Thankfully I was on vacation - a staycation - this week. Thus, I was able to spend basically all of Monday with a saddle fitter who is a dealer for Specialized Saddles.
I rode Peanut in the ring for her in my saddle, demonstrating walking, gaiting, and cantering in straights and circles in both directions. Ever since the sand was put down in the ring I've had a terrible time in it, with crappy gaits and transitions, not to mention the stumbling. I could barely get the right lead canter, and couldn't sustain it.
The lurking suspicions that I had about my saddle's fit were indeed real. I learned:
- Even though I had been going shorter and shorter through each successive saddle, my saddle was still too long for Peanut.
- The saddle did bridge
- The lion's share of my weight was on the rear of the saddle, way far back
- There was a definite concern about the clearance of the channel in the back
She mentioned how my weight was so far back that I was basically putting weight where it causes a lot of horses to buck, and in fact the horse that she fitted the day before did that exact thing. She declared Peanut to be a very, very sweet horse to be so well behaved under saddle while I was putting my weight where it had no business being.
Moreso, Peanut was not engaging his hind end at all. He was very heavy on the front, his gaiting was inconsistent and he didn't power it with his back end. She also said this is why he tripped so much - that she saw the smallest break in my form end with him tripping over his front end because everything was happening up there.
And why was this happening?
Because of where the weight was. He was so busy dealing with that, with the issues that arose with the ligaments that run alongside the spine all the way from the head to tail, that it basically froze out his back end as far as being the powerhouse it should.
I always knew he was heavy on the forehand. Always. It came up in lessons a lot. I was always convinced that I was such a lousy rider that I was the cause and I was too crappy to fix it. Lesson after lesson over the years was spent with half-halts, with sitting back, with trying to get him to engage his hind end. And those years of dressage lessons I took? I have known for a while that I have never felt Peanut's back rise in collection, instead he became the master of the false dressage head-set. Because I sucked, I was convinced.
Before I rode she extensively measured Peanut's withers and back. He is the second widest horse she had ever fit, and the widest wasn't much wider. I knew it he was a wide bugger! She also mentioned how short his back is as well. Yep....
Taking an extra-wide Specialized model out of her trailer, she set it up for the Nutterbear with a thin panel and a number of strategically-placed shims. I had to borrow Mona's dressage girth as mine was too short for the saddle, but all worked out and up I went.
Oh, and I went from a 17.5" seat that I originally barely fit into to a 16" seat. :)
I rode around while Gene was fitted. I did some gaiting, I did some cantering, I did a lot of walking. Around the outside of the ring. Around the farm. Down into the woods on the farm where I never rode before. Out into Fair Hill (where he did very well even when we had two horses cantering up from behind us). We even stood waiting, and he wasn't his normal fidgety self. Then back into the ring where we waited for Gene and Richard to finish riding before we ran through the gaits again.
This is what both the fitter and Richard saw, and which I felt:
- His hind end was engaged at all times, I even felt it shift down when he started gaiting
- His gaiting was perfectly 4-beat and effortless
- He finally bobbed his head while gaiting!
- His transitions to cantering were easy and he held the canter
- His right lead canter was caught first time and maintained until I was so overwhelmed with these facts that I lost concentration and he came to an immediate halt
- He stopped tripping everywhere
- The canter, which had felt uncontrollable since the sand was put in, was easy to control and I was able to do the length of the ring then circle on one end no problem
Before the ring, when just putzing around, he felt almost cheerful. He was agreeable, very willing, and relaxed.
The difference was staggering. I think I was in the saddle(s) a total of 3 hours that day, and I came out a believer.
I have the saddle on a 10 day trial, but Peanut is a different horse. It wasn't my shoddy riding, it was shoddy saddle fit! While I had been getting closer and closer, it slowly hit me how hard he is to fit, and this is exactly what we needed.
Since the fitting, we have had a lesson where my instructor noticed the difference in his gaiting - how it is now silky smooth. Yesterday, I took a midday ride with Anne-Marie and Mona, and it was bar-none the best trail ride I ever had. Anne-Marie noticed the difference as well. He is also faster now, with a canter that can keep up with Mona, and I finally have his fast rack at my command! I had accidentally gotten it twice, but now I can summon it up!
After the ride, while he still likes scratchies, he no longer wants to be massaged on his back. I used to massage where the heavy pressure marks were, feeling the tight muscles underneath, but now those muscles are loose and he walks away from me instead of enjoying it. :)
The last real ride in my old saddle:
The new one (which looks so much like my older ones!):
I can still use dressage pads too! The fitter even said she prefers to see thin pads on wide horses, so :)
By the bye, I have to say that Peanut was perfectly behaved for the fitter. He was patient, cooperative, and gave no fuss at all. Just stood there... well, except for when he was checking out everything she pulled out of the trailer. She looked at him as he was going through her things, said she likes a curious horse and that she bets he's smart. After learning a little about our history together (the green-on-green part), she said I was very lucky to end up with him. I was and am so proud of my boy!
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