another contender

Days go by and I continue to dink around with various trial saddles. Tho, sadly, we've kinda exhausted the available stock within driving distance... and are now tiptoeing into the painful territory of paying shipping for each trial.

oh that innocent (but ultimately naïve) feeling when you first unbox a beautiful saddle!

It's pretty far from ideal, but... eh, so is the current selection of saddles in my tack locker. Charlie's fancy french monoflap helps me feel super secure and up for any dance move Doozy might be inclined to pull.... But it's just all wrong for her and she's making her feelings known. 

My predicament is that... I don't really want to downgrade from Charlie's saddle, but finding the same quality in a fit for Doozy is proving challenging. Especially bc I'm trying to be a little more 'by the book' about the process these days. Meaning: using a fitter. 

just your typical tb back

Long time readers might remember.... Ugh I am kinda a huge skeptic of that whole little cottage industry. Not bc I don't believe that there's a true art and science to fitting saddles to horses... 

But rather bc there's so much subjectivity in the field (I've had two fitters confidently tell me basically exactly opposite things about the same horse), plus a fair amount of dogma. Not to mention how even conceivably 'independent' fitters tend to steer clients toward the same saddle makers. Like, I always think it's funny when a fitter will say, "Oh yea I'm brand agnostic. Here is the universal search criteria for your horse!" and yet somehow only one or two saddleries will pop up in the search results lol....

placement ain't perfect in this shot but, eh, onward!

So ya know. I find myself in an uncomfortable position of paying (out the nose) for counsel that doesn't always feel entirely disinterested. 

But again. I have a good budget for the right saddle, and I want it to be a good fit for this sensitive special horse whose job is to carry me safely through various new life lessons and experiences, whatever may come. Thus, the enlistment of professional help.

My criteria? Monoflap pls!! Bc I like it and I want it, and ain't that enough??? Seat size not too particular, probably 17" to 17.5" -- mayyybe 18" but that might be pushing the boundaries for this shorter-coupled red rockette. 

My fitter's criteria? Wool flocked, narrow tree. 

the stupid faces i make when sitting in a saddle for the first time LOL

Turns out, it's shockingly difficult to find all those criteria in one saddle. I really hoped this lovely old Custom Monte Carlo would be 'close enough,' tho. It's a medium/med-narrow, with gigantic front gussets. 

she's working on her sainthood application

In fact, I found myself quite willing to fall in love with it! Sure, it didn't quite have that "at home" feeling of Charlie's l'Apogee... But I actually quite liked it! And felt quite comfortable. 

So I felt hopeful that any of the little imperfections in fit for Dooz could be resolved with adjusting the flocking. Alas, my fitter felt differently. 

just trotting my bebe wild child around the barn yard in a halter. like one does...

And ya know. Cool. That's fine. If it's not going to work, it's not going to work. I'll send it back, eat the cost of shipping. Eat the (three-figure-wtf) cost of getting the fitter out to do nothing more than say, "No." And resign myself to another evening spent scouring the web for yet another contender to waste $150 and a week of my time on.... (do I sound bitter LOL??).

looks nice, tho, eh?

Tho, don't get me wrong. My fitter was definitely right on this one. I actually knew it before our appointment --- but was just willing myself into hoping for an easy end to the saddle shopping torture. I want to be like water haha -- show me the easiest path of least resistance, and I will happily agree!

But. Eh. My barn mate Amy and I managed to sneak in a quick jump school on a shockingly windy, but otherwise pleasant, Saturday morning --- with the explicit intention of getting as much footage of me in the saddle as possible. 

next up: actual riding!

It was actually a good school too. Useful in a lot of ways. Our first time jumping since Windurra. I wanted to give Doozy a little more freedom to go forward after all the squirreling around on cross country --- but she quickly proved that, no no, she still doesn't know what she doesn't know. 

So after we bolted a couple fences, and she experienced a few distances that were going to be either "dear lord jesus that's long! / or / eeesh that's a crispy chip!" -- including one unpleasantly pulled rail... I kinda got my shit together and tried to, ya know, ride the horse as if my input mattered and made a difference. 

and jompies!!! sorry guys, we had a video malfunction so only my last little course was captured

And you'll never guess. The input *did* make a difference, and Doozy managed to (more or less) trot two fences, and then carried a decent canter to our final little vertical. Tho obvi keen eyed observers will still note that she made a bit of a bid for it in the last stride or two. Eh, one step at a time!

video of our last few jumps 

wherein we practice "simmering down now" after rushing a few 

It's hard to really evaluate a saddle in these conditions --- a rusty rider who... maybe wasn't ever particularly sharp to begin with (lol, sigh..), a horse who kinda takes a fair amount of riding at the moment, and tiny jumps. 

But even so, things didn't look super duper promising for this pretty little Custom. Turns out, there are some things even flocking can't fix! 

So. Back in the box it went, with yet another already on the way in.... Remind me the definition of insanity again??? Lol.....