New Saddle!

I got a new saddle two weeks ago.  My "old" one (which was only about a year and a half old) refused to stay off of Rocky's withers.  I used a crupper for most of that year and a half, a leather strap that attached to the back of the saddle and went around the base of his tail to hold the saddle in place. You can sort of see it in this photo, a little knot of extra leather. 

 

I didn't like how the crupper was pulling on his tail, wearing a path in the fur along his spine where the crupper would lay. I let it go though, until one day Rocky pulled out the D-ring on the back of the saddle that the crupper was clipped onto.  He had spooked, clamping down with his tail as he scooted away from the terrifying tarp laying on the ground, and when the dust settled the crupper was laying on the ground, still attached to the D-ring from his saddle.  It made my saddle nearly unusable, as without the crupper his saddle slid inexorably forward until I was riding on his shoulders- not a comfortable position for either of us.

 I took my saddle to a repair shop, where they replaced the rubbery strap that used to hold the D-ring in place with a leather one.  It seemed like a good solution, so I went back to using my saddle the same way I had before.  Except, the new leather strap stretched.  And stretched.  And stretched some more.  I had to make a new hole on the crupper to shorten it enough to make up for the slack created by the new leather piece.  I became increasingly distressed doing this, as it made me realize how much pressure the crupper had to be putting on Rocky's tail and spine.  To make it worse, the crupper wasn't even mine, it was an equipment loan from my barn owner.  

I finally decided that I was not going to continue to torque Rocky's spine to hold his saddle in place, especially when it wasn't working very well anyway.  I arranged for my mom to drive Rocky and I two hours away from the barn to visit a tack shop that regularly boasts over 300 saddles.  They have a round pen on site and saddle fitters, so they can help you find the right saddle.  I spent about an hour cleaning my saddle, breast collar, and saddle pad so that I could hopefully trade them in for a good price. 

Once we got to the store, it took us four hours of shopping and two rounds of saddle fitting to find two saddles (out of that 300...) that would fit both Rocky and I.  While riding, one of those two saddles started to rub my calves in an uncomfortable way, so it was an easy choice to go with the one I bought.  It was an expensive purchase for me, but I think owing my parents is worth it.  My new saddle stays in place without any additional hardware, comfortably fits Rocky and is a pleasure to ride in.  Without further ado:

I needed to get a new saddle pad, too. My old one was too small.

It has a "rough" leather seat, which feels more secure to me than my smooth one did. Who knew?!

Gotta love all of that cushion. 

You can see a large 'tunnel' of sorts in the saddle above Rocky's spine.  It's large enough to stick your arm into it, and creates air flow so he doesn't overheat.  It feels good to know that, not only am I no longer pulling on his spine, he has a saddle that actually cushions and airs out his back.

2012 Walkabout Tour!

This last weekend I took the opportunity to go to Clinton Anderson's 2012 Walkabout Tour in Des Moines, Iowa.  It was a blast! The states I saw represented (for sure) included: Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas, Wisconsin, Illinois, and even Florida!  Overall the tour was great, watching Clinton work with the problem horses is the best part to me. His timing is pretty much perfect, and it's clear by how fast the horses he is working with improve that he is communicating clearly with them.  Side note: the problem horses Clinton works with are all local horses that their owners applied to have used as demonstration horses at the tour.

For those of you who have never been to or heard of the CA Walkabout Tour, here's the general schedule:
Day 1
9-9:15 am: Clinton performs groundwork with Diez, a horse he has trained and takes on his tour. It's impressive to watch as they move together gracefully. This year this demonstration didn't happen, and it was hinted that Diez was having a problem.
9:15-10:30 am: Clinton talks about his Method, gives the audience his philosophy and explains where he came from and what his Method is about.
10:30-11 am: Break/Autograph signing
11-12:30 pm: Clinton round pens a disrespectful/pushy horse. This time, it was a really lazy paint horse of some type that the owner bought because he is beautiful.  I think he had blue eyes, and was named "Gus."  He was using his shoulders to push his owner around, literally turning his head and moving into her with his chest. She obligingly moved for him.  She said that Gus' issue was kicking out when he decided he'd had enough of lunging or round penning.  He never kicked out at Clinton, but I was much more concerned with the way Gus moved his owner around. Clinton set clear boundaries with the fellow, and while Gus tried to slow down a lot he wasn't aggressive in the round pen.
12:30-1:30 pm: Lunch
1:30-3 pm: Problem horse #2, generally has issues under saddle that the owner is worried about.  This year, the mare was brought in because she liked to move out quickly and I think she had bucked or something.  She was a pretty buckskin mare, and was another good example of a horse moving their owner all about the arena. The mare had no respect for the human at the end of her lead rope and did generally as she pleased.  Clinton did ground work with her, teaching her to lunge respectfully.
3-3:30 pm- Break/Autograph signing
3:30- 5 pm: Clinton rides Diez, showing off what you can achieve if you follow his Method.  They do reining patterns, back in circles, side pass all around the arena, etc.  They did do this, but I noticed a few steps of Diez's where he seemed a little off.  It didn't appear to be anything major.

I'm going to cut this post off here, but I will talk about Day 2 soon, including the gorgeous Tennessee Walker I drooled over :).