It's Here

My saddle finally came Thursday night, after my lesson of course. I was only able to squeeze in a ten minute ride Friday before heading out to a birthday party but I could feel a huge difference. I can sit  down, I can two point and balance, and it seems to put my leg in the perfect place. It felt like I was being hugged by a soft, squishy leather cloud!

Sunday I was able to get in a longer ride. Our flat work felt very nice; I was able to balance myself better which in turn helped Peebs balance himself. We picked up a few fences and even when we got an iffy distance I felt secure. I've never ridden in a saddle with short flaps before and it makes a huge difference. This was seriously the best purchase ever. 

Added bonus: The leathers I got from L match perfectly!

The only downsides are that I had to use a girth two sizes larger, and it wants to slide back a bit. I doubt my 46" County Logic girth will fit again, but I'm hoping that once the billets stretch I can use a 48". The 50" is a little too big but there's no way the 48" fits right now. So we're currently rocking a fleece girth till I can sell the 46" and find a 48".  I've also ordered a hunter breastplate with a standing attachment since my trainer suggested he go in a standing.

Fourteen Weeks

I'm going I have to wait fourteen long weeks for this:

The County rep came out today and while I wasn't initially impressed with her customer service over email, I really liked her in person. She had a bunch of options for us to try, and even put me in her own saddle which is the one that worked best for us. 

This is going to sound a little odd, but she wasn't what I pictured at all. I guess I had this image of a saddle fitter for a high dollar brand as being snooty, wearing big name expensive clothes, perfectly done hunter hair in a helmet, custom boots.....basically someone that would fit in a BNT's barn. But what I got was a woman with half her head shaved and the other half died pink, gauges in her ears, wearing torn jeans and Converse. It made me feel much more at ease and relaxed around her. The first saddle fitter was way on the woo-woo, natural, spiritual, organic, vegan, homeopathic (insert other mystical out there words here) side, which to be fair, this IS Oregon and that's common. I never felt comfortable with her or really trusted what she said. 

And from what the County rep said, I shouldn't have trusted the first fitter. Peebs was between a medium and a medium wide in the Counties we tried, not a wide to extra wide like I was first told. Granted County runs wide, but that's a pretty big difference. Buddy was an XW and Peebs doesn't feel as wide as he was so it never felt right to me that he was as wide as Bud. 

Fourteen weeks is going to be a long time. Hurry up first week of September!!! 

They Both Have an X

So the County I bought on trial came Friday and I skipped out of work early to run to FedEx and pick it up. I opened the box in my truck in the parking lot and found this:

Extra narrow when it was supposed to have been an extra wide. Cue massive letdown. I immediately emailed the tack shop I got it from saying it's the wrong size and I wanted my full refund. I never even took the saddle cover all the way off let alone tried it on Peebs.

The lady got back to me all apologetic and assured me once they got the saddle back I'd get my money back so I dropped it off Saturday. And I only cried a little bit Friday night about it. 

The Voltaire rep comes this week and the County rep finally got back to me and is coming the week after so hopefully something will work!!  At this point I'm almost ready to stick with the Dover Circuit I'm using even though I don't like it.

Saddle Shopping Sucks

We all know it to be true, saddle shopping sucks.  Especially if you have a hard to fit horse and a hard to fit rider on a budget.  I'm also about an hour and half away from any tack store with any decent used saddle selection and I've already called them twice about their inventory. 

I've been looking mainly at used County's, as I really liked them when I've ridden in them in the past and according to the saddle fitter they should fit Peebs.  But finding a wide or extra wide tree with short flap in my seat size was damn near impossible.  I finally said screw it and emailed the local County rep to bite the bullet and get us a new custom saddle.  I had to email her multiple times, and she said it would take a few weeks to get demos in for us to try.  That was over 3 weeks ago and I haven't heard anything since. I know I'm not a big circuit rider, or a big name trainer with a barn full of clients all buying saddles, but when you have someone ready and willing to drop $$$ with you at least email them updates. I can definitely say I'm not impressed with her customer service skills at all.  I'm not holding my breath for a new, custom County anytime soon.

So fancy!

Even though the first saddle fitter said French brands probably won't fit the Peebs as well as English brands, I thought I'd just try.  I contacted the Voltaire rep and she got back to me with in a half hour and said she'd be down my way next week and had a couple for us to try.  A+++ for customer service!  I've never sat in a Voltaire or seen on in person so I'm interested to try them out.

And of course, the day after making that appointment, I find the exact County I was looking for used. Right seat size, wide tree, short flaps, barley broken in. So I paid to take it on trial and it's being shipped from Virginia today.  Hopefully it will work, or a Voltaire will because I am DONE with saddle shopping!

Please, please, please work!!

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!