. My saddle fits ok with a large Beval wither relief pad but after our last ride I noticed it was rubbing her.

Today after our warm up, when I started asking for more bend and for her to come on the bit, she stopped.  We were trotting along and she just petered out and halted.  When I got after her she got pissy and hopped up on her front end.  I've been through enough saddle fit issues with her to know that's her way of saying "Ow" so I got off and took her back to the crossties.  I pulled my saddle and was staring at my BO's saddles trying to remember what I've tried on her in the past. My BO has 2 dressage (one fits Tia, but obviously not going to jump in it), 1 all purpose (hate), 1 jumping Wintec (doesn't fit), and 1 Dover Circuit jumping saddle.  The last time we went through this with Tia she didn't have the Dover so as a last ditch effort into not having to use the all purpose I tried it.

Dover Circuit

Surprisingly it fit pretty well.  It's maybe a touch narrow but gives really nice wither clearance.  I used the same Beval pad with it and did some easy w-t-c and jumped a small crossrail and the mare was happy with it.  I however, felt like a fish out of water.  It's narrower than my saddle, and while it's stamped the same size as mine it felt smaller. The knee rolls/pads are kinda weird and my leg goes over them a bit but I think it will just take some getting used to. 

Close up of the odd knee rolls

The Sprenger offset jointed stirrups just about killed my ankles and I think I'm going to need to punch some half holes in the leathers. The saddle came with a horse my BO's got last year, which it actually doesn't fit very well, so it's not used much and my BO said I can use it as much as I want and I can switch the stirrups. I gave it a good conditioning and swapped out the stirrups for my regular jointed ones and put my composite stirrups back on my saddle. I had taken the composites off because I can't show in the eq in them, but since I won't be using my saddle to show Tia in, I can have them back on mine.