on the first day of christmas, santa brought for me.....

A pair of black dressage saddles!! And a beer bottle cap telling me to stop being such a pussy!! And an extra special puffy fat fetlock!!!!

natty boh beer bottles have a puzzle in the caps. this one was special just for me, apparently.

In no particular order, let's kick off Christmas Eve in style, yea?

hey look, it's another barbed wire induced puncture wound!!

My day 2 evaluation of Charlie's gnarled limb uncovered additional wounds. 24hrs marinating tends to have that effect on wounds - they puff up and present themselves for closer inspection. This is generally a good thing. Each wound I doctored the day prior looked good, thank god - including the puncture previously inhabited by an actual metal barb.

The whole back side of the ankle is slightly warm with some puffiness, but nothing localized to those already-known wounds. Rather, there was another puncture that went unnoticed originally, right at the back of Charlie's fetlock that now has about a marble-sized swelling underneath it.

this one right on top of the sesamoids. it has me slightly squeamish but i still think we're maybe ok here

Again, tho, it seems very localized. It's warm but not hot, puffy but not generally swollen. Idk. The consensus with vet is that we stay the course: antibiotics and bute. And let the leg tell us what it needs to say, whether it's just going through the normal healing routine or if something worse is bubbling beneath the surface.

mmmmmmm bute

My zen in all of this is Charlie. He is happy as a clam. Totally relaxed. Cool with the poking and prodding and scrubbing and squeezing. Wished he was turned out yesterday but was also complacent with his overstuffed hay bag and bute-stuffed cookies.

He's still got his neighbor Maggie, after all - the long term rehab case who was his neighbor throughout his own surgery-induced convalescence too. He's got a thing for gray mares <3

bein honest here, i'd eat that lol

So. I'm taking my cues from him. Until and unless he tells me differently, I'm operating under the assumption that he's not brewing a massively infected joint. We're not amputating yet!!!

So....... In the spirit of Christmas, let's move on to happier thoughts!! Dressage saddle shopping!!!

LOL.....

"i would also eat that" - charlie, who did in fact eat that 

Some back story: Charlie wears entirely hand-me-down tack. His jump bridle previously belonged to another awkward large bay ottb with a weaving problem. And his dressage bridle was previously Isabel's, and Courage's before that. Both saddles were also Isabel's. The jump saddle was the product of many months searching. After finding the Bates of my dreams, I impulsively bought a second Bates as my dressage saddle.

Both saddles have suited nicely, esp given their adjustable gullets. But Charlie gained weight on stall rest and we hit an issue with the dressage saddle in particular - it doesn't have enough clearance in the gullet channel any more. Can't make it wider bc it will sit farther down on him, can't make it narrower bc it pinches. A conundrum. Considering Charlie had started standing up (literally) for his rights, it was time to move on.

sits well, naturally wants to sit back a bit - gives the shoulder an absolute fuck ton of room

Turns out tho, Austen was also at a crossroads with her saddle, for opposite reasons. We theorized that perhaps Pig and Charlie have a similar build. Charlie is generally a large creature, but damn if Pig doesn't have some shoulders and a wither too. Bast seems to be built a little less.... thoroughbred-y.

charlie is a nosy mother fucker sometimes haha

Perhaps Pig's saddle (pictured above) would work for Charlie? And Isabel's would work for Bast? Worth a shot, right? So we traded saddles and I'm honestly a bit heartened by the initial picture this saddle presents. It may be a touch narrow through the channel, and obvi I have yet to ride in it, but it looks like it's worth a trial ride (or three).

It wants to sit way back behind his shoulder, and the panels seem to evenly distribute pressure. I'm no professional, but after trying actual oodles of saddles on Isabel, I've got a sense of what will no way no how work. This looks passable. Professional input will be forthcoming soon!!

meanwhile, Bast shows off Charlie's old saddle

And in the meantime I was tickled to see my own Bates look like a similarly passable potential fit for Bast! Obvi I'll let Austen tell her own stories, but it's always reassuring when a trade feels relatively even.

and omg but that ear fuzz is so cute, i die

I say "relatively" bc... uh.... my dressage saddle should not be confused for anything nice. It's.... not. It's slippery and barely leather. But it's suited me well enough all these years, and nobody will argue if it can serve as at least an interim solution for Austen and Bast. Who remains, as ever, too goddamn freakin cute. And also really looking like a dressage horse in training!!

back to charlie, trying my trainer's hulsebos saddle. it has clearance galore in every dimension. perhaps a titch wide

Anyway the other contender in Santa's stork delivery (that's how it works, right?) is my trainer's first ever custom Hulsebos. She now has approximately one zillion custom Hulsebos saddles (one of which she sold to Brita last year, and Brita is now officially an absolute dyed-in-the-wool convert), but this is her first ever and she has a strong attachment to it.

Not least because it's made specifically for a large thoroughbred: built for a horse with a peaked back, instead of flat. And loads of wither clearance. For these reasons, it's not actually clear that she'd consent to sell it. But she's considering it, and has offered it to me on loan indefinitely.

doesn't sit down on him when i ride tho

If anything, this saddle is a titch wide on Charlie - but he's gone well in it so far when we ride. The Hulsebos rep comes regularly to our farm per my trainer P (and nobody else is allowed to touch this saddle) so we could potentially reflock it for him. And in the meantime, the fitter I already have scheduled can eyeball and assess it, she's just not allowed to alter it in any way.

unimpressed poneh is unimpressed

So. Ya know. I feel grateful to have options ahead of that visit. Especially all options with wool flocking. Even tho I kinda hate all saddle fitters and think the whole business borders on subjective sham-fulness..... Too harsh? Mebbe. lol....

Hopefully tho I'll have a chance to ride a couple times in Austen's saddle, and perhaps a couple more in the Hulsebos too for the sake of completeness. And to get trainer P and dressage trainer C's input. It would be nice to have more fully fledged opinions before the fitter, if possible.

But. Ahem. I also hope my horse doesn't fester into full blown joint infection in the meantime too. We can dream, right? And in the meantime, Merry Christmas Even, y'all!