Blog Hop: My Cubicle

Most of us work for a living (wishing I didn't have to), some of us in way swankier places than others (right now thinking of all my friends who work at places like Google and Salesforce.. le jealous! all dem snacks!) Anyways I am curious for a pictorial tour of your office or cubicle. 

I am also late to the party because I was trying to decide if I wanted to share info about my office space but I decided that I'd just go for it.

I work for a small company that is experiencing rapid growth. I'm in HR which means that I have an office so that I can have meetings with employees. The new digs are awesome and I ended up with a rather large office. 

Can you tell I'm short? Nothing in the top shelf and no paper on the bulletin board above that first layer.

These little guys were made by my mom and they've kept me company at my last few jobs.

 

Flowers and pretty pens. It makes boring work so much less boring when you can write in bright colors and luckily this is an environment that appreciates that unlike my last one which certainly did not.

 

Owl business card holder.

Holly Progress Batman

I’m going to take a selfish minute here and pat myself (and my pony) on the back about our recent progress. It seems like so much of the time we don’t stop to celebrate the little things and I’ve made myself a goal to do so more often.

 

The above photo is from May after I had been taking lessons from L for a couple of months. I was still tipping forward pretty badly and my snap posting was all over the place. Katai was starting to go better but was still fairly short strided and stiff.

 

Now, after about two and a half more months of lessons with L we look like this.

 

 This was a snapshot of actually a fairly rough ride but I'm really happy with the improvement in my position and how much more relaxed Katai is. She's longer through the neck and more relaxed through the poll. Katai has had too much time off recently so when I ride she just thinks she can blow me off and do her own thing. I worked on tactfully reminding her that I’m in charge and she needs to listen and at the end we got some nice moments. I’m so proud of both of us and how far we’ve come over the past few months!

 

The next post is going to be a goals redo/update since I’ve let that get completely out of control this year and I’m trying to catch up. Then I’m also going to post a bad picture of my ride from last night to show how difficult the pony can be when she wants to. I’m seriously impressed that L sticks with us sometimes.

Decisions, Decisions

So I have decided to move my pony. It’s been an agonizing decision since I realize that no place will be perfect and there are so many great things about where I’m at now. The main thing that sold it, besides the current barn drama, is that L wants me to move up there. I feel like if your coach encourages you to move to a different barn there is usually a good reason and the fact that she wants me to move to her barn is a complement in many ways. Some of the other things are: better footing, nicer stalls, not being separated from the rest of the barn, better wash stall, better trails, EXCELLENT barn manager. I gave my notice and think I’ll be moving at the end of August/early September. I’m so freaking excited but sort of bummed at the same time. I’ve made some great friendships at my current barn and will miss many things about it. I hate moving and creating all new relationships and putting Katai through that again just isn’t what I want to be doing right now but ultimately I think it’s for the best.

Regarding #mareproblems I’ve got a couple updates. First, it seems I really have been overreacting about this. Several people have told me that they have the same thing happen and that Katai’s isn’t that bad. The rubbing/scalding is isolated to right between her back legs and not really affecting anything else. I caught it earlier this time and was able to keep it to an even smaller area and after the first day of treatment she no longer acted like walking was difficult or painful (and I always need to keep in mind that she can be a baby about these things and certainly isn't a stoic horse). However, what’s still bothering me is that from what I’m hearing most of the time you have to treat and it’s tough to prevent. I did get a couple of suggestions that I’m going to try including changing up her current supplement regime, which was actually sort of already in progress, and the brilliant idea from T (Project Gingersnap) to keep her sprayed with Show Sheen to help keep the gunk from sticking and burning. I’m also going to try to be proactive by coating her in Vaseline or Swat whenever I think there’s a chance she may go into heat such as when I move her to a new barn. She is clearly still tender and doesn’t want me scrubbing it at all but I’m hoping that after another coating of destine soaks in that her skin will be softer and less sore and she’ll let me clean her up with baby wipes at least.

In other updates I get to go to the Dover tent sale this weekend with H and I’m so excited! I have a $50 giftcard for watching my boyfriend’s, mother’s (hereafter referred to as A) dog and I’ve got a few things I need to pick up, including Show Sheen, so it should be a great shopping trip. I’m also excited because A, who’s also an eventer hence the very appropriate Dover giftcard, and I are going to get together to see each other’s horses. I’ve met her horse before but she’s invited me to ride her warmblood/thoroughbred gelding this time and she’s never met my pony but has of course seen tons of pictures. That’s planned for the 23^rd and photos and possibly video will hopefully follow.

Join The Club

Unfortunately I need to join several other bloggers in having an unsound horse since apparently #Mareproblems is back. I’m so frustrated and upset, I was actually in tears yesterday evening, and I just feel sort of hopeless not for myself but for Katai. I did do a little research and apparently this is a fairly common thing and it appears that I'm the only one overreacting this way. Last time this happened I’d been away from the barn for a few days so I sort of blamed myself for not being there enough to prevent the problem but this time I saw Katai Sunday, groomed and checked and everything looked good, and then was gone Monday but back out on Tuesday and she was already in a bad place. She had nasty gunk all down the back of her legs and had chaffed fairly badly already. Thankfully I did catch it a little earlier this time and she isn’t quite as bad but it’s not enough of an improvement for me to feel ok about it.

I just don’t know what to do at this point. Nothing has changed in Katai’s environment. She’s been out with a gelding and is still out with a gelding and when this happened last she wasn’t out with a gelding so that’s not the answer. She’s getting pretty much the same supplements and it wasn’t like I was a bad horse owner and was gone for a big chunk of time without seeing her. I only skipped on day and I just can’t be at the barn every day. I also just can’t keep her back end coated in Vaseline all the time because that’s not healthy either. I haven’t been able to find any common theme and without that I don’t know how I can be proactive and prevent this. She gets so bad so quickly that it doesn’t seem like I can catch it in the early stages even if I’m at the barn regularly.

I’m going to do some research and possibly get a vet involved at this point to see if they have any suggestion. Someone suggested that it could be a PH thing and also suggested raspberry leaves. Since the main ingredient that’s supposed to help with mareish behavior in raspberry leaves is magnesium and she is getting that I haven’t been giving her raspberry leaves but since the person who suggested it is a researcher and scientist I think it may be worth a shot.

I’d had a happy post all written up about how while L is gone for a few weeks I’m going to put a plan in place and work really hard on developing her strength outside of the arena as well as working on our relationship. I also finally got my iphone camera fixed so that I can get some pictures and now the only picture I have is of Katai’s poor sore backside 

More to come as I get this figured out.

All The Dramas

Thankfully I’ve not yet been involved in the barn drama partially, probably, because since I work in HR I’m pretty adept at conflict management/avoidance but also because I’ve been nothing but pleasant and complementary to the owners of the facility. Unfortunately it seems to be one of those cases where if you disagree you become the enemy and I’ve got very little tolerance for that.

 

If you remember I posted a while ago about how the owners and kicked a couple of people out and I was happy that they were being proactive about it. At that point I believe the grand total of people they had kicked out was three but I found out later that they’d kicked out two before I ever got there. Since I understood the reasoning and knew that two of the people were actually endangering other boarders and their horses I wasn’t concerned and as I said then, I was actually pleased that they were taking a tough stance on that sort of behavior. After that though they’ve kicked out two additional boarders through a whole host of drama including the hay debate.

 

Now I understand as well as anyone else that the barn needs to be operated like a business. They have to make sure that they know how much hay and grain is going out so they can account for that in their budget and if someone takes hay or grain without asking it’s stealing. However, in my mind if you work something out with the owners that while your horse is offsite at a show you can take the exact same amount of hay and grain that they would have been fed at the barn that should be ok! They are still probably saving bedding and labor of looking after your horse during that time so they should be ok with it. However, at this barn the owners got into a huge fight with a boarder that wanted to do just that and told her that she could purchase a bale of hay from them for $10 (our hay is normally between $5-$7 per bale). This wasn’t me, I wish I were showing but I’m not, but honestly I probably would have just bought the hay since in the grand scheme of things $10 isn’t that bad. It’s just left me with a really bad taste in my mouth that they treated someone who was asking for something so reasonable so badly. I can even see if to keep things neat they wanted her to buy a bale rather than take hay, which might be tough to keep track of, but charge a reduced rate since that horse would have eaten almost that much as part of regular board. Or charge reduced board that month since the horse isn’t staying at the facility for three days. Any of these things would make sense or at least having an adult conversation about it but instead everything just blew up and the boarder left over it. I honestly can’t say I blame her.

 

I’ve been waffling over a few things including the fact that other than two other people the barn is quickly becoming home to only western pleasure horses and the fact that the owners are adding all these rules that aren’t in the contract I signed. Just for an idea, because I think this type of thing is interesting, I live in an area that charges about $450-$1000 for stall board and $200-$350 for pasture board. At J’s place I paid $300 for pasture board which included hay overnight when horses were brought into a dry lot, grain twice per day, and someone who put on and took off Katai’s grazing muzzle every day (and the pastures were amazing and well-kept with almost no weeds). At this barn I pay $325 for pasture board with no hands on care, no grain, and hay just during the winter. I would be paying $650 for stall board which does include blanketing and grain twice per day as well as daily hand walking to semi private pens and full day turnout. However, it seems that amount does not pay for poop pick up on the way to and from the pastures. I’m the first one to clean up poop anywhere in the barn or arena both indoor and outdoor but when the walk from the pasture to the barn is almost a mile down a driveway and my horse poops in the grass half way there I just don’t know that I should feel like I should be required to go pick it up while she stands in cross ties. What are your opinions? Am I being a spoiled brat that it’s bothering me? Between that, the hay debate, some of the complaints I’ve heard from other boarders and the fact that I wouldn’t trust the barn manager to notice if my horse were injured (a pasture horse is currently in surgery that had a two inch diameter and four inch long branch lodged about three inches in right above his right eye. Another boarder noticed when she brought her horse in that it had happened and they could tell it had been several hours and they had to call the barn manager who lives on site and tell her) I’ve been seriously thinking about moving Katai again.

 

Trust me, it’s the last thing I wanted to be considering at this point :-( I hate moving barns anyway and rebuilding all these friendships and I’m sure Katai would really like to not have to move and adjust again. There are some great people at this barn it just seems like I only see them about once a month. I honestly was thinking I’d just stay where I am but then I heard from a friend that the manager of a nearby barn that is dearly loved by the local dressage community was opening up a second barn. This is new barn is actually a location I’d toured when I was going to leave J’s initially but I didn’t like that manager who did really odd things and was known locally for being flaky when it came to things like turning horses out. Now that this new woman is taking over that facility I’d jump at the chance to board there. 

 

When I went to tour the barn they were having a spa day and they welcomed me in with open arms and a glass of wine (seriously, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven) and I got a tour of the new and improved facility. There is still some work to do before it is ready but they’re aiming to have it ready in about two weeks and it already looks amazing. The arena has been completely redone and she’s been working on footing daily. The pens are semi private, full day turnout, nice large stalls, and trails on the property that aren’t overwhelmed with bicycles, joggers, rollerblades, and poorly behaved dogs. It sounds like L will be teaching there probably but even if not, there are a couple of other dressage instructors. Plus it will be a truly mixed barn with other people who ride various forms of English (hunter, jumper, dressage, eventing, etc.), some people who drive their horses, and some western people. Plus they have an area for dogs to hang out on the property so that I can actually bring my puppy while I ride and he wouldn’t have to go back into his kennel :-)

 

If you can’t tell from the above I’m already fairly convinced but what do all of you think? What would you do in this situation? The care at the current barn is far from bad and actually Katai has been doing well. I’ve got friends there and so far have been getting along great with the owners. Is it worth the risk to move again in your opinion even with some of the big concerns I have about the current barn or would you just go ahead and move to the new barn with the manager/owner that so many people have said great things about?

I promise there will be more Katai centered posts soon!

Burnout

At one point when I was younger and didn’t have the opportunity to board in an amazing place I knew better than to ride the same way in the same place day after day. At that point in my life I was doing eventing and so one day we’d jump in our “ring” which was basically a flat field and the next we would do cross country, trails, take the horses swimming, or just lunge and do a grooming day.

 

Unfortunately at some point as I became an adult I forgot about this and started to not appreciate that my horse needed variety. Over this past year, as Katai develops, I’ve become especially bad at this to the point that I basically ride in the same way and in the same place every time I ride. I think part of this is because for a while Katai was so green and I didn’t really have a safe place to ride her outside but now that I do have a good place to ride outside and access to trails I’ve just not really started to do that again. Partially because I’m a perfectionist and want to work directly on what my instructor has given me and get it perfect and part of it is because I’ve just gotten lazy about planning my rides.

 

I guess I hadn’t even realized how bad it had become until I ran into three things this week that were great reminders.

 

The first reminder was a great post on COTH about whether a horse lacked work ethic or if it was bored. After reading just the first few posts I realized what a disservice I was doing to Katai by not ever taking her out of the ring. Not only does she need it mentally but physically as well. Quickly as I continued to read through the comments I begin to formulate a plan for the next couple of weeks of how to vary Katai’s schedule a bit.

 

The second reminder was that I’ve been re-reading Equine Fitness by Jec Aristotle Ballou and she gives a lot of cross training exercises and really emphasizes how important it is from a strength perspective to make sure a horses’ work is varied. She also stresses that by doing the same thing every day you are much more likely to cause your horse to breakdown or develop injuries.

 

The third was reading Jen’s post from Cob Jockey about perfectionism. I’m such a perfectionist, I think it’s a large part of why I love Dressage, that not only am I critical of every step in the arena but I also don’t want to spend the time out of the arena because I don’t feel I’ll be making progress. Of course I know this isn’t true and I understand how much stronger and more balanced both mentally and physically this will make both Katai and myself but I think I have to admit that sometimes I feel like it’s just wasted time. After reading her post though I realized how important it is for Katai to feel like she’s not being micro managed on every ride and a good way for me to do that is to do something else and give both of us a break from this specific work.

 

All of this came at a great point as I’ve realized that I really need to ride more consistently if I would like to meet my goals. I’ve always been pretty happy with riding 3-4 days per week but now I think we are at the point where I need to try to shoot for 4-5 days per week. It will be easier, and better for both of us, to do that if I’m varying what we are working on and doing different types of rides throughout the week. Right now I’m going to shoot for a canter set/conditioning ride, at least one day where I ride over ground poles and a ride where I start to get her used to trails at least every other week. With my lesson that means that I’ve either got 1 or 2 (or sometimes possibly 3) days of focused dressage riding left on my calendar every week. If we were in a different place and at a different level I think that could possibly be an issue but since a lot of conversations with my trainer have to do with developing strength right now I think this sort of schedule is just about right. Plus, one of our other focuses is on getting her to listen to and understand my leg cues and that can happen anywhere.

 

I’m really looking forward to having more variety in my schedule and I think Katai probably is too!

Last July Lesson Recap

First of all I just have to say…Only one more week of this horrid commute!!!!! I’m moving into the new place next weekend and since I’ll only be about ten minutes from work it will be easy to stop home, take puppy out, and then drive to the barn once rush hour is past. I can’t wait! 

 

The reason that I say moving into “the” new place and not “my” new place is that I decided to be smart with money and rent a room in a house rather than an apartment or a house. It’s saving me a TON of money every month so for the first time in a long time I’m able to think about putting money in savings, paying off a substantial amount of debt, and still being able to do fun things once in a while. The house already has three people living in it and all are single and either professionals or grad students. The owner lives off site but does this at houses all across the cities and has some great policies in place so I’m not worried about it being a party house. I’ve got the nicest room in the house in that it has its own bathroom plus I’m also getting a garage stall. On top of that the house has central air and a fenced in backyard where I’ve been encouraged to have a garden! Wedge will love the chance to run and I’m so excited about the opportunity to plant things. The garage will also be wonderful since I hate scraping ice off my car in the winter and on top of all of that the laundry is free (well no quarters anyway) and you pay a flat rate for utilities with your rent every month so it’s easy to budget for. I’m going to have to figure out where to put all my things but other than that it’s all great news!

 

Mainly though, although I’m happy about that, I’m just looking forward to not having to drive so far and leave my puppy in the kennel for so long. Last week I didn’t ride Sunday because Katai was tender and then I didn’t ride during the week because of Wedge so I only ended up riding on Saturday before my lesson and yesterday in my lesson. That’s just not ok for my pony or for me :-(

 

However, even with that Katai was wonderful! She’s really starting to understand what we are asking and thanks to some amazing coaching from L I’ve stopped picking fights with her so she is able to relax and even when she acts like a brat I’m able to laugh and we move on and get back to good work.

 

On Saturday I had a great ride that I kept fairly short since I didn’t want to blow her muscles and then ask her for a great ride during my lesson. She did some great trot work, I cantered her in both directions and we called it a day. Then during my lesson on Sunday she was AMAZING! She started out a little rushy and tense but each time this happens I get better at getting her to relax and go into her good work. On Sunday although it took about 15 minutes to get there we then ended up with at least 30 minutes of great, focused, relaxed, gooey, forward, work. I asked to work in the whole arena since Katai’s been falling out really badly on our regular 20 meter circle (It’s not about picking fights with my little redhead remember :-) ) and I had figured out that she was pretty sure if she could get to the other end of the arena she wouldn’t need to work. Instead we focused on mainly working her at the other end of the arena and returning to that circle for walk breaks and to end.

 

We’ve been working on 15 meter circles (that’s about the width of our indoor arena) and changing the bend from one to the other. Katai, like many young horses, has been getting offended when I change which leg I ask her to listen to and getting tense and rushy until we’re back on the next circle for a bit. Yesterday we worked on changing so many times and then taking her straight down the long side that she eventually just started to focus on my cues and not on “OMG she’s asking me to do something with BOTH legs and this is NOT ok”.

 

I really, really wish I’d gotten some video of our work because it was outstanding. I’m hoping to get my camera fixed over the next couple of weekends and hopefully will phone a friend to come out and get some video :-)

This is My Life

Yesterday morning the car that I had borrowed from my sister on Sunday wouldn't start. I already had the tow truck scheduled to pick up my car that day so I called the shop and asked for a loaner car but they were fresh out.

If it were a job that I'd been at for awhile I just would have taken a PTO day or worked from home but this is only my second week at a new job so being flaky just isn't an option.

So yeah, this meme pretty much sums up my week...

Can't Find My Hamsters

Last week was my first week at my new job and with the mental workout that entails I just feel like I don’t have a brain. It’s not that my new job is especially stressful, in fact I’d say it’s way less stressful than my previous job, its more that between figuring out the social and political interactions and trying to cram as much new knowledge in my brain as possible my hamsters have left the building.

I’ve also added a 1.5 hour commute each way and since I was close enough to walk to work before this is a HUGE change for me. It’s not that I haven’t driven long distances all of my life but that change on top of all of the other changes that come with a new job mean that I had a stressful week. By the time I’ve been getting home in the evening I’m not good for much so I’ve been packing since that doesn’t take any real mental capacity. Between packing and taking the puppy out for walks my evenings have been full and then I crawl into bed early so that I can get to work early enough the next day.

 

None of this is meant to sound like I’m complaining since I am so, so, so, so, so thankful that I have this new job! Plus, I was able to find a great place to live that will only be about ten minutes from work! Short commutes for the win  :-) This does, however, mean that I’ll have a longer drive to the barn. I was trying to split the difference but of course finding a place in my budget, right in between work and my pony, in a good neighborhood, with the amenities that I was looking for would be like winning the lottery and I’d rather be closer to work than closer to the barn especially with all the car problems I’ve been having lately.

 

Then, after what felt like a long (but wonderful :-) ) week I was looking forward to a quiet weekend. On Saturday I ran some errands and did some shopping for clothes since I went from having a dress code that required dress clothes to working at a place that doesn’t even have a dress code where everyone wears jeans. I also stopped at the barn and rode but Katai was fairly tender after her hoof trim on Friday. She’s been tender after trims lately more that I would like but I’m thinking that a large part of it is that all the rain we’ve been having has kept her hooves soft. Plus, as she gets trimmed by someone who actually knows what they are doing, her hooves are going through a lot of changes. They are looking amazing but still have a ways to go. She had SUCH contracted heels and icky frogs that often were thrushy. Now her heels are slowly widening and her frogs are getting stronger but that doesn’t happen overnight. I’m going to guess that by the beginning of next year she will have almost normal feet but until then she’s going to need some continuing babying. I have tried boots but with the shape and size of her feet I haven’t been able to successfully keep anything on her. I can get Easyboots that are small enough but they won’t stay on and I tried Cavallo boots but they just don’t come small enough.

 

Then on Sunday I went to start my car to go to the barn to work in the morning and it wouldn’t start. It’s doing exactly the same thing it was doing the week prior and for a minute I thought I was going to lose it. I hate that I’ve been flaky recently due to my car and the added stress of not even knowing how I was going to get to my brand new job this week was just a lot to handle at 6:30 in the morning on a weekend. I was able to come up with a plan that involved borrowing my sister’s car but since she lives over 2 hours away that ate up the rest of my day and I didn’t get to even see my pony. Plus, one of my previous barn friends was going to check out my current barn to see if she would like to move there and I was going to go through the tour with her. I was really disappointed to have to cancel on her as well. I dislike machinery of any kind anyway and then when they make my life miserable like my car has been it makes me really sad.

 

Fingers crossed that it will get fixed this week and that my life can get back to normal. Only two weeks till I officially live in the city!

Stranded

My week started out really well last Saturday with a conditioning ride! I've been wanting to start doing some canter sets but I hadn't been able to find a good, safe place to do it. Luckily I talked with another boarder who had just been out doing canter sets and gave me a great place to do it. There's actually a good sort of grass track around the private paddocks that has safe footing and isn't too far away from the barn.

Unfortunately there are going to be lots of selfies for the next couple of weeks since the other camera on my iPhone won't focus and I don't know when I'll have a chance to bring it in to be fixed.

Katai did really really well. She's one of those rare horses that's forward and able to take off at a gallop and yet when I ask her to slow down she'll walk on the buckle even towards home. I had a great time and am going to try to do at least one conditioning ride every week as well as adding more trail rides since I know we both need to get out of the arena more.

Then, on Sunday, I had a great low key ride in the outdoor arena.

Monday started my last week at this job and things were going well at work and home until on Wednesday I found out that my car wouldn't start. Luckily I can walk to work so I walked in that morning and my boyfriend came up here to work on it that evening. We replaced the starter but it still wouldn't work so on Thursday I bit the bullet and had it towed to a shop. On Thursday it was out of commission all day and I was starting to think that I better find back up for my first day at my new job on Friday. Luckily it was fixed by Friday but not until the evening. However, that meant that I didn't get out to ride Monday -Thursday :-(

Recently between my schedule and unexpected things like my car it's like pulling teeth to get to the barn even twice during the week and with the new job and figuring out my schedule I doubt it will be easy this week.

Today I had another lesson and it was great! I lucked out and she was very, very good despite only having been ridden once in the six days prior. I've got my fingers crossed that nothing goes south this week and that despite adding two hours every day onto my commute to work I'll be able to get a couple rides in.

Updates!

So much has been going on in my life and I've been really bad about blogging so I think it's time to catch everyone up!

I think first and foremost that I need to talk about my job offer :-) I've been wanting to relocate to the twin cities for the last six years and I finally got not just any job there but the perfect job for me. I work in HR and this is an HR position working for a company smack in the middle of the twin cities that helps people with a specific health issue. I not only get to work for a wonderful company in the area I want but it's a company that helps people which is a really wonderful feeling.

         Me and one of my little sisters :)

My first day is the 13th which is only about a week away now. I just can't believe that I'm finally there! I will be relocating from northern WI but I have not found an apartment yet. Thankfully I can commute as needed but of course since I've wanted to be down there for so long I'm hoping to find something sooner rather than later. Of course between trying to close everything out at my current job, looking for apartment, trying to get a reasonable amount time at the barn, and spending time with my little puppy I've been a bit overwhelmed. It doesn't help that I don't know where home will be in a few months and that makes me feel on edge. I actually don't mind moving but I've moved enough in the last few years and I'm ready to settle in some place.

In other news Wedge is doing really well! He's been learning all kinds of useful doggy skills like walking nicely on a leash, how to go on a proper hike, what horses are (and that barking at them is very very bad), how to meet other dogs nicely, dog parks, etc. I think I've been wearing the little man out and because of that he's been the perfect dog :) I usually bring him with me to the barn as long as the weather is mild and he hangs out while I ride. I figure at least that way he's not still in his kennel at home. 

Then, back to the main topic of this blog, Katai has been great. She's been getting stronger and more athletic so when I don't ride consistently she's a handful but that's on me, not her, and she hasn't done anything really naughty. She just has lots of energy to burn off which means I've had to work with L to develop my skills on how to handle that. I've been back to about three rides per week and honestly that's just not enough for her. I really need to ride 4-5 times per week and hopefully this next week I can do just that. 

I'm continuing to adore my saddle especially as I get more used to it and it starts to break in a bit. The leather is so soft that it hasn't needed much breaking in but like any new saddle it's just not going to be completely comfy until it's been ridden in for awhile. I'm also still adjusting to how I need to sit and carry myself since it just seats me differently (read better). I think Katai is loving it as well but since she hasn't been getting supplements as regularily she has been a bit tight through the back and before I can determine that it's the saddle or not I need to get her back on her supplements and then if she's still a bit tight I'm going to have a saddle fitter out. To my eye, and everything I know about saddle fit, it's a WAY better fit than the previous saddle but ultimately it's up to Katai. 

The only other thing I can think of that could be bothering her is that my previous TSF girth doesn't reach the shorter billets on this saddle so I ordered a longer one (which will be here on Monday!) but it looks like my back up girth is maybe pulling this saddle forward onto her withers more. I LOVE my TSF and if anyone is looking for an 18" in brown I'm probably going to be rehoming my old one.

       My previous saddle also needs a new home.

The other big update is that I'm moving Katai to a stall! I've just been waiting for a little more income and then it's been my plan to get her in a stall :) I'm so, so thrilled that it's finally here. She'll be making the move in September and will get back to regular supplementation (I have to feed it to her now so she only gets her grain when I'm there). She'll also be on a diet that has less sugar and I'll be able to get rid of her mask. Even though it's pretty cute on her ;)

I'm going to try to be a better blogger and at least blog a couple times a week but no promises until I find a new place to live.