Saddle comparisons

I'm going through this in my head - maybe it will be useful to someone else!

I have a hard time getting my thighs/knees on the horse in the Eurolight; instead, they're flared out.  This is less obvious with saddlebags.  This is also likely the reason my canter is worse in the Eurolight.  Three Eurolight rides later: I realized that my knees are currently on the lower D-rings.. which is where I've had my saddlebags rigged to, which would make putting my knees on the horse impossible.  I don't have a solution yet, but the bags are still off right now.

The Eurolight has a deeper seat, and generally makes me feel more secure.  That said, it also has a steep cantle that I frequently feel myself running into.  If I lean back in the Thorowgood, I'm leaning back.  If I lean back in the Eurolight, I'm fighting the saddle.  I suspect it's probably equivalent to a 17" English and a bit small for me.

I am tending to lean forwards in the Eurolight.  After switching to non-caged stirrups that feel longer: issue (mostly) resolved.

I'm not yet feeling secure in my caged stirrups - I feel like I'm fighting those too.  I may put my old stirrups back on to see if that resolves anything.  I LOVE the idea of the caged stirrups.. but I feel like I cannot get my foot far enough in (or at least my left foot, right foot does okay).  I adjusted the placement of the left stirrup leather and Saturday's ride should tell me if that fixes things.  The fact that I can get one foot happily in makes me think it ought to be fixable.
After Saturday's ride: nope.  Not quite fixed.  Better, but not quite fixed.
Sunday's ride: switched back to non-caged stirrups, and I feel way better about life.  Our canter was halfway decent.  I can post comfortably.  I'm not having to think about my position every three steps to figure out why my foot feels insecure.  My canter seat is.. well, it's better with the non-caged stirrups than the caged, but I think it's still best in the Thorowgood right now.

I don't have a good answer for why the caged stirrups are not working for me.  I suspect it's a combination of stirrup height (effectively changing my total stirrup + leather length) and trying to get an extra half-inch of foot through the stirrup.  I have big feet (womens 9.5) and perhaps this is one of those things where it's actually going to matter.  Or maybe it's also partly that I need to drop the stirrups a half-hole to account for the firmer stirrups, rather than trying to ride with hunter-type knees.
ATG would probably make me bigger cages if I asked.  At this point, my spare cash is gone and I have a ride in four weeks, so for now, that will wait.

After two weeks of bareback/dressage saddle work, the Specialized with Woolback feels awfully wide.  I'll try at least a short hack with an English pad to see if that fixes my issues with contact.  It may cause bigger problems with pony-saddle-fit, but that will at least answer some questions.
After Sunday: Hahaha, no!  No I will not.  I am not capable of easily getting the saddle fitted with an English pad rather than the thicker Woolback.  There is a dramatic difference in fit (bridging! major pressure on shoulders! something wrong towards the back!) and frankly, if I have to spend more than 30 minutes fussing with saddle fitting to get it to work this close to a 25, I may as well ride in the Thorowgood.  But.  The Specialized as-is fits the horse even if I'm not quite sure about me, so we will make do.
Incidentally, today I read Gail's post about her Specialized demo, and yep: nailed it. It's a wider twist.  It never bothered me before, but I went from a crazy-wide western-endurance saddle to the Eurolight, so it was probably an improvement then.  This was the most English riding I've done in two years. 

Something about the buckle or twist of the right stirrup is still making my leg unhappy.  I still don't know why.  I may experiment with moving that buckle up six inches.
Buckle moved!  I didn't notice it, so maybe that will fix things, or maybe I was too busy being thrilled with the stirrups to notice.

So, after reading all that again, the obvious question: why not just ride in the Thorowgood?
1. It fits.  But it doesn't fit as well as the Eurolight.  I notice it riding her shoulders more on the downhills, and laterally I don't feel like it's quite as stable.  Do note, though, that I nearly ground-mounted with the Thorowgood sometime in the past few weeks, and it stayed just fine.. so that lateral fit may be all in my head.
2. I want a bigger pommel to run into when she does dumb things like screech to abrupt halts.  I can sit everything in the Thorowgood if I have to, but that's all my seat and not the saddle.  Sometimes I want help from the saddle.  All her bucking and hissy fits last winter?  I would have been eating dirt very early on in a dressage saddle.
3. The Eurolight is more forgiving when I'm tired and not riding as well.  Again, I probably could ride in the Thorowgood, but it's going to take a toll on me and thus on her.
4. The Thorowgood makes my knees unhappy after a while.  Probably fixed by switching to endurance stirrups, but see above about financial status: broke.
5. Eurolight is way more comfortable several hours in.  Possibly somewhat fixed with a full-saddle sheepskin cover, but again: broke.
6. I don't have to canter right now.  Would I like the option?  Sure.  Do I need it for my next ride?  No, I do not, and we're well capable of trotting all of it instead if that's what it comes to.

Yay, Specialized!

As mentioned, I sent my saddle back to Specialized's Texas headquarters two and a half weeks ago.  I requested three fixes:
1. replace crupper ring, as it had broken
2. replace billets - I had stripped off the nylon backing probably 6 months ago so that the billets would fit on standard girths, and knew this would need replaced eventually.  Since it was already going out there, might as well get it done.
3. add screw to saddle.  Mine originally came with a waterbottle holder, which I promptly removed - but the screws that fit with the holder were way too long without.  Incredibly minor thing, but might as well ask for that too.

I was told to ship it off and that they would contact me when it was done to charge me.  I'm not a huge fan of not having a total to start with, but fine; I figured I was looking at $150 or so.

The saddle showed up at my house yesterday.  Woohoo!  However, I was confused: I had heard nothing from them, and they don't have any of my payment information.  A quick email was sent off to try to clarify.  If they don't want payment, y'know, that's fine - but I feel morally obligated to ask and offer.

Cue an email from Specialized this morning:  all repairs were under warranty.  Crupper ring should never have broken, and the billets were part of a too-thick batch.

Wow.  This is a saddle I purchased used, that's at least a few years old now, and that I personally have given them no money for.  Their customer service is notoriously a bit lacking.  I am astonished and delighted that they'll stand behind their saddles and craftsmanship that much.

New billets, by the way?  They're lovely and everything I could have asked for (aside from the length difference!).

August recap, September goals, various updates

August goals were:
- 15+ mile rides once or twice during the month - Fail.  But: two back-to-back 10mile days, which for our purposes is pretty close to one 15+ mile ride.  Oh wait - actually, success!  We rode with Quicksilver for 4-5 miles, then 5ish miles there and home as well, so that's close to 15.  That just didn't get completely logged.
- Get rid of hives - Check.  Thankfully, she's shedding, and as her new coat comes in we're losing the visible spots.
- Continue speed work approx. once weekly - Check!  Five rides at 5mph or over.
- Continue heat work (as much for me as for her) - Check?  I think we did, anyway, but the past two months are all blurring together.  If I elyte, I do better.  I'm learning.
- Rebuild trail confidence; eliminate backing up as an evasion again.  - This appears to be resolved, but I'm not convinced it won't flare back up again before resolving for a while.
Total mileage: approx 90.  A bit lower than usual, but well within normal.
Bonus for a lesson in August, with a tiny bit of jumping!


September goals:
- Continue to add canter as comfort allows, making sure it's a polite canter and not a running-away canter.
- Rasp hooves weekly to make sure boots fit for our early October ride.
- Acquire clippers.  Clip 'Fetti's neck shortly prior to October ride.
- School 'standing still while mounting' more.  One step is vaguely tolerable at this point.  More than that, absolutely not.


On saddles:
My Eurolight spent two weeks away getting fixed.
I was riding in the Thorowgood with some bareback work for good measure.  Sweat patterns are still good.  I am so, so lucky to have a second saddle that works for the silly horse and I.  I'm not as secure, and having regular English stirrups and irons definitely impacts my leg comfort, but we did a moderately brisk 18-mile ride last week with no real problems. 

On hydration:
Human: I bought a new Nathan Intensity pack and I love it.  It's 2L rather than my previous 3L pack, but it barely bounces at all, even when cantering. I did not love the bite valve that came with, so I 'borrowed' the Camelbak's bite valve and tube from my boyfriend's Camelbak (oops, bad girlfriend!) for the time being, aka until I make it to REI for a new one for me.  Then again, maybe I should give him the new one...
It also has a nifty little pocket in front I can store elyte tabs in, increasing the likelihood I'll remember to take them regularly.

Horse: On a whim, I bought a Himalayan salt block to hang in her stall maybe two months ago?  Confetti has now gone through the entire thing.  She's drinking substantially more - this was the mare that used to go through maaaaybe a third of the 'standard' water bucket, and now goes through half of a double-sized one in a day.  No complaints here; I'm happy she's drinking.

Thorowgood:
Hex key acquired and worked nicely!  We're now in the MW gullet, I believe, and I'm feeling more balanced that way.  I don't have a wool pad to go underneath and frankly would be concerned about messing with the fit by adding mine, so standard English pads it is.  That does mean that using the heart monitor is not a good option: the electrodes have trouble sticking to the English pads.
Despite it being a dressage saddle, I had another gal at the barn help me out and stick the knee blocks in a more AP-type position, supporting my calves rather than my thighs.  I can't necessarily recommend it to anyone, but it is working much better for me now.
Tiny horse problems: my 22" Woolback girth reaches nearly to the bottom of the saddle on both sides.  Yikes!

If you embiggen, knee block placement is almost visible, sort of.

Eurolight repairs and discoveries:
I had new billets put on my saddle along with replacing the crupper ring.  Either the old billets stretched, or the new ones are shorter.  They're easily four inches shorter.  This puts my 22" Woolback girth on holes 2 & 3.  I sense a new girth in our future.
Also, I snugged up the breastcollar some when I put the saddle on.  I'm not sure how it looked good before, but it seems to look fine now.
My trainer had mentioned that the Eurolight doesn't allow you to really get your knees against the horse.  I hadn't understood that then.  I do now.  I suspect I could resolve that somewhat by using a thinner pad, and may experiment with putting the dressage pads back on to see if the sweat patterns are still good (or not).

Saddle looks awfully plain without a pink saddlebag, but I just wanted to RIDE.  Also, the stirrup was on backwards.  That did get fixed.

Cantering:
Our canter work feels vastly improved.  There are still times I'm up in a bastard two-point position.  However, there are now a near-equal amount of times when I'm just calmly sitting and staying with her motion.  I'm not entirely sure what's changed.  The real test will be trying it in the Eurolight to see if I can keep that feeling.
Verdict:  no, not really.  My lower leg stability is not there in the Eurolight (probably related to my knees flaring out, see previous point!), and it is in the dressage saddle with knee blocks.  I can hold the canter for a few strides and have it feel correct, but not the lengths we were getting in the Thorowgood.  At this point, I think I will probably continue to work on those handful of strides, but make a point to pull out the Thorowgood weekly-or-so for canter sets.

Two-point and running martingales, or, I am very used to these Haflingers:
I've pondered for a while how folks would actually end up with horses hitting them in the head.  I mean, I have to be falling forwards to hit her neck!  It finally clicked: it seems like normal horses have a higher headset, Arabs/Saddlebred types in particular.  Fetti and the other Haffies default to a flatter headset.  Alternatively, I'm just not seeing the high-headed Haffie photos and low-headed other horse photos?
In any case, two-point is awfully hard in non-jumping length stirrups and with the mane three inches lower than I want to grab.

We're four weeks out from our next ride.  Yikes!  Expect some ride-prep (or lack thereof) posts soon.

Saddle woes

I may or may not have written about the first time my crupper ring detached from the saddle.  I did some research, found that it was a known issue with a year or two of Specializeds, found the correct way to fix it, and passed on those instructions to our local leather repair shop.  It's worth noting that their first language is not English and I don't think they quite understood: the fix was not done in the way I had hoped, but it appeared to be fixed well enough and I let it be.  That fix was made late last year, if I remember correctly.

Also of note: I need a crupper on Confetti on our home trails.  It is entirely non-negotiable.  I could probably fiddle with the saddle fit and get it slightly better, but her sweat patterns are good and she moves out well as-is.  It seems silly to mess with that too much.  Everything slides forwards on her on some of our hills, with or without my weight in the saddle.  Someday I'll get a decent Specialized rep out and show them the hills.  Maybe they can shim it, maybe not.  She has no withers and big shoulders.  I'm probably fighting a losing battle.

We did a particularly steep trail this past weekend. I tightened the crupper up a hole before starting the downhill.  I know the saddle ends up on her shoulders, and I know that tightening that one hole is beneficial to keep it slightly further back.  Is it slightly snugger than some would ride with?  Absolutely.  This trail has probably 15 minutes of constant downhill walking, ranging from slightly downhill to moderately downhill, with a few large downhill steps for good measure.

I reached back a few times during that long downhill, verifying that the crupper is indeed *very tight*, as per usual through here.  I don't know when I checked it last.  We headed up away from the river, then back down to the next river crossing, then finally up and away again.  I reached back again midway up the hill and felt.. nothing.  Shit.  There was a dog and hikers behind us, a few particular bits of trail I try really hard not to ride in the opposite direction, and time constraints on my part.. not to mention if we turned around, I'd be riding some fairly steep sections going downhill with no crupper.

We carried on towards home.  All the downhills were walked, and the particularly steep ones had me off and walking her, then sliding the saddle back at the bottom.  I know what sections of trail cause problems and I can get away with that.

The next day, I saddled up with the dressage saddle and my other crupper.  Tack hoarding tendencies: totally justified here.  We rode out on the same trail, and lo!  A crupper hanging from a tree!

Speck of pink - you may need to embiggen to see it.

That was good.  What was not so good is that the D-ring was not attached.  If you take the time to hang a crupper from a tree, it's reasonable to assume that you would include all the pieces, correct?  Back at the barn my suspicions were confirmed.. the leather that held the D-ring on was still intact.  The fix held.  The only reasonable explanation is that the D-ring itself broke.  (Which, admittedly, doesn't make a lot of sense to me.  The crupper was found after that looooong downhill - and midway through a flat section, right after a river crossing.  I don't understand when it would have broken and why it came off where it did.  Thoughts, anyone?)

The saddle will head off to Specialized's headquarters for a second, hopefully more permanent fix.  While I'm at it, might as well get the billets replaced, too! If I'm going to be without my favorite saddle for 3-4 weeks, it seems prudent to do all the needed work this time around.

I am grateful for my tack hoarding tendencies.  The Specialized is not my only saddle, and my Thorowgood dressage saddle has a crupper ring and pretty sweat patterns after long rides. I also have that older endurance saddle that can come back out to play if needed.

It can't end there, though.  That would be too easy.  The ride on the Thorowgood was uncomfortable for me, and it seems likely that the gullet plate needs to be changed out for a wider one.  Not a problem, I have at least one wider one, and the tools to change it out.  Except the tools I found are NOT the ones I need, and the necessary tool and spare screws... are nowhere to be found, and quite possibly hiding with the Renegade tools that are still nowhere to be found.  I would not be surprised if they're all in the same bag.  Unfortunately, I have no distinct memory of seeing them after they were packed for Mount Diablo back in May, and I have not the slightest clue where they would have ended up.

Hex keys were purchased, and there will be an update if the stupid tools ever show up.

Bright side: scenic photos while crupper-hunting!

The tree actually does lean over the trail, and now requires ducking onto Fetti's neck to fit underneath.

Ferns.

Feeeeerns!

It's a 15-foot drop (or so) nearly straight down on the right.

Specialized, take two

So after writing all that about my saddle fit? I ended up helping another boarder look at her (new, demo) Specialized that had been fitted this past weekend by a dealer.  I learned a few things from this.

1. I'm no longer convinced my shoulder clearance is adequate, and I'd like to work on that.
2. I have not a clue how I'm going to work on that.
3. It's unclear to me whether the saddle should sit 1-2" behind the scapula.. or 1-2" over the scapula.
4. The shims the dealer had placed were at the bottom of the tree, not the top as I'd always mentally pictured them being.  I assume they were to fill gaps & make the (wide) tree narrower for the (narrowish) horse.
5. Back to #3 - rep had the saddle fitted so that it worked well when over the scapula and avoiding the dip this horse has behind the withers.  Not being accustomed to said dip, I slid the saddle as far back as it seemed to want to go - perhaps too far back for this horse?  There are a lot of steep hills that I ride fairly regularly, and I have concerns that a saddle fitted for a static back on a flat surface might be more inclined to shift back to where it 'wants' to be on a hill.  It did not occur to me to ask that when I was on the phone with the fitter trying to help troubleshoot, but I will bring it up if it gets mentioned again (especially as the other boarder wants to do casual trails).
6. Wide tree + narrowish horse.. had thin Specialized pad and 3/4" fitting pads.  I feel like my 1" Woolback + 1" pads must somehow be wrong - but it's actually working reasonably well.  It just feels like maybe I could do better for her.
7. Good thing about Specialized: very adjustable.  Bad thing:  very adjustable.  Very easy to drive oneself crazy.

Specialized Saddle fitting comments

So.  Hannah asked for a brief bunch of notes on the Specialized saddles and fitting them, and instead I took a zillion photos of how I know mine's in roughly the right place and how to check the fit, so this is long and photo-heavy under the cut with a lot of commentary on Specialized saddles!