Chev and the English saddle

I'm not going to lie, I was kind of sweating it getting back into the english saddle.

As y'all know, I was finally able to get my hands on an affordable, nice, WIDE close contact, an HDR Rivella, which far exceeded my expectations for quality (which are ridiculously high!).

Sadly for us, Chev has gotten so fat over the winter that none of her girths fit her anymore.  We had one shaky, wobbly ride in the saddle, since I was only able to get the darn thing up 1 hole on each side.

It was pretty discouraging.

I should also mention that I've become very comfortable in the El Dorado training saddle.  I feel a little over-confident, like I can't come off--which of course isn't true--but it's solid enough that I don't feel nervous at all about climbing up there.

The english saddle is another story.

What's that, nothing around me?  Nothing to wrap the leadrope around?  No swells?  No slouching? Nothing??

It all made for a pretty nervous me.  I am comfortable in that western saddle.  I feel safe there.

My nervousness was combined with the stress of a horse that doesn't tie on the washrack anymore for tacking up (for now).

So I tried to wear my thick cotton breeches from highschool--nope!  Not gonna work anymore--well, that was 10 years ago--found my stretchy lightweight riding tights instead, yanked on my boots, which, I might add, are getting awfully tight in the calf, grabbed my saddle and my new girth extender (Yay Chev!  We both got chubby this winter), and drove on out there.

Tied pony up, brushed pony out, led pony to car where saddle was, tacked up, booted up, and headed to the arena for a quick lunge session.

Chev hates switching between saddles.  She's always been like this.  I think she gets annoyed when her routine changes, and part of that is that her routine really hasn't changed much over the last few years.  So I wanted to make sure she figured out the different feel of the english saddle on the lunge line before I climbed my wimpy self up there.

She was fine lunging, so I bridled her (with her western snaffle bridle--ugh, I hate mix-and-match tack, but I wasn't going to take the time to untie the bit from all the goofy western ties and pop it on her english bridle), and climbed on up there.

My goodness, did that saddle feel small.

It has literally been a year since I've really ridden in a close contact saddle.

I really forgot how much work it was.

But Chevy settled right down and I remembered how much easier it is to give cues, re-balance the horse, and feel everything that's going on.

And I daresay I settled right in, too!

I've always thought there was something sort of glamorous about a well-turned out hunter hack.

A polished, solid, pleasant horse, a lovely saddle, and a well turned out rider with gloves and hat.

We definitely did not look like that.

But, I got some of the best trot out of her that I've had in a while.

And we did some gymnastics with poles and a little pile of logs in the arena that's used as a trail prop.

Chev did have about 3 "hind end failures" (as my old trainer used to call them) where her back end gave out mid-stride--I'm noticing this a little bit lately and I think it's a lack of strength back there.  We really interrupted her whole training routine this winter, and it's meant a big loss of strength for both of us.  To her immense credit, she recovered from every stumble gracefully with nary a squeal, which is a long way from how she was a year ago!  She hates to take a mis-step.  I need to work more on spiraling in and out, hip-in, two tracking, etc to help strengthen up that stifle area.  We did a fair amount of that too today--working on refining the cues for shoulder, side pass, and hip.

She seemed to really enjoy cantering over the logs, and I felt secure by that point in the saddle, remembering my "hunt seat legs" and my center of gravity, could count her canter strides well, adjust them as necessary to get her up and over the little log jump.

So, maybe there are some jumps in our future after all!

I would be thrilled if my little western pony wanted to get into some little hunter jumps.

So it was a great day today.  I brought my camera, but of course I forgot to take any photos.  Suffice to say she still resembles a hairy moose...but she is slowly shedding a bit and I hope to be back to her dark, lustrous liver-chestnut coat soon!