Adventures in Saddle Fitting

20 October 2010 4 Comments

When we started Ro under saddle in spring, she was a little light and muscle-less. Underdeveloped, you could say.

Actually, what people said was, “Is she two? She looks like she’s two.”

Poor Ro. If she were human, she’d be destined for a lifetime of carding. She’s five.

Fortunately, my trainer had a saddle that fit her beautifully, and I bought the saddle when I bought Ro.

And we began working and progressing and figuring things out, like how to turn right and how to trot more like a real horse and less like a giraffe on crack.

And some little switch inside Ro went Oh, crap! Work! Need more muscle! Develop!

Naturally, the saddle that fit beautifully to start out with quickly became too tight through the tree.

Ro, never shy about expressing her opinion, let me know that we needed to address this right the heck now. It’s better to listen to the early warning signs with her—Ro has figured out the whole “ask nicely, ask sternly, then demand” concept that people use so often in training. She uses it right back at me.

My hopes of holding on for another month or so dwindled and disappeared. We need a new saddle right the heck now, before Ro decides to move beyond the “ask nicely” stage.

As everyone knows, buying saddles is as much fun as going to the dentist, but without the nitrous oxide. Which meant that I not only had to find a saddle—I also had to come up with an immediate alternative plan.

The obvious solution: ride bareback. It’s good for the horse and rider. Builds character. Plus, the rider will magically develop glowing hair and the horse will turn into a thundering black steed with a long, thick mane and tail that will blow in the sea breeze. I’ve seen it on TV, and there were no disclaimers like “Ocean scene not included,” so it must be true.

I got on Ro bareback. We walked around. She thought it was weird but ok. Then we trotted.

Here’s the thing: picture a horse who is still finding her balance and rhythm, and who sometimes still acts like a giraffe on crack. Picture a summer-slick coat. Add a roached mane. Subtract any sort of stirrup leather or grab strap around the neck. Now picture the idiot who thinks that’s a recipe for success. Now you know what I look like.

I didn’t fall off, but that’s all that can be said about that.

Time to revise Plan A. Plan B: Bareback, with a bareback pad!

I bought a bareback pad and put it on Ro. She gave me the evil eye, but I girthed it up anyway. Her ears went flat back and she threw a fit.

I pulled it off and checked her back for soreness. Nada.

I put the saddle on her and she looked mildly annoyed but tolerated it.

I put the bareback pad on and her ears went flat back.

Apparently, we will not be riding with a bareback pad any time soon.

The next day, I went back to the tack store. Their eyes light up when I walk in anymore. One of these days I’m going to show up and they’ll hand me a glass of champagne and some cheese and crackers.

I walked out with a demo saddle—with no other short-term option available, I am going to have to work Ro in whatever demo and trial saddles I can find, until I find one that fits her.

When I checked the fit of the saddle on her, it was a little large. But not too bad—I have a fleece half pad and I thought that might work well enough. She’s still got a lot of muscle building to do, so slightly large might work out ok.

I took the saddle off and put the half pad on. Ro gave me the evil eye. I put the saddle on anyway. When I asked her to walk off, her ears went flat back. When I took the half pad off and just used a regular pad, she walked off happily.

At this point, I honestly think she just hates fleece pads.

That saddle ended up not working—it kept riding forward on her, and it was really too small for me. So the next day I went back to the tack shop and picked up a different trial saddle. You know I can’t walk in there to switch saddles and not buy anything. The tack store and my credit card, they are BFF.

Fortunately, this one seems to be working pretty well for her. I got on her yesterday and she was in some sort of go-go-go mode, so all we really did was gallop around. The saddle stayed in place and she seemed happy with it. Today we did real work and she was pretty soft and responsive (read: tired from yesterday). We’ll see how things go after a couple more rides.

But I am sort of dumbfounded about the fleece pad thingy. As much of a princess as she it, you’d think she’d have loved it. She’s probably holding out for ThinLine or something even more expensive.

Horses and Riding, Horses I Have Known, Ro

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