[egrogan]

I've had a really crazy work week, so not much riding, sadly.

I am still on the hunt for a new saddle, and have a wonderful one on trial. I am not so sure the fit is exactly right (****- it's a great deal on exactly what I need). But, I have through the weekend to try it out.

Not sure if anyone is familiar with the Trilogy "Debbie MacDonald" model. I am mostly unfamiliar with the brand, but my saddle fitter mentioned a couple of weeks ago that they are "great for short people"- which I am!- so I was enthusiastic to try it.

I took my first test ride yesterday, and it was certainly a great saddle. I told my trainer, it felt like getting a hug from the saddle! I'm not 100% sure the sizing is right for my horse or for me, but I'm going to ride in it again a couple of times this weekend.

I need to talk to the saddle shop though, as I'm not sure if Trilogy makes a MW in the Debbie MacDonald. That's really what Isabel is. The one I have on trial is an XW, and the only reason I took one that size was that I read they tend to run a bit small, and I thought perhaps the fitter could make it work if it was really sort of a wide. I'm still not certain that will be the case, but I'm not even sure if the equivalent of a MW is available. My guess is these are designed more for big beefy warmbloods?

I didn't spend a lot of time trying it on her without pads yesterday, because she was a bit damp from the rain, but when I did briefly, it definitely sat down on her withers more than I'd like and seemed to really be gaping over them. I will get pictures and probably start a new thread this weekend.

But, because of her slight swayback, I typically ride her with a regular dressage pad plus one of those fleeceworks pads, and when I had her padded up, the spacing over the withers didn't look as weird. I know you want your saddle to fit well without having to use a lot of pads, so that's why I'm thinking this isn't ideal. But here are a couple of pics with the saddle and pads, I wonder if people would think it's a bad fit without knowing hte context:

I rode her in it for about 20 minutes, and at first she was a little hesitant (I think mostly because I was trying to find my balance in it), but she wasn't throwing her head up, pinning her ears, tensing up or anything that would make me think it was sliding around or slamming down on her withers. So maybe there is some hope.

My final question is whether it really fits me. I think I could go with a 17.5" or an 18" seat, depending on the model. This seems to be a bit of a deeper seat than I'm used to in my County, so I'm not sure if it's a tad too tight (I sort of felt like I was humping the pommel- sorry for that description) and my knees were almost coming ahead of the flap. I might be able to adjust my stirrups a bit though to get a better leg position. My husband can come to the barn with me Saturday to take some video, so I think that will help me decide. I'm not usually an indecisive person, but it's been so hard for me to commit to a new saddle.

And I'll end with one more picture of the cute girl herself:

 

[frlsgirl]

She certainly is cute. I need a fleece pad like your for Ana. I bought one of tack trader but it ended up being too flat...what brand/make/model is yours? (sorry, off topic)

Anyway, it's hard to tell from the pictures if the saddle fits her well since you're using the thick pad to fill in any gaps. Overall it looks balanced to me (not too far back or on her shoulders).

Can you post of picture of you in the saddle? Sometimes, once you add the riders weight, the saddle can suddenly become unbalanced which is what you might be experiencing.

 

[egrogan]

No problem frls, it is a Fleeceworks half pad. It's sort of a knockoff/cheaper version of the really nice Mattes pads.

I started a saddle fit thread if anyone wants to take a look and let me know:
http://www.horseforum.com/saddle-fi...ision-trial-saddle-sunday-480098/#post6203386

I think I'm actually more unsure about whether it fits ME than whether it fits Izzy-she seems pretty happy in it as is, and she'll get a visit from the saddle fitter if I get the saddle.
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[egrogan]

It's funny, I started this thread back in June wondering if Isabel could become a happy trail horse, and now that the summer's over, I think the answer really is, "YES!"

We had a great ride yesterday afternoon. I've been test riding a new saddle (which I decided I'm going to keep), so we went out on our regular 4 mile trail loop. It was a perfect fall day, cool breeze, sunny skies, just a perfect day for a ride. I really let her have her head and take a good gallop around one of the corn fields, and she was eager to gooooo. She actually worked up quite a sweat.

But the greatest thing is, when I pulled her back to a walk, I was able to walk her home quietly the entire way on the buckle. She walked through the woods, she walked across the farmer's field where she always wants to prance and jig, just just walked calmly on the buckle. I don't think it was out of exhaustion, as it was a nice, forward walk, but it was relaxed.

I have to say, I feel really proud that in just a few months, she's taken to this so naturally. It also strikes me that almost all of our rides have been solo, which also makes me happy. Feels like it's been a really productive summer! Actually makes me a bit sad that hunting season is almost here, which will limit our trail options, and that winter isn't all that far behind it...

Testing the new saddle:

Getting to nibble some grass while cooling out:

Deciding which mare she's going to harass out in the field:

 

[egrogan]

So a bit of a frustrating update on Izzy today. I went out to the barn yesterday, and discovered she had pulled down a bunch of the boards on her run-out paddock. Turns out, she has been systematically eating one of the boards separating her from the next horse over since this winter. I was incredulous- I couldn't believe no one told me she was being so destructive!! I offered to pay for repairs, and to pay for electric tape to put up over the top board to keep her off it and BM declined- but geez...clearly this is an indication that she's super bored overnight.

I love my boarding barn and BM, but am just really surprised that I didn't know about this until I found shards of board in her paddock and asked if it was her that had been eating the fence. The fencing is sort of old, and it's all chewed on, so I guess I just assumed that it was already like that, not that she was eating it down. Although looking back, I should have been paying more attention and noticing it was getting worse...

Anyway, I'm not sure what to do to help her overnight. She's not interested in toys (have tried a jolly ball in the past). I could give her "lick-its" but I hate the thought of her eating all that sugary stuff. I think the real problem is that hay is fed out around 6pm- she gets a flake on the ground and two in a slow feeder, but obviously that's not enough and she's through it by about 9pm. I think it could be an option to up her hay and leave her another haynet, but I just wonder if that's really enough to make any difference- if she just eats that by 10pm, have we really helped her? And do I want to put more food in front of her when we've been trying to get weight off her this summer?

Uggh...moments like these I do wish I had her at home so she could just be turned out all night. Unfortunately that's not an option at the boarding barn because there is no paddock with a shelter.

 

[frlsgirl]

Yikes. It sounds like she's trying to get closer to the horse next to her, since she's eating the board that separates them. Instead of repairing the damage, could they just make a window from the hole? That way the horse's can see each other?

When Ana gets bored, she gets herself into all sorts of trouble; she dismantled the sattelite dish at the last boarding facility. Now that she's got company on pasture/paddock board, she's much happier.

Hopefully you can figure something out. It's always embarrasing when stuff like this happens.

 

[egrogan]

I guess I've been delinquent in updating. Not too much going on recently. Have had some really lovely rides the last couple of weeks as it's been absolutely beautiful and fall has really arrived. So I'm just going to spam you with some of my favorite ear shots from the past couple of weeks:

 

[egrogan]

One more...

 

[egrogan]

Saddle fitter came yesterday and made some slight modifications to raise up the back of the saddle to accommodate Isabel's swayback, but otherwise, he felt like it was a great fit.

The chiro comes on Thursday for a 6-week recheck.

After all that individualized attention, Izzy should be good to go through the winter. I will be sad for our late afternoon trails to be less accessible as it gets dark so much earlier and *gasp* the snow starts to hit. Daylight savings time starts on October 26th, which seems way too soon!

But that's all a couple of months in the future- here's Izzy enjoying some grazing (note eyes closed but mouth wide open )

 

[egrogan]

Someone found the burrs out in the field and filled her forelock with them:

Looking a bit embarrassed after they were out:

Had a quick ride this morning. I really like how secure the saddle feels after the fitter made some minor adjustments to it yesterday. Rode in the ring for a few minutes and popped outside for a quick walk around the neighbor's hay field. This is a bit gross, but there's been a dead possum in the road just passed the barn driveway for a couple of days (surprised the coyotes haven't cleaned up...) and I was wondering if Isabel would give me any trouble going by it. She walked right past with just a sideways glance.

I did realize one thing I need to work on though. She is really lazy about backing up when I ask, sometimes she'll go sideways instead as though she's going to do a turn on the haunches, which is obviously not something I want but don't often work on explicitly. It almost got dangerous today though-we were about to cross the road to go back to the barn, and just as we were about to step off the trail (where I always whoa to look around for traffic) onto the pavement, a car came around the bend. No big deal, I asked Izzy to back, and she went sideways, basically putting us parallel to the road, not quite in it, but just about. The car was going slow and gave us plenty of room anyway, but geez, that gave me a mini heart attack. Definitely need to get rid of THAT behavior pronto!! Needless to say, we practiced it successfully a few times before going to the barn, but I don't ever want to wonder if she's going to go sideways instead of backwards again.

 

[frlsgirl]

We've had some forelock malfunctions as well; she somehow manages to get half the pasture stuck in it. I braided it before I left last night to see if that would help. We shall see.

Regarding backing up - Ana isn't quite proficient in that either so we've been using the arena wall to cheat. Once she gets more straight, we will try without the help of a wall.

 

[egrogan]

Regarding backing up - Ana isn't quite proficient in that either so we've been using the arena wall to cheat. Once she gets more straight, we will try without the help of a wall.

I think unfortunately with Isabel, backing up is one thing where it's not that she doesn't know how, it's that she doesn't want to, and I have just not been on top of her to make her because it's something I need to do so infrequently. But now that I see a clear reason why it has to be precise, we're going to work on it!

 

[egrogan]

Had a nice visit from the chiropractor this morning as a bit of a tune up from when she was here about 6 weeks ago. Isabel was feeling really good in the couple of weeks right after the first visit, but then started getting a bit tight again. The chiro found her to be fairly tight in the neck (particularly on the right side), and also some tightness in her left stifle. For neck and poll tightness, the chiro reaches right in to her mouth and does some kind of crazy manipulation of the tongue, which I don't fully understand, but it has this magic effect of unlocking tightness through the head and neck. Wish I had thought to video that happening, because it's pretty funny.

Here she is enjoying some grazing afterwards- she's starting to get her fall fuzzies:

 

[egrogan]

Really nice ride today. It was absolutely gorgeous out. Perfect fall day. Here are a couple of ear shots:

The corn fields we've been riding around have finally been harvested, so we now have this odd, vast flat set of fields to navigate. It's amazing how much different it looks- Isabel was definitely very interested in the wide open spaces. We did a lot of trotting- while she was initially hyped up, she eventually settled in to that nice, ground covering relaxed Morgan trot and just sort of floated over the ground for maybe a mile or so?

We also practiced the backing up issue. After all that trotting, we walked along on the buckle to cool out (she has her winter coat coming in so she was really drenched in sweat). It helped that we had rounded the field and were clearly heading home- she REALLY likes to go home, so I used that to my advantage. We worked as follows:
1. I would ask her to whoa. If she got ****y and fought that, we'd turn around and starting walking away from home. I'd ask again. If she halted politely, we turned around and walked towards home on a loose rein, where I would again ask for a polite whoa. It only took a couple of times of doing that.
2. I'd ask for the back from the whoa.

The first two times, she was ****y about it, lurching to the side or trying to go forward through it. OK, no problem, didn't make a big argument out of it, just decided that we'll just turn back away from home, walk, halt, try again to back. We did this twice, with her not listening or cooperating. The third time I asked, she halted, backed 6 or 7 steps straight and politely, and we didn't have to turn away from home. We just walked on like it was no big deal on a nice loose rein.

I doubled checked this 2-3 more times on the way home, and we never had to turn around and walk the other direction, each time the whoa and back was "yes ma'am," not ****y.

The big test was back at the road crossing to the barn, where we had the issue the last time. It's definitely a test, because I often let her canter up the last hill on the way home- when you get to the top, it basically spits you out at the road crossing, so she has to come back from something really exciting to listening well. We got to the road, halted on a dime, backed 3-4 steps politely down the hill, and walked across with no issues. Success!!

Love these ears:

 

[Saddlebag]

I hope the chiro showed you how to get the horse to lift it's back. If not, run your finger underneath until you find her midline. Starting just behind where the cinch would sit, press all four fingers of one hand and see if she'll lift. If not move along a few inches and try again. The horse doesn't always respond the first time the right spot is pressed. Place your other hand on her back to give you some support. If you get to the navel, you're past the spot. Sometimes the first time a horse lifts it scares them a little. Use the hand that's on her back to rub her. Don't worry about trail riding after dark, she won't miss a step even if you're having trouble seeing. This teaches the rider to trust the horse. The nicest time to ride is often around midnight as the wind is usually calm, moonlight......beautiful time to be out.

 

[egrogan]

Hey Saddlebag, yep, we've tried the belly lifts, but the weird thing is that Isabel has almost no response when you run your hand, a hoof pick, etc. along her bellyline. You actually do have to go way past her navel to get any kind of reaction, and it's very slight. She's much better when you run your hands/hoof picks down either side of her rump and make her contract her belly muscles to lift. She also responds pretty well to the tail pulls.

I LOVE your image of the midnight trailrides. We have so many coyotes around though, it scares me to think about seeing their beady little eyes in the fields and the trees. Our barn assistants have seen them really close to the barn already this fall- a couple of nights, she hasn't been able to do outside water buckets in the fields because she sees them right there at the water.

 

[frlsgirl]

I LOVE your image of the midnight trailrides. We have so many coyotes around though, it scares me to think about seeing their beady little eyes in the fields and the trees. Our barn assistants have seen them really close to the barn already this fall- a couple of nights, she hasn't been able to do outside water buckets in the fields because she sees them right there at the water.

We have them, too! Fortunately, Ana shares her paddock with a mini-donkey; those things are fiercely protective of their herd. I actually saw a picture on FB where a donkey had captured a coyote and was carrying it in its mouth! It's hard to picture a cute little donkey hurt another creature.

 

[egrogan]

Another very nice ride yesterday. We did a lot more long trotting, she actually never got into the wild, rushy feeling trot and just settled in to a very rideable, balanced, even trot. Walked home on the buckle, nice and relaxed. No more corn in the fields though:

I also had another mini-victory. This will sound silly given the miles of trails we've put in this summer, but the last real block was this "trail" around the main turn-out field behind the barn. It's really just a grass path mowed two horse-widths wide. When I first started thinking about trails last spring, this was the first option I had to start riding outside the ring, and Isabel would fight me tooth and nail about going on it. She'd balk, back up, throw her head around and pulls the reins out of my hands to avoid it- she was even so bad that I could barely hand walk her out there, she'd try to rub me up against the electric fence even when I had a dressage whip in my hand. Really discouraging. So even though we've ridden so many different places this summer, I'd avoided asking her to go on this "trail"- yesterday, she was really sweaty so I needed to keep walking her out after we got back to the barn, and I figured we should try it. She acted like it had never been a problem, headed out there on the same nice loose rein and was interested in what her pasture mates were up to:

Two long trail rides in a row, Isabel let me know how she felt afterwards:

Heading out to the barn now and planning on a light arena day.

 

[Zexious]

So glad to hear she is doing well Between the ear pics are my favorite

 

[egrogan]

Haven't posted in awhile as things have been crazy at work. Izzy has basically gotten a three-week vacation as the time just slipped away from me. We're into hunting season here now, so I am also a bit more limited in where I can ride.

A couple of weeks ago, we had a fun Halloween show at the barn for the therapeutic riding program where I teach, so Isabel dressed up with another bay Morgan mare as the Dr. Seuss characters "Thing 1 and Thing 2"- they were pretty cute.

Yesterday I finally jumped on for a real ride, and she was feeling good. Spunky but fun. Today we had a Mounted Games day as a Volunteer Appreciation event for our therapeutic riding volunteers- we played all the silly games we have our riders play, and it was a blast. Here we are in action doing some "pole bending" (ignore my yucky piano hands please! )

And that's us right in the dead center, relaxing while the other two teams played and we waited our turn. For a horse that doesn't show and never does group lessons, she was pretty unfazed about having 9 horses in our tiny arena.

It's going to be pretty busy right up through the holidays, but I am really hoping I can get in more barn time, I miss how much I was riding all summer. This early dark thing stinks!