More saddle musings

It was about 60 today, and you can only find the last remnants of snow if you look really hard in the right places.

I took a little putter around the farm today on Peanut.  I'm getting better with the saddle centering, but now it seems that my issue is that the saddle pad, the Smart Pad, and the saddle are moving independently of each other.  Something will end up out of whack.  I'm very close to attaching velcro to the underside of the saddle to keep the Smart Pad in place.

I could just load them up one at a time, but it seems that Peanut MUST PUT HEAD DOWN as soon as a saddle hits his back or at some point while I'm adjusting it, which stretches him out at the withers and completely flummoxes me, so it's always a race to attach the girth.  The thought of him keeping his head up through the application of the saddle pad, then the application of the Smart Pad, then the application of the saddle, then attaching the Smart Pad to the saddle rings, then velcroing the tabs from the saddle pad around the flaps of the saddle is just unthinkable.  Plus, he's a squirmy little mo-fo.

Bleh.  Cheatin' time.  Velcro.  It will probably leave icky stuff all over my Italian leather and prove that I don't deserve fine tack.

I still love the saddle, and Peanut still seems to like it.

During the ride, we ended up in an open/woodsy area next to Peanut's field.  He didn't want to walk in a straight line, so I let him decide where he wanted to go and we explored a bit.  He wandered to the far edge of the field, up to the woods, down one of the deer trails (until he realized the footing was kind of icky and he took the first exit), and here and there.  It was a nice feeling to have him explore on his own, especially as it made me think that he was comfortable enough with the tack situation and me to just go for it.  Every day he probably watches the deer travel through these places, and he seemed very determined to see where they go for himself.  I'd try to turn him away, but he'd keep trying to look and move over, so I eventually dropped my cues and enjoyed the jaunt.

It still surprises me when he actually just walks without being made to, and it seems that this attitude changes with his saddle.  At one point today, after we did our normal lap of the place (probably about a mile), I was thinking of stopping (little guy is out of shape) but Peanut started powering on to cross the driveway and go on up to the berm on the other side and around the acre paddock there.  Sweet.  I wasn't expecting it.  After that, I tossed in a lap of the pond and called it a day.

Fact of the day: one of the Canada geese pair that likes to try to nest at the pond has only one foot.  It just stumps around with its stub.  I never noticed until today.  :(

In addition to me ruining my saddle with velcro, we probably have another upcoming saddle project.  Mona needs a saddle!  Right now, since we are being asked for our opinion (us, have experience with saddle shopping?), Rick and I are thinking of a Wintec Wide.  I have bad-mouthed Wintecs endlessly since we had the horrible one that did terrible things to Gene, but the design of the wide always impressed us.