I was convinced my saddle didn't fit. Solo was fighting me tooth and nail against lifting his back and it's just not in his nature to not do something like that "just because." It looked pinchy, it felt pinchy. I brought out Saddle Fitter #1 (ah yes, the fact that he has a number is indeed an indication of future insanity...). SF #1 bring a couple other saddles to try but says, "Oh no, yours fits fine, really." I try to go with it for a few weeks, but get ticked off and sell it because it's not cutting the mustard. It was a great saddle, the first I'd owned, an old Crosby event saddle that fit almost everything. Except the horse I owned of course.
I think I'll need an entire 'nother post to tell the SF Stories, I'll save that...
Because, oh there were lots of other woes.
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| It was WAY deeper than it looks |
Solo happily escaped the strangles outbreak with nothing more than 1/2 day of fever, but we still couldn't go anywhere. As the quarantine was finally lifted after months of boredom, Mr. Genius, decided he still didn't want to go anywhere and attempted self-amputation of his foot in the pasture.
Oh let me just tell you how long it takes to heal a pastern cut on skin that is constantly stretching and moving, no matter how tight you wrap your standing wraps. Months.
Oh AND our farrier (now EX farrier) had managed to mash his poor feet into some unholy shape of crampedness to where the poor horse couldn't even walk properly, so we pulled his shoes and began foot transformation back to healthiness.
I'm sure there was some other crap going on too, but mostly I was throwing myself about my house moping and pouting because I couldn't go anywhere, I couldn't get the saddle just right, my horse was hurt...life sucked!
Solo's poor feet. Argh! The amount of incompetent equine professionals astounds me.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I bet that saddle-less bareback stint did wonders for your seat!
How frustrating! I've been there...sometimes it feels like everything goes wrong at once, and stays wrong for way too long! Luckily, horses have an amazing ability to heal (a month ago I found my horse with a big laceration on his leg down to the muscle layer, how do they do that?!). Still haven't found a saddle that fits though. I need something affordable that can fit a TB built more like a Warmblood, with a mountain range for withers...
ReplyDeleteJen, have you checked out the Thoroughgoods -- their new designs (T6) are really nice, I like that they have different trees for different horsey shapes.
ReplyDeleteI have looked at them in catalogs. When my husband first learned how to ride, it was in a Thoroughgood & he absolutely loved it. I'm really thinking that's what I should try for my goofy shaped boy. They sound like they really make an effort to actually fit the whole horse & not just make the gullet fit one part.
ReplyDelete