Lexington Trial Saddle

The next saddle was a 16 inch Lexington. I loved the look of this saddle and thought for sure this would be the one.

It fit Scout well, and wasn't too big for his back, either.

Without a saddle pad:

With the saddle pad:

 I rode in this one a couple of times. I liked how it fit Scout, but it was very uncomfortable to sit in - and it was very slippery!

Still no one to take photos of me sitting in it, sorry.

The Collegiate Trial Saddle

The Collegiate was a very nice saddle, just entirely too big. It was supposed to be a 16.5 inch, but seemed much larger than that. I never measured it, since there was no point in keeping it. From the photos, you can see it was too long for Scout's back.

I don't have any photos of me sitting in it, as no one was home to make photos. It was comfy to sit in, but it swallowed me, too. On to the next trial saddle!

Is it Really February 2013??

Good Grief! So much has happened since the last time I posted...in August!! Please forgive me, my head is still spinning. From finally finding a saddle (bought another Wintec All Purpose), our oldest breaking his leg on Sept. 8, riding both ponies in the Jeremy Beale Clinic the end of Oct., through Thanksgiving, Scout's very first horse show on Dec. 1, Christmas, New Year's, my husband's work getting wonderfully busy (he has a new office now!!), my job getting crazy busy (thank you LORD!), my parents taking in 2 rescue horses and me making time to keep riding through it all, it has been insane. Thankfully, it has been good.

Scout is trying so hard to please - and that horse show I mentioned - my close friend's daughter rode him in the schooling hunter show and they ended up Reserve Champs in their beginner hunter division - complete with Scout jumping a small course of 4 18-inch fences!! They were an awesome team and I promise to post photos in a future post.

The ponies are doing well and the weather has been mild, so they are being ridden consistently. I am loving every minute of it. :)

Buddy and Jack sharing the one stall:

Buddy:

D on Jack:

Happy Riding and I will try to post some more photos soon!



Collegiate Saddle Arrived Today!

The Collegiate saddle arrived today, just in time for the rain! Hurricane/Tropical Storm? Isaac is supposed to dump a lot of rain on us for the next couple of days, so I'll try to be patient!

Here are photos of the saddle. It looked a lot darker in the previous post. I used the flash, so maybe that made it look different.

The saddle is lovely -

The seat feels very nice, so I look forward to sitting in it. Please keep your fingers crossed that this is THE ONE. It is getting way too expensive shipping saddles back and I am very tired of saddle hunting. However, I have met a bunch of really nice, helpful folks!

The ladies at Trumbull Mountain have been amazing to work with, too!

Oh - and my oldest is getting bit by the horse bug. He rode Cricket on Saturday:

He even rode her bareback on Sunday!

Cricket loves D and they are having fun together!

Well, That Stinks...and Better News!

After all of the positive vibes I was getting on the Stubben Edelweiss, I still had a little nagging feeling that something wasn't right and that feeling just wouldn't go away, so I decided to call my long-time friend and past trainer, Toni, to come take a look. So incredibly patient, she listened to all of the great things I had to say about the saddle and how much I loved it. We put it on Scout without the saddle pad and she pointed out that it didn't really have much clearance in the pommel for his withers and noted that when we padded it up, even more of that space would be compromised. She also noted that the points of the tree were awfully long for Scout's wither area.

I put the regular fleece pad under the saddle and girthed it up, and off we went to my little circle on a hill to ride in it for Toni's approval. We didn't ride in it for long before she began to ask questions about the way Scout was going. She of course noticed his non-willingness to go forward and many other things I had not noticed. She had me place my hand under different areas of the saddle near Scout's shoulder. It was all I could do to just partially slide my hand under some parts of the saddle. "Not good," she said. She had me get the Wintec that Nancy from Trumbell Mountain told me to adjust to the medium-wide gullet (according to the back tracings I sent her). So, we put the Wintec on Scout and I climbed on again. I started out in the medium-wide and there was an immediate improvement in Scout's willingness to go forward. He began tracking up at the walk and was much better at the trot. So much better, in fact, that he wanted to keep doing canter departs rather than trot. Not sure if that was good or bad, but he was definitely more forward, for a notable difference. We had a great mini-lesson that provided some more "tools for our toolbox." And oh, how it made me miss lessons with Toni! She is such a wonderful teacher! Just out of curiosity, Toni had me change to the wide gullet. Scout went around fine in it, but we both agreed he went best in the medium-wide.

Needless to say, I was sooooooooooooooooooo disappointed that the Stubben wasn't THE ONE, but I am relieved I didn't purchase it and ride in it long enough to cause greater problems with Scout's back. So, the immensely beautiful, incredibly buttery, oozingly supple, almost perfect saddle is on its way back to it's very kind and generous owner who allowed me to try it for over a week. My sincerest appreciation to her - hopefully the saddle will find its perfect owner in the big Labor Day tack sale in her area. If any of you are interested in the saddle, let me know and I will pass on the contact info. It is going to make someone an awesome saddle.

Many thank yous to Toni for her years of priceless experience which helped to divert us from a potential disaster. Now, on to looking for another saddle....I think I found one with good potential (below)...and this one is adjustable, so that is even more promising! I'll keep you posted.

Collegiate Convertible with adjustable gullets

On another note, one of my dearest friends picked Scout and me up this past Saturday to go to another friend's farm to ride. It was the first time since the in-hand clinic in February 2011 that Scout has been to a new place since we bought him. He was a bit anxious, but he finally settled down (with the help of some Parelli games - a fun story for another day!) and agreed to be a good pony. I was very, very pleased with him! My friend rode him for a bit and gave me suggestions that we put to use today. Scout had Sunday and Monday off, so he was ready to get back to it today and he definitely retained what he had been taught on Saturday! He is a brilliant little fellow and I am so proud of his efforts to understand what I ask of him. We are certainly learning together! We had another awesome ride this morning. They seem to get better and better!

Oh! And another exciting side note - we signed up to ride in a "Western Dressage" clinic on September 23 at the River Region Horse Council Expo and Clinic going on in our area. We will ride English and I have 2 friends riding in it with us!! Very excited about that...

Had to share these photos with you - my middle son who is 11 years old took these photos to enter into a National Geographic Kids Photo Contest. I thought they were fantastic, so I had to post them. Enjoy!

Tonto Pony

Scout's Eye

K.C. cat chillaxin' in her favorite chair

Jockey for a Day

This is Cricket. She is a QH/TB cross owned by a long-time friend and ridden by her Grand-daughter. Cricket was ridden in Pony Club and local shows just a couple of years ago. She is currenly eating gobs of grass at my parents' place in Pike Road and I talked to her owner last week to see if she needed to be exercised. She said "YES!" so the owner came over today and we pulled Cricket out of the pasture to take her for a spin.

Mind you, she is only like 15.2 hands...but may look a little taller than that due to my...uh...towering 4'11 self.

Her owner lunged her then rode her so I could see how she went before I climbed on. She did really well for not being ridden in a while.

I think I could have dropped my stirrups a hole or 2...this is the length I ride Scout and Tonto!

 I had forgotten what it was like to be on something other than a pony! She was TALL! I felt like I was doing the splits and my legs hardly reached her sides. Next time I'll lengthen the stirrups and ride in my smaller saddle. :)

It sure was fun being on a larger horse again!

She is quite smart - last weekend I was filling her water trough and it was extremely hot. She walked over and nudged the hose with her nose. When I didn't turn the hose on her, she took her nose and pulled it out of the trough towards her. Cricket wanted to be hosed right then and didn't want to wait. As I hosed her off, she stood with one leg in the air, then rotated around so I could hose her whole body. My oldest thought this was the funniest thing ever!

Cricket is a sweetie and definitely misses her young rider who has gone off to college. Maybe she'll be our weekend horse for a while. :)

Trying the Stubben Edelweiss

Finally! This morning I was able to try the Stubben Edelweiss, C.S., Junior (16 inch, 32 cm tree).

Another photo of it on Scout, this time with stirrups:

Sitting in it:

Close up shot:

If anything, the seat may be a bit small for me; a 16.5 inch would probably be ideal, but I really, really, really like this saddle.

It is small, and that is what I need. I am able to get my leg on Scout's side without a large saddle flap interfering, and that is really nice. It is super comfortable and a high quality saddle. It is wool flocked, rather than foam; and it seems to fit Scout - you can't tell from the shaky videos I'm about to post out here later, but Scout really seemed to relax and really move forward once he quit being a pill this morning - (wish I had gotten more of his better moments on film rather than the not-so-pretty stuff, but beggars can't be choosers; happy to have someone videoing at least!).... Plus, the saddle is in amazing shape.

We'll ride in it several more times to be sure, but I am kind of thinking (and really hoping) this may be THE one...feel free to chime in and give me your opinion on it. I will send an email and photos to the saddle-fitter shortly to get her take on it as well.

As soon as the videos load, I'll post them out here.