Womp Womp

Last week I was very excited to buy my not entirely perfect saddle. But then TC said no thanks. Whyyyy TC??? 

Bareback saddle

The saddle fitter came out early on Friday morning. TC hadn't had all of his breakfast yet (I normally ride him a little later after he's done eating), I didn't have time to do his exercises, he had a day off the day before, it was kind of cold... 

We fit the saddle to him and I got on and immediately felt like something was up with him. But again, there was a lot of things that could have been causing him to be iffy. When we picked up trot, TC was a bit balky and with his balks/props, he shifted the saddle pretty aggressively forward. I did get him trotting but it didn't feel so great. 

We stopped and the fitter changed the fit so that it would be more stable, we moved it back into position and I hopped back on. TC was still acting a bit funny, but by this point the saddle fitter had moved to the rail just inside the arena. TC is the *weirdest* about people watching him, and for some reason people standing on the rail are doubly weird. So TC was a bit tricky to get going, but now he was less balky and more just trying to low key mow down the saddle fitter (or run up to him and stop??? What is his deal?) when we were on that side. 

Saddle

I decided to just move forward and ride him in it later in the day and the next morning. I really can't focus with saddle fitters around, I've learned this about myself in this process. We went back to the barn and discussed pricing but I explained that TC was iffy in it so I'd be letting him know. The saddle was a tiny bit more expensive than we originally discussed but it was fine. 

Because he hadn't done much in the morning, I went to get breakfast, had a job interview, then got him out again over lunch. With no distractions and riding him at his normal time and in his normal way, I was hoping he'd be better. We still had the additional variable of him being ridden earlier in the day though. But I figured if he was good in it, that would be good enough for me. If he wasn't good in it, then I'd ride in it again on Saturday. 

He said maybe... he wasn't terrible in it but man he was not great. He needed a lot more coaxing to get forward than he has recently. Remember how I put down my whip last week? Yeahhhhh. 

Bareback saddle

Saturday morning I headed out to the barn feeling iffy about it. I decided that if he went perfectly in it, I'd ride in it again on Sunday and then buy it. If he didn't, I'd probably just pass on the saddle. 

Unfortunately on Saturday, he wasn't great in the saddle. He wasn't bad, but I couldn't settle into that easy trot we had all last week after the clinic. I also noticed the saddle was kind of hitting me in the butt as I sat down, which was not so good. 

I swapped to the bareback saddle and he was better, not perfect, but much better. We found a nice swingy trot and I felt like I could shorten and lengthen my reins and he'd just shorten and lengthen his frame vs coming against me at all. 

Bareback saddle

At this point with the changes after the clinic, I'm pushing out all of our lessons and shows until the spring anyway. My hope initially with this saddle was to snag it now and be able to be back to work and show ready in January or February. Now I'm hoping to be back to regular work by then and then go back to showing maybe in April or May. So as frustrating it is to have found such a great saddle and then have it not work out... it's honestly fine. 

My plan is to hold off for a couple of months. I'll try saddles if I can find them, but I want to just focus on rehabbing TC's posture (man this is becoming just what I do with this horse ugh) and take the pressure off of myself and him this winter. I might not even move him, as we can do a lot of this stuff on the road when the arena is too wet to ride. But we'll see. 

Then once it's apparent that this stuff is working and he's getting ready to go back to normal dressage, I can figure out a saddle situation. By then, I'm hoping his topline will have recovered enough to fit him to a saddle. And maybe some of the issues we are having fitting him will be gone (like would a saddle slide forward into his shoulder if his longitimus dorsi muscle were properly developed? not sure!). So, kind of a bummer, but it'll be fine. I once again need to refocus my energy from dressage/showing/lessons and into posture work. 

Saddle

The good news is that since the clinic, his body has genuinely felt the best it's felt in years. He's always given me this weird feeling in his body that he's just not 100% comfortable. Never enough to make me really worry about him (and all vets/chiros/etc have pronounced him very sound and comfortable), he's always been in the 80-95% range. I always blamed it on his breeding and that I'm asking him to do a sport he isn't bred for (and that was backed up by vets and trainers). But he now feels just so solidly comfortable in his body. So I'm really hopeful that he'll continue to improve. This feels different than everything else I've tried!

Along these lines, we are officially signed up for a clinic with the clinician from two weeks ago in November! Just four weeks to go. And maybe she'll have some insight on what saddle would be appropriate to put him in and when.