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May. 9th, 2007 10:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickTrailer tire still leaks. (You knew that already, didn't you?)
It was lovely. The horse and I got to try out the New! Shiny! Saddle! that has been languishing in the book room of my house for want of a reasonably worthwhile trail horse to try it out on. The issue of saddle fit (absolutely riveting to the non-horsey in the studio audience, I know) arose because the lovely red-seat saddle that I adore (falling apart, does not technically belong to me) does not fit the IRH particularly well. It makes big dry spots on her back. Oops. Big dry spots are NOT GOOD. The horse's back should be all evenly wet, all the same temperature, with no swellings or hot spots or dry spots. If that's not what it looks like at the end of a ride, you have saddle fit issues.
The New! Shiny! Saddle!, which is a SportSaddle (brand) with an 18" seat (because my ass is big) is Very Comfortable (TM). It fits the horse better than the red-seat saddle. It weighs less than the red-seat saddle. It doesn't slide around or anything. It has absolutely lots of D-rings on it to hang stuff. And I bought it used on the internets for about eighty percent of what new ones sell for. It looks pristine. I provided it with a cinch of my own (the one I use for the bareback pad) and everything else was ready to rock-n-roll.
I really like this saddle. It's comfy. It's like being bareback *with stirrups*. The stirrups are positioned so that even my sorry old ass can post the trot. Yay! (The red-seat saddle does not encourage posting because the stirrups are hung from the wrong spot. This is to be expected, as it is a western saddle.) It does not slide around on the IRH particularly badly (and we ride steep ground). It holds on her for mounting. Barring undiscovered incidents down the road, this is it.
However, it does not have a beautiful Skito custom pad that fits it. I think I'd like it better if it had one of those, so I bought one. It should be here in a week or two.
The bootie issue went well today. Both booties went on and stayed on for the length of the ride. It might be that we did not do stressful enough riding to offen the booties, but we trotted two stretches of half-mile distance at speed and the booties held on for the ride. Since we're going over territory that I am familiar with, it's okay if I lose a bootie. We'll probably be over the same course in two days or so. Also, I have a bootie spotter (the kid, who largely follows me) and no bootie shall fall to the ground without her knowledge, or there will be beatings.
I am tired, going to bed.
It was lovely. The horse and I got to try out the New! Shiny! Saddle! that has been languishing in the book room of my house for want of a reasonably worthwhile trail horse to try it out on. The issue of saddle fit (absolutely riveting to the non-horsey in the studio audience, I know) arose because the lovely red-seat saddle that I adore (falling apart, does not technically belong to me) does not fit the IRH particularly well. It makes big dry spots on her back. Oops. Big dry spots are NOT GOOD. The horse's back should be all evenly wet, all the same temperature, with no swellings or hot spots or dry spots. If that's not what it looks like at the end of a ride, you have saddle fit issues.
The New! Shiny! Saddle!, which is a SportSaddle (brand) with an 18" seat (because my ass is big) is Very Comfortable (TM). It fits the horse better than the red-seat saddle. It weighs less than the red-seat saddle. It doesn't slide around or anything. It has absolutely lots of D-rings on it to hang stuff. And I bought it used on the internets for about eighty percent of what new ones sell for. It looks pristine. I provided it with a cinch of my own (the one I use for the bareback pad) and everything else was ready to rock-n-roll.
I really like this saddle. It's comfy. It's like being bareback *with stirrups*. The stirrups are positioned so that even my sorry old ass can post the trot. Yay! (The red-seat saddle does not encourage posting because the stirrups are hung from the wrong spot. This is to be expected, as it is a western saddle.) It does not slide around on the IRH particularly badly (and we ride steep ground). It holds on her for mounting. Barring undiscovered incidents down the road, this is it.
However, it does not have a beautiful Skito custom pad that fits it. I think I'd like it better if it had one of those, so I bought one. It should be here in a week or two.
The bootie issue went well today. Both booties went on and stayed on for the length of the ride. It might be that we did not do stressful enough riding to offen the booties, but we trotted two stretches of half-mile distance at speed and the booties held on for the ride. Since we're going over territory that I am familiar with, it's okay if I lose a bootie. We'll probably be over the same course in two days or so. Also, I have a bootie spotter (the kid, who largely follows me) and no bootie shall fall to the ground without her knowledge, or there will be beatings.
I am tired, going to bed.
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no subject
Date: 2007-05-13 10:08 pm (UTC)Why would a 'western' ssaddle have stirrups inthe wrong spot?
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Date: 2007-05-14 01:21 am (UTC)English saddles (and some endurance/competitive trail saddles) have stirrups that are hung so that the rider's leg is in a good position for posting. It's a point-of-balance thing, I think. The pivot for posting is actually the rider's knee.
Western riders (cowboy hats, rodeos, cows are involved, big horn sticking out of the front of the saddle, etc.) do not post the trot and their saddles are not designed to accommodate it. The stirrups are hung in the wrong place so that the rider who tries to post in most western saddles finds his or her torso flung forward and his or her feet sticking out behind. It's just wrong.
More information on posting is here (http://lorienstable.com/articles/riding/400-trotting/)