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!!

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. 

To the Left, to the Left

Sorry if that song is now stuck in your head but it's been stuck in mine all weekend so I thought I'd share the wealth!  I had a last minute dressage lesson Friday night where we focused on all things left.  Mainly getting McKenna off my left leg and moving more into my right rein.

Looks almost like a legit dressage pony

I might have had an impulse eBay buy that came Friday morning.  I found a good deal on a barely used Collegiate dressage saddle that I put a low ball offer in that won. TS checked the fit of it before my lesson and it actually fits McKenna pretty darn well.  TS recommended some reflocking in the future, after the mare finishes growing/filling out but the Ogilvy helps for now. I did have to punch a couple holes in the stirrup leathers it came with, but being a shorty I'm used to it.  I do have a black dressage bridle on the way because I hate mixing brown and black tack.

As for the lesson, we only did walk-trot but it was some of the best and hardest work we've had yet.  TS was really getting after me about not getting after McKenna.   I'm being too easy on the mare and it's time to up the ante. We really focused on our leg yields going left.  The mare absolutely doesn't want to move off my left leg, or will move her shoulders but not her hind end.  I was given a dressage whip and told to lightly tap her with it.  McKenna had the predicted melt down, "OH MY GOD MOM IS BEATING ME!!!!!!!!" but after a couple half hearted hops up and down she gave it up and went back to work. I was really happy with the fact that she could come back to work after losing her little pony brain. That almost felt better than the leg yields we ended with!

Nom nom time

She got the day off Saturday to think about what she learned, then we went right back to it on Sunday.  I didn't drill the leg yields as much as we had in the lesson, and I didn't get the whip out, but we still had some good work.  I also cantered in the dressage saddle for the first time and holy crap do I love it!  I could actually SIT ON MY HORSE during our canter, wrap my legs around her, and not perch on her back.  It felt like I was cantering bareback.  I am so so so happy with my impulse buy!