Positive

She rubs the snaps open on her browband :)

It has already been quite the year for me and Katai. First, because of weather I rescheduled my first lesson of the year (1/2) for Saturday (1/6). You all know how that lesson went. Then yesterday (1/9) both Jane and I had big plans.

However, I got to the arena, realized I’d planned poorly and needed to pee so I handed Katai to Jane for a minute. She held her for me while I ran to the rest room but when I got back Jane didn’t look happy. I assumed that with recent pony behavior Katai had stepped on her foot or been a pill but the first words out of Janes mouth were “your saddle doesn’t fit”.

 Damn it

 She was completely right, it was pinching worse on one side than the other but definitely pinching. I feel horrible that I didn’t catch it and saddle fit just sucks in general. I just lost a week of riding a few months ago when I needed to get it narrowed 2 cms and now I’m going to need to send it back to get it widened 1 cm.

Lazy vegan fajitas

This. Winter. Just. Sucks. Between the crazy weather and Katai’s moodiness so far I don’t feel like I’m accomplishing anything even though I’m miserably cold trying, but I’m trying to stay positive.

Positive number one: This is probably a huge part of Katai’s recent poor attitude and it’s fixable! I may still have my sweet willing pony once her saddle actually fits her

Positive number two: I have a backup saddle which I hate but at least I can ride!

Positive number three: I’ve been wanting to do more “spa” days recently so this is a good reason to do some things out of the saddle for the next week or so.

Positive number four: There are a lot of other great things going on in my life right now. More on that later

Blog Hop: Show Gear Goals

I've enjoyed reading the show gear blog posts that have been shared so far and since this is the first year that I really showed (if you can count one schooling show and two shows doing opportunity classes as "really" showing haha) so I thought it might be fun to post on what I have that's working or not working.

What I Have That I LOVE:

• Most of Katai's tack including;
• Saddle - Prestige Lucky
• Bridle - PS of Sweden Flying Change
• Girth - TSF StretchTec in black 22"
• Reins - Cheap flat Horze black leather reins
• Browband - for shows I use the plain black broadband that came with the bridle
• Stirrup Irons - plain medal irons that I bought cheap ($5!!) second hand

• Most of my outfit including;
• Breeches - Full seat white B Vertigo from Horze
• Show shirt - from EGO7 in grey
• Jacket - Equiline navy blue  bought second hand from Amanda at $900Facebook Pony)
• Stock Pin - gifted from a friend
• Stock Tie - from Etsy with little polka dots :)
• Helmet - OneK in black matte
• Gloves - Roeckl gloves in black with white binding

What I Have That Should Be Replaced:

• Brown stirrup leathers - not a big deal since they're really dark leather but I'd really like to get a black pair to match my saddle
• Neue Schule bit - I want the same exact one (4.5" Eggbutt pony performance bit), it just needs to be replaced since it's getting chewed up

Things I Plan to Upgrade or Upgraded Since The Last Show:

• Saddle Pad - I don't love the black saddle pad I have (especially with the little crown logo on it) and really didn't like the white one so I've got a grey Mattes pad on the way :)
• Hairnet/bun holder thing - I have a ton of hair and it went all over the place at my last show. I already ordered a net so that I can put it in a bun and keep it all in place.
• Boots - Big expensive item so I'm not sure when this will happen but I would like to get dress boots here at some point
• Gloves - At some point I'll upgrade to white gloves, still Roeckl since they're all I can stand to ride in

That's it for now! At some point I'll likely get another jacket since it's getting slightly loose on me and of course I'd like to pick up another show shirt and another pair of white breeches but with how seldom I showed this year it just seems unnecessary at this point. I'm going to guess that I'll also need spurs at some point but they certainly wouldn't be helpful right now.

Or I could get boring cheaper boots for
showing and fun boots for schooling!!!

Another Saddle Update

Where the magic happens

It's been awhile since I posted and a very long time since I did a proper riding post. I don't have one for you yet but I do have another saddle update!

I finally got the Prestige Lucky back on trial with the adjustment made. It got to the barn on Monday or Tuesday but I didn't make it out to try it out until Wednesday.

When I set it on her back it still very slightly bridged (very slightly lighter pressure under the seat) but once I girthed it loosely it felt better. Katai also stands with a more hollow back so I knew that once I started riding it wouldn't bridge at all.

Her darn girth groove is just so far forward!

I took the pictures in this post and then put a saddle pad on and then tried it out. I had planned on just a lunging day so I lunged her first and then hopped on for a short ride. She felt good but a little sassy because the saddle put my leg back a little further on her barrel and it sat back a little further so she was being sassy about my leg pressure.

She seemed nice and loose and comfortable over her back but honestly the saddle rode so differently than my previous one that I was feeling very out of it and wasn't completely sure what I was feeling. Then she went to canter (leg position again) but I went with it since I wanted to see what she would think of the saddle at a canter. At the canter she felt less enthused but my leg was also significantly further back on her barrel at that point than it normally is so I'm wondering if it was the or the saddle.

Not bad

Unfortunately when I finished my short bit of canter I thought that the saddle had still slid forward a bit and when I climbed off, after a little more trot work, I confirmed that it had. It had slid forward at least an inch. I was honestly pretty frustrated. This saddle is shorter through the back and has a point billet, two things that were supposed to help and yet it still slid forward.

I could store snacks in there

After some thought about it on the way home I'm going to try girthing it a little different, take some more pictures for the saddle fitter at VTO tonight and hopefully either I'll figure something out with a little tweaking or maybe they'll have an idea or maybe it just won't fit and it will be back to the drawing board. Fingers crossed!

I'm going to hopefully take more photos of my ride tonight and will share those soon.

Saddle Update

A month or so ago I was able to speak with the saddle fitter that works at the company that I got the Prestige Lucky on trial from. He requested some pictures and asked some questions about her breeding and her build. I took the following pictures for him.

After looking at these pictures he announced that she is a 36cm but that the trial saddle could be widened to a 35cm (it's a 33cm and they can adjust it 2cm at a time) and he thinks that would be good enough to try riding in. The trial saddle has been out with a different customer for quite some time now but yesterday I heard back that the saddlery got it back and are readjusting it and going to send it today or tomorrow!

I was thrilled to hear that he thinks that this saddle could fit her with the adjustment. It's just a gorgeous saddle, the leather is amazing, it's shorter through the back, and I'm comfortable riding in it plus it's in my budget so I'll have my fingers crossed that it will actually fit :-)

the trial when it was still a 33cm

Cool, patent carbon fiber type material on the cantle, tough to see in this picture but it's pretty cool 

Of course I also had to check and see if they could get it in "tobacco" brown and they can! So excited to get it back and try it out again.

Saddle Shopping, Again...

I’m back in saddle fit purgatory. I adore my current saddle and the tree actually fits pretty decently, however, as I’ve mentioned previously it has started to really slide forward during rides. In addition now that she’s getting more fit it seems slightly wide.

I think that part of the saddle sliding forward could be fixed by a saddle fitter but there are several things that a fitter would need to do and honestly I just don’t trust the fitter that came out last time since she went back and forth so much. I’m hesitant to have her do a bunch of stuff which would likely reduce the value of my (already not very valuable saddle) and then possibly still not have it fit. One of those things is that the billets are just way too far back for my pony’s very forward girth groove.

Saddle where it's supposed to be, billets pretty far off

I think I need a point billet so that’s been one of the items on my new saddle checklist. The others are short panels, close contact feel, short flaps, and preferably the option to get it in brown. Oh, and of course that it fits and is in my budget.

On paper the Prestige Lucky seems to be all of these things. It comes in a 16” seat but people have said that it feels like a 17” since it’s a much more open seat. It has nice short flaps, point billets, short panels, has a more close contact style, is within my budget, and it even comes in brown!!

It has been extremely tricky to actually find one that I can take on trial though. I found a US tack shop that carried the saddle and although they didn’t have a trial listed the description of the saddle mentioned a trial so I gave them a call. They were extremely helpful and told me that they normally get their trials direct from US Prestige but in this case Prestige had just sold the trial saddle to a customer and so it wasn’t available. They let me know it would be about a month for US Prestige to get the saddle back in and then get it sent to them.

It ended up taking about a month and a half and, unfortunately, when they called me the timeline for me getting the saddle would have meant that it would arrive at my barn at the beginning of my trip to WA and while L was in Sweden. I wasn’t able to push it off at all since they had another customer in line so I let them know that they could send it to her and then once they got it back I would take it.

I hadn’t heard anything so on Saturday I called to check in and see when they were planning to get the saddle back and found out that the other women wasn’t able to take it either so they’d sent it back to Prestige. They may have tried to call me when I was in WA but I didn’t get the call. It sounded like they may need to get back in line and I resigned myself to another month or more wait. Then, on Tuesday I got a call from someone at the tack shop and she let me know that it was still available!! They are getting it from US Prestige this week and then it will get shipped to my barn, hopefully next week. I’ll have all of my fingers and toes crossed that it fits and that I’m able end my saddle search for the time being.

Champagne Tastes On a Beer Budget

I've been on a minimalism kick recently and for me that means owning one, high quality item for something you need rather than several cheaper versions. With that in mind I've been saving my pennies for nicer things rather than bargain shopping, at least for the important things. This is my current list.

Wardrobe Stuff

Asmar long sleeve polo in navy blue

Asmar compression top in black

Pikeur Crystal Competition Shirt in grey

Ariat Polka Dot Sunshirt

Ariat Volant S Zip Boot

Tack

PS of Sweden Bridle

Prestige Lucky in Tobacco (if it fits)

Another pair of People on Horses Dressage Boots - this time in Navy Patent

Mattes Euro Dressage Pads in ALL the colors

One of these Custom Wool Dress Sheets