Sidesaddle Clinic

Over the weekend a barn mate and I went to a sidesaddle clinic an hour south of us. Opie and Daisy spent all morning hanging out on the trailer like complete rock stars, snacking on their hay nets and getting on and off for water breaks, grazing breaks, and saddle fitting with zero fuss.

The morning we learned about the saddles while we got all the horses in the clinic fitted for their own. Opie of course got the unicorn saddle that fit him perfectly, which of course also had to be the jankiest saddle out of all of them. It was missing a bunch of pieces and literally falling apart.

We had lunch, got a talk about the history of sidesaddle, and then got all the horses tacked up to ride.

Their mounting block was shoved in the corner against their white tape fence so it was like going into a chute. Opie was not here for it and was getting light in the front end. Since he'd been absolute Satan the previous two days and I know how nutty he can get, it did not inspire me with confidence. I had one of the lady's walk us around a couple laps while I sat astride until I felt like he going to be sane.

We then walked a couple more laps by ourselves before I stopped and swung my leg over. It was dreadful. The saddle didn't fit me at all, even after they shimmed my body left right and sideways. Plus the girth never really got all the way tight so any time we did more than walk a straight line it started sliding left and I'd have to beast it back over to center.

We did some trotting, but it sent us so far left that I couldn't hold it long. My barn mate turned out to be a sidesaddle savant though and was doing w/t/c with zero issues. Her saddle was also way more legit lol.

While it was way harder than I thought it was going to be, and I was kind of frustrated with how horribly the saddle worked for me, it was definitely a really cool clinic. And now I can cross that off my list, say I did it, and move on.

Magic Mask

After two days of unnecessary dramatics, we headed out to our lesson last week. It was further unnecessary dramatics. We could not ask for one single thing without him losing his shit so he finally got stuffed on a circle in the canter where he went around with zero contact and zero input for thirty minutes straight which is where we quit. Frustrating to say the least. 

We did a sidesaddle clinic Saturday, he had Sunday off, and then Monday we went back to work...with the Fenwick Equestrian LT mask back in place. The thing really is voodoo magic. He still gets tense, and he can still throw some dramatics, but he lets me into his brain so we can work through it. 

He still has this hang up about halting on the bit and standing still without wanting to fling himself around which I have zero idea how to address because there's literally no reason for it. But whatever, other things to work on. 

On Tuesday he also thought about not bending right whatsoever and started getting worked up about it until I realized when he bent right he could see the whip in my right hand which wigged him out. As soon as I put it in my outside hand, we had bend again. Whatever, I can work with that.

On Wednesday we were supposed to have a rescheduled lesson where I was excited about the prospect of doing test riding because I think we're going to aim for Houghton's second recognized show to get back in the ring. Instead I came down with a horrible stomach bug that had me puking my guts up so I obviously cancelled. 

Today we shifted focus to jumps to prepare for Saturday's hunter show. I put everything up to 2'6" and he was not at all impressed. He ran at them with his head in the air until I switched his eggbutt to the waterford. He did put his head down then, but he was either steeplechasing them or jumping over his shoulder, no in between. The plus side is I don't move an inch in the saddle because he's not lifting his body over them whatsoever. The downside is, that's not the way we're going to jump, sir. No fucking thank you. So I scratched the hunter show and this weekend we're going to do some big oxer grid work.

Unhinged

 I dutifully picked up my dressage whip on Tuesday when I got back in the saddle. 

And I also added draw reins because I value my safety. 

He was predictably tense and squirrelly, but better than I thought he was going to be. He actually saved his porpoise bolt for a spot where I had accidentally brushed him fifteen minutes ago which is completely flawless horse logic. But overall Tuesday went well.

Wednesday I still had the draw reins on for moral support. We rode in the outdoor and I was very proud of myself for working through his evasions logically and with our lesson homework.

Weird gumby neck going a hundred different directions? Counter flex to straight to real bend.

Shoulders absofuckinglutely refusing to move? SI on a 15m circle.

HI looking like a wild ass leg yield? SI, hold that bend, put the haunches over. Best HI to date!

We did the half pass to leg yield to half pass to SI across the ring a bunch with variations super well. 

I'm working on holding my reins about 6 inches shorter at all times which makes it easier to push my hands forward and hold them up and not pull back...so, real riding and all that.

Things then came unglued today. I took the draw reins off. W/t warm up went well. I was ready to move on to canter when I decided to do a few turns on the haunches first. He wanted to run through them like a reining horse so I tried to slow them down. That VASTLY offended him.

I tried to switch tactics by asking for turn on the forehand instead because that's one step, pause/stop, carry on. That's how I taught him. That's how he knows how to do it. Apparently that was also HORRIBLY INSULTING.

So like maybe we can just stand and chill and take a breath.

OMFG THE DRAMA OF SUCH AN AUDACIOUS REQUEST.

I ended up getting off to work him in hand because it became unsafe. He was going to flip over or fall down or knock me out with his head...or all of the above.

I started off just laying the whip against his haunches until he let me do so without double barrel kicking to the point where he was flinging dirt up the walls while almost falling over. IN HAND. 

Then we did turn on the forehand eight thousand times each way until that was sane.

Then turn on the haunches eight thousand times.

Then I got back on and we attempted both under saddle. TOH was better, TOF was...something else and still involved running backwards and spinning like a lunatic. I get so frustrated when he gets in this head space because I don't know how to fix it. There's literally no legitimate trigger to the insane level of insanity so how do I take the trigger away? 

I finally just called it and asked for some canter. That wasn't too bad. We even did some shallow half passes each direction. We finished by going on a 20m circle in sitting trot and going around and around forever and ever each way until he could do so with his back up and his face soft at over .5mph. It got there, but it was mind numbing.

When I got off, I put him on the longe and he cantered around me without me even turning with him for a good twenty minutes. I let him come down to walk or trot or even halt if he wanted to, but as soon as I started wrapping up the longe to call it quits he would take off again. Clearly he was having a bad mental health day. Why? Who fucking knows. 

Who. Fucking. Knows.

Ride Notes: Catching Up

• We did the jump course once more last week because it was hot and I did not want to dressage. He started off sluggish which made everything meh. Then I made him take a gappy distance where he pulled a rail which made him pissed and he took the next one too. Once I got the rage reeled back in, he was absolutely lovely. We finished with a splashies in the pond and a bath.

• Our lesson was in 80* and full sun by 10am which was dreadful. Opie was lazy AF warming up, and then I had to pony club kick the shit out of him to get him trotting again when DL got there. At that point, DL was like, "Time to buck up and make him go with a whip because he has got to be sharp off the aids." 
• We tried to start with SI and/or HI. Whichever he would do. He would do neither, and told us so loudly and rudely.
• She put us on a circle (of course) and did haunches out/leg yield out on the circle to SI on the circle. It was obscenely hard because he's so gumby in his neck and so squirrely with his shoulders and the tiniest touch of the leg sent his haunches wheeling wherever the fuck they wanted. The homework there was that he has to learn to move the shoulders and the neck independently. 
• She tried to send us back down the long side for a SI to HI and he said, go fuck yourself I will use my energy to stand up on my hind legs instead. At that point she told me to go do whatever I thought he could do well so he would take a breath and get over himself (she did ask if I thought he was being sore, but no, this was very much an Opie tantrum). I picked up the sitting trot and made him half pass across the entire length of the ring which he did just lovely. DL was like, ".......so he can half pass. But he can't do SI or HI. THE TWO THINGS WHICH MAKE UP A HALF PASS."
• Our new exercise was: half pass to leg yield back to half pass, and then half pass to SI to leg yield back to half pass.
• DL said in the end it was a useful lesson on her end because for Opie we'll probably do better starting at the very top and then just patching the holes instead of trying to build from the bottom. Whatever, Opie.

• Both weekend days we did Mendon, taking 4 riders from the barn with BM around the park. Trail riding and splash parties with his bestie wasn't the worst thing in Opie's world, and it earned him today off.

This week we need to do some serious dressage work though. With Mr Tappy.

Good Boi

Opie got the Ryder checked in between getting his feet done yesterday morning. The fitter agreed she didn't hate me in it and adjusted the flocking some for him (not that either of those mean much at this point) so we could keep it to take to DL on Friday.

I've been putting off the temptation of the freshly painted and decorated jumps too long though, so this morning we changed course.

I set everything to 2'6" (although I think the panels were only 2'3") and did a short w/t warm up on the open end of the ring. Then I brought him up the rail at the trot to the panels because I needed to activate my very tiny lady balls. 

He hopped right over and carried on like it was nothing so I picked up the canter and off we went.

Green jungle, rollback to the panels, over the blue, down the two stride line which he jumped in big to so getting out was a little tight, and then over the astroturf.

He didn't peek at anything, jumped it all out of stride, was eager to go forward to every jump without once getting rude, yada yada. From there we went out back. I was going to jump some things out in the fields, but there was a random roaming Pyrenees by the pond so we aborted that plan and just hopped over the tires and the log pile and went back.

Overall it was such a short, boring ride that made me feel so good about him. Point and shoot jumper? Yes, please. Exactly what my confidence needs, especially with a hunter show in a couple weeks and provisionally signing up for an intro HT in June.

That's a no

Unsurprisingly the twice custom built saddle was returned. The more I rode in it the more I hated it. Then I did my lesson on Friday and DL was like, "Nah. Not one single yah."

bye.

The lesson itself was spent either in the canter because every time we got him pushing in the trot his head popped up and he shut down (we dug around the saddle and found that the shims the fitter had me add to the front of my Mattes were pinching his shoulders), or without stirrups because it felt terrible to use them.

So I called the fitter on the way back to the barn. Unfortunately my County value was trade-in only so I'm stuck with her until she gets me a rideable saddle. No more custom builds, used is fine. She said she'd bring me Ryder and Albion to try on Tuesday. In the meantime she had a Fairfax World Class she wanted me to pick up and try over the weekend.

Immediately my thought was: take the $$$$$$ Fairfax which is worth way more than the Hastilow (she said she would eat the cost difference because of the PITA this has been--ya think?!), act like it fit well enough, and then find another fitter that could get me a correct saddle with this fancy one I now have as equity. Shady, maybe, but the shit this has spiraled into is absurd.

However.

nope.

It didn't fit me or Opie at all. I rode it in for maybe five minutes before having to get out of it. I ended up grabbing a Ryder Legacy at the same time as the Fairfax so that was up next.

I ended up dropping my stirrups another hole on this one--like, voluntarily! And I didn't remotely feel like I was reaching for them or going to lose them. I also really didn't mind riding in it. It has a narrow twist which was a different feel, but otherwise rode a lot like my County which I'm finding is my preferred style. 

I rode in it again this morning to make sure I didn't fucking hate it after all. Again, the narrow twist is different but not horrible. 

I think I could live with it if I had to. I still want to get DL's eyes on it so unless the fitter brings something much better tomorrow I'll keep this one on trial until then.

The saddle has landed

...and might be going back from whence it came.

Again.

I ordered this fucking thing on April 17th of last year which made it one year and twelve days for it to be delivered to my ass. With the weight of that sitting on it, I was expecting to swing my leg over and have angels sing. Or at the very least be instantly turned into a Grand Prix rider.

Instead I was decidedly underwhelmed.

It's a pretty saddle. For $4k it better be. Right off the bat though, you can see that the "forward flap" is essentially straight and the front end sits low. She ended up shimming the front of my Mattes to lift the front....while saying that, "Sometimes we shim for the rider and not the horse!" Yeah, okay. 

I had to drop my stirrups a hole to not have my knee shooting over the flap. This left me reaching for the stirrups and in subsequent rides feeling like I was losing especially the right one outright. Needless to say I was in full meltdown mode trying to figure out WTF I was going to do when I returned this saddle as wildly unsatisfactory. I absolutely cannot dick around for another year finding something. 

So do I go to another fitter? Because the trust level is lowwww with this one now. But she took my County in on $2k trade. Does that only count as store credit? Or is she going to completely refund me the $4k this saddle cost? WHY DO THESE EVEN NEED TO BE QUESTIONS?!

I had Opie's PEMF lady take some pics for me in the saddle so I could see if I was being completely overdramatic and just needed to adjust to a longer dressage leg etc etc. 

As soon as I got on she was like, "Your stirrups don't look too long at all. If anything they still look to short."

OMG STFU THEY ARE NEVER GETTING LONGER.

It actually ended up being a more informative, helpful five minutes with her than it was in alllll the time I spent with the fitter. She took some video, made a bunch of observations, and then brought me over and yanked the tiny jumper blocks the fitter had put in out and repositioned them a couple inches lower. That instantly made my leg feel more stable and pushed it back out of a chair seat. We then repositioned them from their lower point further back. That helped even more. This took all of two seconds and made me go from "This saddle is gone" to "Maybe we can work with this". 

I'm still going to get DL's opinion on it on Friday for my lesson. That will be my seven days to return it no strings attached and I already told the fitter it was contingent upon my trainer's approval. 

Still. That is A LOT of money to feel meh about something that's theoretically going to last me for my young horse's entire career.