broken record

According to my mother, I only write about hooves and my saddle.  Well, why buck trends?

Although here's something new.  I have both aching fingers and aching toes as I was both bitten and stepped on by Peanut today.  Neither intentional, of course.  Ow.

Ok, back to the same-ol, same-ol.

So, my other big thing from last weekend and this is my saddle.  I now have the SmartPanel in XL, two sets of shims - full and center - and a Port Lewis Impression Pad in.   Last week I rode in just the SmartPanel, and Peanut and I both seemed to be happy.  Today, I had the Impression Pad underneath to see what my pony was actually feeling.

First, it was bloody impossible to center everything, so I rode in a saddle and impression pad that were not perfectly situated.  Not for lack of effort, either.  I don't know if Peanut's grouchiness at the beginning of the ride was a reflection of my grouchiness or a reaction to the pad that even I could feel through the thick wool saddlepad and thick saddle.

We rode for 20 minutes, and I got off and checked the results.

Even pressure, front to back on both sides, and no bridge of pressure over his spine in the rear.  Very interesting!!!!

The pressure on the left side was a lot greater than the pressure on the right.  Hmmm... The saddle was off to the right, but it gives me something to think about with my riding.  Still, at least the respective pressure on each side was even.

I will keep the SmartPanel and probably the full shims (I'm going to pop them into the pockets in the saddle tomorrow and try them out), and return the center shims and the impression pad which was a loan anyway.  I'm hoping that the full shims - which are nothing more than a pad of wool - might help keep the saddle from wandering.  We'll see.