It Fits!!: Lesson Recap 8/21

Veggie making friends with my grandma's (who's back in town) dog Stewie

My big plan at this lesson was to have L assess the saddle and help me figure out if it fits and to see if she had any other suggestions about the sliding forward thing. I, unfortunately, didn’t have a good week for rides (after my great ride on Thursday I didn’t ride again so only had three rides) so I knew that Katai would be full of excess energy and very sassy.

I found L when I got to the barn and asked if she could check it out before I got Katai fully tacked so that if I needed to ride in my normal saddle it wouldn’t be too much extra work. She was on board so I sat and watched part of her previous lesson and then brought Katai in, groomed her and let L know that I was ready. As soon as she saw the new saddle she got this big grin on her face. After a quick check of the panels she said that as long as it was set where it should be there’s no bridging. She had me make one more change with the point billets to fully remove them from any slots on the flaps so that they pretty much could swing forward from just behind the block. I’ll post some pictures soon of what this looks like. She had me girth up but added some small shims on either side right behind Katai’s shoulder since she felt the saddle was just slightly wide. I found out later that the amazing people at VTO had actually been able to adjust the saddle to a 36 so that makes sense.

I girthed up the saddle with the new arrangement, put Katai’s bridle on, my helmet on, and then headed to the arena. Katai was sassy as soon as I went to mount up and didn’t want to walk calmly even on a long rein. It was an interesting lesson to say the least. Katai didn’t want to play in the sandbox and all she could think about was going fast. All that pent up energy finally started coming out in some nice sneeze snorts after I worked her for awhile at the far end of the arena and just focused on straightness interspersed with correct bend and lots of forward trot. We did some canter but she did a funny leap into the air on the first transition that made me giggle.

At the end of my lesson L suggested that I end the ride on a positive note (not that we were fighting or giving corrections at all really and were mostly just trying to get her to go forward and not tie herself into knots) and then hop off and lunge her for a while just to let her drain some energy. It’s completely my fault that she had so much extra energy (and the weather since it had been a stormy week and we just had a cold front blow in before my lesson) as I told L’s next student, I’ve been doing a great job with pony fitness and not as good of job with consistent rides this past week.

I hopped off and lunged doing lots of canter/trot transitions until Katai had done a bunch more snort/sneezes and I could see her thinking again instead of just running along in her own little world. She got lots of pats, an apology, and a good grooming. I had planned to get some video of my lesson but my phone died as I was just starting the video.

My only clip from my last ride :(

Then, I was going to redeem myself and get some video of my ride last night. I was all excited about it because I was riding outside and it was a beautiful night so it would have been good video but all my phone captured was about 3 minutes of video of my walking Katai around the arena letting her look at all the new things. Media is so tough!

I just ordered my saddle this morning!!! I was worried about how long it would take for me to get it and L had suggested I check to see if I could keep the trial until the saddle came in. Unfortunately there are three more people in line waiting to try it (popular saddle!) so I need to ship it back today but luckily Prestige had a Prestige Lucky Idol in stock in the US that is a 34 which they can adjust to a 36. Because of that they said that I’d get the new saddle in about a week. I’m so excited and can’t wait! I’ll take more pictures to share once I get it. After having previously decided on a brown saddle (what I’ve wanted for the last few years) I had a change of heart and decided to go with the black. Not just because of the shorter wait but because it’s just so typical for dressage saddles. I’m actually really excited about it and the good thing is that I was going to splurge on a new bridle for my Christmas/birthday present to myself later this so I can just go ahead and order that in black instead of brown. Getting all traditional over here in pinto sport pony dressage land ;)

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.

Pony Measuring

To continue with my goal of beating my goals :-)  I measured Katai tonight for her new saddle! I’m not sure if anyone reading this blog has ever gone through this process before but I was really surprised at how simple it was. I had done my research and found some really great videos on how to do a saddle tracing and my favorite is this one.

 

https://youtu.be/mOMTBgmKjBw

 

After watching this video I went and purchased the following items;

 

Flexible Curve

Narrow green painters tape

Permanent marker (ok, this one I already had)

Large portfolio paper

Measuring tape (more to take some measurements of my current saddle than to use for the new saddle)

Lip Balm (because let’s face it, the weather has been dry and I need it for my chapped lips plus for the saddle measurement so I can’t lose  :-) )

I put the above things together and brought them out to the barn. I decided to measure the pony after my ride so that she would be more likely to stand still. I was a little concerned that if her back was tired it wouldn’t be a completely accurate measurement but decided to just do a little shorter ride since standing still is a big thing for her sometimes.

 

The first thing I did was to find the place for the first piece of tape. Then three fingers back from that another piece of tape that was my first measurement. I formed the flexi curve to her back at this point just like the video instructs and then traced that on the piece of paper.

 

Next I used the lip balm to find the low point on her back and placed the third piece of tape and second measurement. Again I formed the flexi curve to her back and traced it on the piece of paper.

 

Finally I found her last rib or T18 and placed a piece of tape there. Then I took the final measurement of the curve of her back, marking where T18 was on the flexi curve and traced that on the piece of paper.

 

Then it was time for pictures. The first task was to take a picture from the side of where the pieces of tape were placed. I already sent this to the saddler who can verify that I got the tape in the correct places before I mail the packet with the tracings to the UK. 

 

Then I needed to take a picture from above which I forgot...

Oh well, I'll be back at the barn tomorrow or Friday.

 

 

The finished product!

 

Once I hear back from the saddler that my tape spots were right (or if I need to make changes I will make those and then) I will mail the packet with the tracings and a ghetto picture of the saddle with my changes to Heritage Saddlery.

 

I’m getting so close!