So with all the riding that Shelley has been doing as of late, she has informed me that my saddle needed to be fitted, as it was moving a bit side-to-side and making the rider get behind the motion. I little background on the saddle: it's a Sommer Savoie Flextra, custom made for and purchased from Horse Of Course. Marty is the professional saddler who helped with the design of this saddle and was the one that fitted the saddle for the first few years. I was very fortunate that Marty made regular trips to the area, so I was able to have him fit the saddle about every 6 months. This saddle has a spring tree, so it tends to need more frequent fittings, but it is worth it. Then a couple of years ago, Horse of Course basically fell off the map, not returning phone calls, emails, etc. I was in desperate need to get my saddle fitted again and they were incommunicado. I was so desperate that I had a fitter look at the saddle who was working on other people's saddles in my barn. I was not a big fan of his thought process on how to flock the saddle, but I really needed the saddle fitted, so he and I compromised on it. The saddle was better, but not perfect like it had been when Marty fitted it. Then I moved to Marengo, to a primarily western barn, and I was really on my own in regards to a saddle fitter! My trainer had found someone that she had recommended, so about 5 months ago I gave her a call and she agreed to come out to my barn. I was very disappointed when she arrived- she did not deal with flocking on-site and didn't really know how to work with my type of saddle (the spring tree) she kept saying the entire time that I should buy one of her saddles and that the spring tree was bad for my horse and would eventually break. Then she put my saddle in some sort of hydraulic machine, squeezed the tree together and called it a day. She charged a large amount of money and (stupidly) I thought it would be okay for at least a little while. It is now 5 months later and my saddle is really ill-fitting. So I basically went on the Internet and started searching.
I ran across a woman by the name of Dawna Ullrich, who is a County Saddlery Rep and a master saddler. I emailed her and plainly stated that I was NOT interesting in purchasing a new saddle and that I just wanted to have my saddle fitted. She was quick to response and scheduled the appointment for the following week. Dawna arrived, 10 minutes EARLY, and promptly got to work, taking tracings of J's back and doing a palpation and examination of his back. She was very thorough, much more than any previous saddle fitter that I had work on J. She then concluded that my saddle needed more flocking in the shoulder area, as there was way too much room and that is why the saddle was moving side-to-side. She also indicated that the saddle had a rocking point, so she was going to fix that as well. She promptly got out her tools and bag of wool and got to work. I'll save the boring details, but two hours later and two rides later, the saddle fit like a glove! It was amazing to feel the saddle actually fit correctly- it had been so long. It was a bit of an adjustment for J and myself at first, but we got into the rhythm of things. It was interesting to find that I had been compensating so much for the ill-fitting saddle, allowing my position to get in front of him, just so I didn't get left behind him. So when I rode in the "new" saddle, I was WAY to forward!
Once I got used to having a place to sit and sitting on my seat bones again, it made a world of a difference in staying with his movement and ride him more off my seat and leg. I rode him last night and he was great- worked on keeping him very straight through the neck, keeping my outside rein down and away from his neck so he can't lean on it and use it to balance himself and keeping him quick to my aids. He did a really nice job! My lesson was (unfortunately) rescheduled, but I will have one on Saturday, which will be my first one back since before my surgery. I am definitely ready!!!
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