This Saddle Tho

 

boring to look at, magical to ride in

Well now I feel like a real asshole not investigating saddle fit sooner because hot damn, what a fucking change this new saddle instantly made. 

The fitter told me to take it easy the first week riding in it because he was going to move completely different, and he'd probably come up sore if I just put him right back into full work. 

Yeah, that is not going to be a problem. It's me that's going to need to be eased into riding this bouncy, forward new horse I own. 

I finally got a chance to ride in it for real yesterday. He started off by yanking the reins out of my hands to stretch to the ground at the walk. Into the trot he was launching me with each post, his back was so round and up and springy. The canter felt totally different. I finished by tacking on a short stint of sitting trot just out of curiosity, but it was a bit tight. That was fine--never tack on anything last minute to an Opie ride because it never works.

"i need advance notice on all things, thx"

Today I was dying to try the flying change circle exercise from the clinic on Sunday: 

• On a circle: walk - counter canter - walk - true canter - walk - counter canter - lead change.

Opie was a little tired this morning, but it was kind of muggy and gross so once I got him cooking in a forward trot, I let him have a long walk break before starting the real work. Sitting trot felt bouncy, forward, and relaxed this time even once I asked for SI and HI! A few mediums in posting trot, and then on to our canter circle.

First of all, counter canter on a circle is hard. Opie could do it for the half circle I asked him to hold it before doing a transition, and he stepped right into it from the walk every time, but damn. 

We started tracking left. I diligently ran through counter canter to true canter transitions several times, and then just quietly asked him to hold the counter canter, changed the bend, and asked. It was a complete nonevent. He stepped right over and carried on like nothing had happened. 

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I gave him huge praise, let him have a walk break, and then repeated to the left again. Same result!

To the right his counter canter wasn't as solid and it was causing me to twist my body all sorts of ways. Add that on to him getting a little tense and wanting to run through it, the hind end didn't follow the first time, and then the second time he changed clean but then changed back over to the wrong lead. Who knows. 

Finally we both got ourselves in order and on the third try he smoothly switched over. More mega praise, cookies shoved in his face, and out to the pond for a celebratory splash party.

the puppy was all about joining our splash party
until some very loud birds needed her attention

Tomorrow is a road hack with BM, and then Thursday I get my first vaccine so we'll see how the rest of the week plays out with that.

This afternoon the chiro surprised me with a call and we were able to meet up to get Opie cracked back into place.

willow felt strongly that chiro time was over and
it was snackie time now

He leveled out his hips as best as he could, did a couple of the usual spots in his back, and announced that over all he looked really good conditioning-wise. He agreed with the (second) vet that his hips are probably never going to be completely level, and that he's really tight back there. I've been stretching out his back legs before every ride and while still super tight, he's already got better range of motion. Chiro should have seen him when his "stretch" was about two inches, yikes.

mission accomplished. 

So everything is on track in Dopie's life at the moment, knock on serious fucking wood. Now to figure out what we're going to show....