Author: Amanda C

In theory you would think this should be fairly simple. I know exactly what saddle I need, what specs fit me, and what specs fit Henry. That’s like 99% of the battle when saddle shopping, right there. Plus my budget is plenty reasonable for a used saddle, another factor working in my favor. The particular model I’m looking for is probably the most popular eventing saddle, so they aren’t exactly rare. And I’m 100% ready to buy, like, rightnowrightnow. How much more simple can it get? Yet I inquired about 8 different saddles and got responses on exactly 2 of them.

I got so far as making an offer on one of those 2 on Monday, but then never got a response back. I thought it was a pretty decent offer… 12.5% less than asking price, I’d pay shipping, and I would buy it outright with no trial. Alas, crickets. Not even a “no”. Sooo… alrighty then.

Selling the CWD was probably the quickest and easiest saddle transaction ever, so I guess I should have known there was frustration coming. I just didn’t think it would be so difficult to give away a pretty big chunk of money. I naively assumed that when people listed their saddles for sale, it was because they wanted to, ya know, sell them.

We’re not in the middle of show season or anything, so it’s not like being without a jump saddle is the end of the world right now. But I don’t want to flat Every Single Day, and hill work/hacking in the dressage saddle is not my favorite thing in the world.

On Tuesday (as I made the rounds through all 18 of my bookmarked saddle websites, because that’s normal) I saw that a particular site had dropped its prices on a couple of fairly identical saddles that fit my specs, putting them within my budget. The panel was ever so slightly different, but still sounded like it could work, and the rep was actually RESPONSIVE and HELPFUL when I inquired. Praise the lawd, someone that knows how to work their email! So after exchanging some pictures and a couple measurements, I ordered this one:

Which is currently on its way to me, expected to arrive on Monday. I get a 7 day trial, which is nice, and shipping was free. Can’t complain about that.

So fingers crossed that this one works for us, because trying to buy saddles is apparently much harder than I thought.

Heh, “magical”. Because it’s about Presto. Get it? Yeah I know, I’m a laugh a minute. Give me a break, it’s been a hard week and it’s not even halfway over yet.

While I’m super thrilled that Presto is back at Willow Tree, the only downside of this is that he’s really far away from me now. When he was at the breeding farm it was possible for me take a weekend day and go see him. Two hours there and two hours back isn’t bad, as far as Texas goes. But Willow Tree is more like 5 hours there and 5 hours back, which becomes a little more complicated. I haven’t seen him for a few weeks, and because my and Michelle’s July schedules don’t sync up very well, I won’t be able to make the drive out there to see him until the end of the month. That’s where technology really comes in handy.

I already raved about the amazing invention that is stall cameras… they are the only thing that kept me even remotely sane during the end of Sadie’s pregnancy and when Presto first came home from his long stay at the vet. Being able to pop those things open and check on the him is a lifesaver for someone like me (aka kind of crazy) and it keeps me bugging Michelle 24/7.

When Presto first came back from the vet I was watching him on those things A LOT, even waking up in the middle of the night to peek in on him. Nowadays I usually just go in once a day and see what he’s up to (usually nothing) and go back through some of the saved clips to admire how goshdarn cute he is or see if I can get a good glimpse at how his legs are looking. They’re out in the field all night, or sometimes during the day if it’s cool enough, so there’s not much excitement to be had on the cams.

Every once in a while when she has some time, Michelle will FaceTime me and show me what’s he up to out in the pasture. Usually it’s this:

Because all he really does is eat, sleep, and play with Liam.

Can we just take a minute to appreciate all the cool things we can do now, in 2017? I can literally video chat with my horse, even if most of the time he simply cannot be bothered to even get up and say hi. It definitely helps get me through these long stretches where I’m not able to see him in person.

 

First things first – congrats to Bethany S for winning the Barn Dog Apparel shirt giveaway. Check your email for details on how to proceed. To everyone else, thanks for entering! We had 114 total, which is awesome. For those who didn’t win, Barn Dog Apparel is still offering a 10% off code (click this link to redeem) if you want to order! They’ve even added a couple new designs since I posted on Friday.

Along the same vein, I went through my closet this past weekend and pulled out a bunch of random riding clothes that I no longer wear. It’s not worth my sanity to try to sell all of this stuff and then ship it all separately (that’s what nightmares are made of) so I decided to just lump it all together and offer it all as a lot for $150 plus shipping. It’s 10 things, so that breaks down to $15 per item… pretty good deal. If you’re interested let me know! It includes:

– White 30 TS breeches (style 1955 – older Professionals) no stains
-Aztec diamond blue flight breeches size U.K. 12 teeny tiny hole on front of thigh
-Asmar short sleeve polo Sunshine size Small
-Ariat long sleeve button up shirt yellow with navy horses size M
-Ariat Aptos navy polka dot short sleeve shirt size S
-Tredstep long sleeve light blue with white collar/cuffs show shirt size Large
-Noble Outfitters white quarter zip short sleeve zip show shirt size M
-Noble outfitters quarter zip winter top blue/gray size S
-Aztec Diamond long sleeve quarter zip white show shirt size U.K. 10
-Riding Sport purple sunshirt size M

 

And last but not least for your Tuesday, Trainer had her baby yesterday!!! Welcome to the world, Eli! Michael Jung, watch your back. He’s coming for you, with all of his crazy aunties that keep asking how soon we can put him on a pony (ok maybe I’m the only one). Kid is cute though, and it looks like he’s gonna be chunky, which is the only kind of baby I like. Let’s get to work putting some fat rolls on those arms, Merritt.

This also means that Trainer isn’t pregnant anymore, which means she can ride again soon, which means she gets to fix Henry’s Irish bank problem. That’s the price she has to pay if she wants to run him Prelim in the winter.

Not gonna lie, I’m envious of everyone that’s in the middle of show season. It kinda felt like we had just started an upswing when summer hit, and now September seems really far away. But the weather last week was a good reminder about why I don’t show this horse in the summer.

The morning rides have been going really well though. I quite enjoy watching the sunrise from the saddle, even though it means that I’m constantly sleep deprived right now. Luckily a cold front blew through on Saturday morning – literally right as I swung up onto my horse, cue the wind and rain – which means it’s only been the 80’s the past few days.

Since I’m currently without a jump saddle, we’ve been doing a lot of dressage, and Henry has been really good. Like I took his temperature one day because I legit thought maybe he was dying. I’ve been able to carry a dressage whip and he’s had a grand total of zero meltdowns… a vast improvement from Henny of yesteryear who would last about 5-10 minutes into a ride with a dressage whip before he got so tense I had to drop it. So far all it’s done is given me a pretty perfectly forward horse. Of course, I would never dream of actually touching him with it, lest Henny spontaneously combust. Carrying it is working out well though!

So after a week of all dressage, on Sunday I thought we both deserved a break. We did about 15 minutes of hill work and then headed out to explore some areas of the property that we generally don’t wander into. It was quite the adventure.

There was lots of wildlife:

We wandered up through the front field, which normally has crops of some kind in it but is currently vacant. I didn’t realize there was no fence on one side of this field, so once you pass the water tower:

You can get right out onto the road. We stopped here because the church next door was seriously rocking out (for real, the whole building was vibrating), but next time I think we’ll wander across through some of the backroads and see what other fun stuff we can find.

It’s not as exciting as show recaps and cross country videos, but I think the mental break does us both good. I definitely have the tendency to get caught up in the schedule and in the constant pursuit of goals, so I have to make a conscious effort to actually chill out once in a while. We’ll keep plugging away with dressage and hacks, then July is his big vetwork month, then it’ll be time to start gearing up for shows again. In the meantime we’ll keep chasing after some fun, low key adventures.

Anybody else have a hard time slowing things down (at least mentally) in the off season?

 

Yeah I know, it’s like freakin’ tack week around here. But trust me, they all weave together and come to one final conclusion, so stay with me.

 

Remember at the show when I forgot my saddles and had to (oh man, poor me…) ride in Trainer’s Devoucoux monoflap instead? Remember how I said that thing literally saved my ass on XC? Not just that, but really it was quite magical in general. Drops were easier, galloping was easier, staying balanced over terrain was easier. A couple bad habits that I typically struggle with on XC just went *poof* (unfortunately not the ducking to the right thing, I’m a long-time devotee to that particular maneuver) and it was really easy to stay in all the right places. It was a little eye-opening, but… maybe just a fluke, right?

Then this past Sunday I jumped Henry again, trying to emulate more of an XC school vibe with a few of the fences/terrain, and the normal struggles all came back. Cue a major uh-oh moment.

I’m really bummed about this, because I’ve loved my CWD from the moment my butt first settled into it’s delightfully french seat. It fits me great, it has fit my horses REALLY well, and it’s held up admirably to my abuse. It’s enjoyed 5 1/2 delightful years as the crowning jewel of my tack collection. If I was still doing h/j, or eventing at a lower level, I would never even dream of selling that thing. I’m fairly certain it’s like the saddle version of those weird traveling pants that they made a terrible movie about. But it’s also been made really clear to me, after a couple rides in Trainer’s saddle that was actually designed for cross country, that it’s not the best choice for what we’re doing now.

Yep, you guessed it, this is why I sold off a bunch of my extra stuff, and the CWD will have to be sold too. It’s time for a real XC saddle.

Trainer’s saddle is a fancy newer Devoucoux Chiberta with D3D panels. I know from a history of fitting dressage saddles to Henry that the D3D panels are probably the only option for him when it comes to Devoucoux. That’s what’s on my Loreak and he finds them to be delightful. Of course, they just started doing the D3D panels a few years ago so they’re kind of hard to find. Especially on a saddle that fits all of MY required specs (18-18.5 seat 2AA flap). And aren’t ridiculously painfully expensive. I also really wanted to try a CWD monoflap to compare to the Devoucoux, since I’ve had so much luck with the current CWD over the years.

So, yesterday the lovely CWD rep came out with a saddle for me to try. It was kind of a weird panel, super built up for some reason, so at first I felt very tipped forward. When she stuck some shims under the front to level it out, it definitely felt better. Devoucoux-comparable better? Meh. I dunno.

Time to do some thinking and some perusing..