One, two, three, four, five....

At the time of this writing, that's how many saddles we have gone thru trying to find one to fit. Saddle #1, older saddle, good brand from years ago. Tried and true, stood the test of time, comfortable to ride, does the job in a pinch, but nothing fancy. Got more than one pony started under this saddle and will probably start many more

Dry spots. The bane of existance for horseman everywhere. 

Nope. Doesn't fit. No big deal, we will try another.

Saddle #2 is another western saddle. Respected brand, rode Izzy with it and thought it would work. This one is actually a barrel saddle with shorter skirts, lighter weight and I hoped it would be a 'winner'. Nope.

Looks like it fits, maybe could move back a little but it doesn't, even when it's loose enough to do it while lunging. I snug my saddle when tacking up, snug it one more hole for lunging and check it again before mounting. 

By the photo below- you can see the back of the saddle coming up, even though Mazy isn't exactly lowering her head and rounding her back more like she should. 

Saddle #3 is a well made dressage saddle. It has a medium wide tree, which fits a lot of horses, but not Mazy. I tried it with an extra pad for more lift through the shoulders and tried it the next day without. This one is a big Nope. 

Saddle #4 is another well made, recognized brand. This close contact has a more narrow tree. I thought it might fit and I was mistaken, again. Nope. 

Dry spots again. 

Saddle #5- True story folks. I thought I had grabbed a certain one from my arsenal and when I was loading it into the truck, I seen I grabbed a different one than I had thought. 

"You know you're a tack hoarder when..." You grab one saddle, thinking it's another and then don't remember where the one you're looking for- went. (No wories. It has been located.)

Same saddle, different padding. I added the wedge pad to lift things off her shoulders. 

With this saddle, it was an interesting ride. Saddle #3 required a shorter girth. Saddle #4 took a longer girth. Saddle #5 I used the longer girth to start with. It was snug enough to get on my pony. Riding her it felt a little to the left, a little to the right, shifting back and forth. When I got off, the girth was pretty loose. I could have taken it up a hole or two on both sides- that's how loose it was!

The most interesting and crazy part of all of this, is that I have tried saddles from various different price ranges. A couple were well over $1,000, a couple were in the $500-$1K range and a coulple are in the under $500 range. So while we can spend a bunch of money or don't have much at all to spend, saddles in any price range aren't so useful or a good deal, if they don't fit your horse. 

I have borrowed saddles (and for the love of God), found a local consignment shop. Thankfully it isn't too near by, close but not close enough if ya know what I mean. I may just take up driving her until she quits growing, changing and then try finding a saddle to fit. Or I will turn my focus to finding a bareback pad. Lol

Wearin' it

Some days I feel like one of those runway models. You know, the kind we see on the cover of a horse magazine wearng the newest, latest trends. It makes my eyes pop out just thinking about it.  

My lady brought out a new bridle and tried it out. At first I wasn't sure what was going on or how I was suposed to do things. I figured it out pretty quickly though because I'm smart like that. Stopping was still the same. She would take her legs off my sides and sit down in the saddle a little. I would stop and she would praise me for it a lot.

Look at how classy this thing makes me look though. All grown up and stuff. 

I asked the guy across the aisle what he thought about it? One of those "No right answer" kind of questions. Scares the shit out of them every time!  *snicker*

I seriously think he's jealous. I mean, look at how he's trying to hide it.  He knows he wants one of his own. 

Lift off!

Since all of our work under saddle so far has been at a trot or jog, I am seriously looking forward to the day we start to lope. Why? you might ask....

Becuse of photos like these showing how balanced and round my pony is in her work-

I mean, who Wouldn't be excited to climb on a carousel pony of their own? 

Vrooooommmm!!!

Our first ride was in the arena. Not exactly close quarters if things went sideways. I would have preferred the round pen, but it is what it is. Since there was no moving going on, (she wasn''t offering and I wasn't asking) we were okay. Both of us were comfortable with taking it all in of what each other was doing and accepting it. She just stood there and I just sat there. 

Our second ride I took her in the round pen. If we were going to move, I wanted to give her somewhere she could go, but also a little more enclosed at the same time. If she was going to blow- there's room for her to just run in circles and wear herself down. The round pen is also a little more secluded and distraction free so we had that in our favor as well. 

At first she took an unsure step or two and stopped. I was able to get her turned about a quarter turn and praised her efforts. She was diggin' on that. At first it was a step or two, then a few more and then I let her move towards the outside of the round pen. That's when she tried to scoot a few steps. I said whoa and that was that, she stopped.

Even though the pics today almost all show her at a lope or canter, all we did was walk. 

How many pics of her at a trot on a lunge line can we do, right?

So far I have a whopping 11 rides on this filly and no complaints. She's really doing well. She is nailing her stops and learning to 'read' my body for what's to come.

I am starting to ask her to rate off my seat and slow herself down in the jog as well as combining my leg pressure to get her to start responding to leg cues. The leg cues aren't quite as strong as I'd like them yet, but with time- it will come.

Another thing we struggle with at the moment is wolf teeth. I need to haul her to the vet and have them removed. That should help in the quest to find the perfect bit for her. At the moment she's working in an eggbutt snaffle. She also prefers a loose ring snaffle with a thinner mouthpiece that is actually a pony snaffle. 

She does not seem to like the French link at all, doesn't care for the offset Dee much for western and I have yet to try the regular D-ring snaffle on her. Other than that I have a few pelhams I can try with both jointed and non-jointed mouthpieces. I also have a bosal to try on her. Izzy went well in it until I could get her wolf teeth pulled and also after they were gone. I'm trying to stay with mild bits and find whatever works best for her. 

One year

It's hard to believe it has been a year since I said goodbye to my pony Izzy. She was such a good pony and is missed a lot.  

Two of the pics fom her ad when my friend found her for me. 

That adorbs face of hers. 

We had moved on to work under saddleOne of the many gorgeous head shots I got of her.

Izzy tearing it up and playing.

She looks like a Cow!

Izzy looking pretty thick and playing in the mud.

Izzy's warmblood pose

Love that face

Probably one of my favorite pics of her ever.

Pics from our last show

We were the only horse showing in a bosal that day

And yet we Rocked this score... 

Cowgirl clothes

Since I don't quite have a cart for my pony yet, I figured it's a good time to get on her. I brought out an old western saddle I have hanging around and started using that. She stood like a rock for tacking up, not even flinching or twitching a muscle. Part of this shift in our focus is the fact that the last show I had taken Izzy to (and we rocked it in a bad ass way!),  is coming up at the end of the month. I will go and watch this year, a few of the other boarders may go with me, but it will be a tad bittersweet. 

The miserable woman waiting for a rodeo is no longer at the barn, but if she were, I'm sure she would have been disappointed. There's a lot more there to expand on, but that would be a post of it's own. 

Three weeks ago I got on my pony for the first time. Sometimes there is too much going on at the barn and other times there is next to nobody there. This day the barn owner was there with a few relatives and they were messing with the huge garden, so they were close enough if things got too western they could call 911, but far enough away that they wouldn't be distracting or spooking my pony.

I took Miss Mazy out to the arena and lunged her. I haven't done that in a while and she needs a refresher. It was enough to get the bugs out before getting to work. I put her in the long lines before getting on. My saddle was a little too padded up and kept trying to roll on me. One thing about that- if it ever rolls on her, she won't be bothered by it. She let me get on from the left side, but was a bit hesitant about me climbing on from the right. So I climbed on from the left and got off on the right. Once she figured out the plan, I got on and off from both sides, giving her a chance to stand and process things in her mind in between. She never moved a muscle. She stood like a good pony does and was totally relaxed. I'll take it.