Saddle Fitting

(Interspersed with media from yesterday's slightly wild jump school.)

I'd originally tried to schedule an appointment with a fitter back in the beginning of March, but I was never able to nail her down to a specific date, so Opie's PEMF genie recommended a different fitter. She professionally got right back to me with a date and time that worked for me and one other boarder (which was such a cluster fuck dealing with that group text omfg). 

The fitter (we'll call her PS) did the other horse first which was a bit of a cluster fuck in and of itself, but I wandered off and let them sort that out themselves because not my job, not my problem, not wasting my mental capacity on it. 

Finally it was Opie's turn. She got the history on him, took tracings, and then set my County on his back. Immediately she was like, "Nope." Put the Mattes pad on to see if that might help. Nope. 

"Some horses the fit will look not right when you have it set on the back, but once the rider gets on it actually works out alright. This is not going to be one of those saddles."

(She did say the other rider's saddle wasn't a good match either, but she was perfectly willing to work with her to make it fit-ish while the mare continued changing shape, and then brought out a Wintec and discussed low budget options with her, so I don't feel like she went in being like, "Imma sell both these dummies brand new saddles.")

She knew the woman I bought the County from, and she agreed that it was probably a really good fit for him when he first came off the track and was still Thoroughbred shaped. He's got an entirely new body now, and she pointed out that we're at that precipice in Second/Third where they really figure out using their back so he's going to feel a bad fit even more now. 

I asked her if she thought bad saddle fit was playing into the changes problem and she instantly replied, "YES." She pointed out where the saddle was pinching--his shoulder/the gusset (bitch, please, like I know saddle parts), and that the panels were too big/wide for him, and bringing that already weak LH under and asking it to do the work of a flying change was just going to hit those pressure points and be even more uncomfortable. 

She reluctantly said she could flock it differently and fix that problem, but the adjustment would make it bridge and we've basically traded one problem for a new one. In short, this horse is shaped like a Cob/QH cross, not at all like a TB. 

We discussed budget and trade-in value for my County, and she went out to dig around in the saddles she'd brought with her. 

She came back with this gorgeous thing:

hastilow prism elite

She took it off several times to adjust it until she was happy--one time even getting me to climb aboard before we walked all of two strides and she pulled it off again--and then I took it for a real test ride. It was an 18" seat but I felt very crammed in there. It felt like it was tipping me forward a bit so she swapped my Mattes for a Prolite which helped my balance, but Opie wasn't about. I did feel like it wanted me to be in a very good, correct position and I liked the monoflap type feeling it gave. 

She brought in another one, but we both nixed it super quickly as neither Opie nor I liked it. 

The third one she said was more for me since he seemed to like the spring tree in the first saddle so much. As soon as I sat in it, I liked it. It felt a lot like my County, but with an even squishier seat which I didn't know was possible. 

It had relatively significant knee rolls which I'm very wary of because my femur is so long, but my knee and thigh stayed behind them. PS pointed out that this saddle is crafted so you're sitting back a bit more which gives a long femur more room to come forward without having to go to a bigger seat size. 

the best puppy keeping herself amused

Opie definitely didn't feel as good in this saddle as he did in the first one, but again, we went in knowing that. However, he didn't feel awful like he did in the second one. 

So back to budget.

She gave me a good price for my County, and said that brand new the saddle we were looking for--a combination of the tree of the first saddle with a different, shorter cut to the panels, and pretty much everything else from the third saddle for me--would run me between $1k-$1,700. Not great, but doable. She said that price was for if she had something in stock that just needed the panels changed or if Hastilow had to build me a brand new saddle. 

In the meantime, she let me keep the third saddle (a Hastilow Impression) since the County was definitely no good for him and I needed something to ride in in the meantime. 

It definitely wasn't the solution I was hoping for--that being a quick reflock and off we went--but hopefully this is the last piece in the puzzle to get Opie feeling A++ and unlock the secret to the elusive clean, sane change.