will emma ever learn to sit a horse? you decide!!

Right around the New Year, Charlie and I were dealing with a lot of sour horse issues. He started back into post-surgery tack walking in October, and rehab really got under way in November. Things were well and fine and all, right up until they were.... not fine.

Charlie's always been the kind of horse to get sticky stuck and threaten to go up when something is buggin him. And at this point, something was definitely omg very much buggin him. And by December, we had one of our worst rides in terms of his behavior - tantrums, rearing, all of it. Something had to give.

Jan Hulsebos conducting field surgery on my beloved dressage saddle. Yes that is a razor blade in his hands haha. and Yes it was awesome.

I was able to isolate my Bates dressage saddle (a hand-me-down from Isabel) as the Source of All Charlie's Woes. And thus it was banished.... to Austen haha, bc even tho that saddle kinda sucks it's proven to be a reasonable fit for a wide variety of horses. #gofigure

And meanwhile, I made my first ever true high quality tack purchase: my trainer's custom Hulsebos dressage saddle made for her large thoroughbred. The horse passed some years ago, leaving my trainer with a saddle built for a large thoroughbred, but without an actual large thoroughbred. Meanwhile, *I* had a large thoroughbred, but no saddle. It was an obvious choice.

We tried the saddle on Charlie and it looked practically custom made for him. So after much arm twisting, trainer P agreed to sell it to me.

best picture i have of the saddle's thigh blocks pre-customization. you can see the block extends the full length of the flap, reaching to the billet straps. also, incidentally, this Eponia breast plate is no longer needed post-customization. it may be offered for sale. interested?

Peace was returned to the kingdom, and we returned to our endless pursuit of more and better in dressageland in our new chunk of leather and wood. All was right again!

And of course when the saddle maker himself, Jan Hulsebos, made his annual pilgrimage to our part of the world to service any saddles needing it, I added mine to the list so that we could get that expert finishing touch to make everything just right for Sir.

the blocks after Jan was finished with them. effectively retrofitted to half blocks.

I wrote a whole lengthy post on that experience - a saddle fitting with Jan is basically tantamount to a bio mechanics clinic, apparently. It was honestly kinda intense bc I was just trotting endlessly around and around in the oppressive July heat while Jan silently observed.

Finally, tho, he reached a verdict.

a nice example of me and charlie both trying really hard

In Jan's opinion, a few things had to happen with the saddle. First of all: we would reflock (as expected) but with the specific intent of lifting the front of the saddle, and slightly lowering the back. This made perfect sense to me, since even tho Charlie is not technically built downhill he can often have a downhill way of going.

possibly just a better camera angle, but definitely a better pelvis angle

Additionally, I had noticed that during the course of a ride, the saddle would slide back a little bit, dropping even more up front. Thus the idea of adding a breast plate* to the mix: it was my hope that the breast plate would keep the saddle from dropping backwards. This seemed to work, but Jan's flocking solution is obviously a bit more effective haha.

(*Incidentally -- after making his adjustments to the saddle he recommended I discontinue using the breast plate. I've held onto it tho bc.... wow it's really pretty. But am wondering if maybe I could use the money more and am debating offering it for sale. If you're interested let me know! fraidycat.eventing at gmail.)

leg position leaves plenty to be desired, but we try, we try

It was Jan's other observations that maybe made a bigger difference tho. Essentially, after watching me trot around for ages, he accurately identified my most prominent (and, frankly, well-known) positional flaws: I tend to tip forward in my pelvis and perch on my crotch, while pivoting and pinching with my knees causing the lower leg to curl up.

pretty standard emma perch with trademark pulled up leg

I've been working on fixing this for.... literal years. It's.... hard. And I do it in literally every single saddle I ride in, tho obviously some help or hinder more than others.

But Jan felt that he could improve the saddle's construction to help here. See, he thought the big giant visible-from-the-moon thigh blocks on the saddle were giving me something to brace my knees against, pushing my seat up against the back of the saddle. If he cut off the bottom half of the blocks, my knee would have more room and nothing to push against, so my seat could stay more neutral while my leg hung down more naturally.

gosh i wish we could have Austen taking pictures at every show tho.... instead you get cell phone screen grabs. half block is visible tho!

Seemed like a good plan, yes? And the cost was surprisingly affordable. Even better was that Jan could make all the alterations right then and there, with no shipping the saddle away or wait times.

leg still curled. always curled. bc reasons. seat potentially showing improvement tho?

Since then, I've felt pretty good about the saddle. Lifting it up front definitely helps with Chuck (even tho, call me biased if you want, he seems to be less and less downhill in his way of going every day) and I feel like it's maybe (?) been easier to keep my seat where I want it. Maybe.

the idea is that my knee can't jam into the block any more to push my seat backwards

I haven't had a dressage lesson in forever tho (sadness + woe) and opportunities for getting pictures of us in dressage tack are likewise sadly rare. Except at shows!!! So all these recent pictures from Jenny Camp are getting repurposed to help me better understand what changes the saddle has helped bring along, and what still needs work.

so even as i want to pull my heel up and cling with my lower leg, my seat is able to retain a somewhat neutral position

Obviously I'm ignoring things like my too-long reins and too-wide hands. Tho, uh, if someone could invent a saddle that reminds you to shorten your fucking reins that would be greeeeattt haha.

Rather, mostly I'm looking at two distinct tho closely correlated elements in these pictures. First: the general orientation of my pelvis. If I imagine the human pelvis is shaped like a bowl and filled with water, what would be happening to my water? Is it spilling out the front? Or safely contained in a level bowl?

so the refitted saddle isn't a miracle worker, but is a step in the right direction

For my own purposes, I've come to believe that my seat position is the highest priority among my special set of issues. Like, sure, there are issues in my torso, arms, head and neck and like... wow all of it, but I think a more correct seat position will make it easier to create effective change elsewhere.

The second priority, and the other element I'm looking at in these pictures, is how my leg hangs from my pelvis. Does it drape down? Am I able to utilize the length of my muscles independently? With the ability, for instance, to apply thigh pressure separately from calf? Or... ya know... am I just clinging with my heel?? lol...

And most importantly, do I see a difference in the set of pictures from Loch Moy with the full blocks, vs the set of pictures from Jenny Camp with the half blocks?

when you ride a bronto tho, you work with what you got lol

It's a tough comparison bc the quality difference between photos is so..... extreme lol. And also obvi these pictures were mostly the cream of the crop vs the uglier moments.... Tho I believe they're relatively honest representations of how I ride.

So... Overall? My impression is that I think the half blocks do make a big difference in how I sit. Taking away the ability to brace my knee against the block has in fact helped keep my seat more neutral. I still pinch with the knee tho, and still want to drop the front of my pelvis. A lot of that is muscle memory tho. Hard to fix. But worth the effort.

Ultimately I think the improvements in the saddle have helped a lot. Made a big difference. It's easier for me to be more correct, and I'm not fighting against the saddle as much. It's not a silver bullet tho. Alas haha. But is there even such a thing with horses? I think not.