On Sunday, January 6th I booked my very first
saddle fiting appointment. We started
with my Dressage Saddle (Zaldi Kira Klass).
I had noticed it was fitting wider/lower in the front, which triggered
my desire to do a fitting. I’d never
done a saddle fitting in the past, so it was really interesting to go through
it all. I think I’m well versed enough
to note the obvious things in life, but I got a lot out of the appointment. First we started with an overview of Kidd’s
current body condition and muscling (or lack of), and she also checked for any
structural irregularities, soreness or tension.
We didn’t find much in that regard, and we pulled out my Dressage Saddle
to get a closer look. The initial
impression was as I discovered; and we decided rather than press the tree, we
would play with the flocking. We also
discussed that though my saddle is a little long for Kidd’s short back, it is
the unfortunate nature of the beast considering I have been ‘blessed’ in the
booty department. That being said, the
saddle itself is quite well balanced with the least amount of contact at the
back of the panels so it ‘passed’.
Interestingly enough, upon doing some saddle surgery we discovered my
saddle has been adjusted in the past.
While it’s not a big deal, it is interesting to me because it was never
mentioned when I purchased it as a “essentially brand new, used less than 10x”
saddle. Regardless after adding some flocking
to the front and back and taking a little less out of the middle, we were able
to balance the saddle more than before, and together we opted not to ride in
it.
Then we went to adjust my Jump Saddle, which by nature is putting
significantly more strain on his back and loin, plus one panel was flatter than
the other. We decided to reflock it as
well, but quickly discovered it is synthetically flocked, which made it
significantly more difficult to work with as opposed to wool. We were able to make it a little better, but
she wanted to see me ride in it to see how it sat with weight in the
saddle. It was getting late in the day
and the arena was packed, and I was feeling bad that the saddle fitter had to fiddle
with my jump saddle for so long getting the flocking to balance. As such, we quickly tacked him up and I went
straight to the mounting block and hopped on in a hectic arena. As soon as I hit the saddle, Kidd felt weird.
Different. Completely opposite from our fabulous ride the day before. He felt
like he wanted to pile me, and it was a little unnerving. I tried to get him to
stand still but decided it would have been a better choice to pick my battles,
and just let him get his feet moving. He
was anxious, distracted and felt like he was ready to explode at any moment. Regardless, I continued to reassure him and
ignore his spooks and worked on some walk/trot transitions. The second time I asked him to trot, after about
half a circle all hell broke loose.
We were going down. It happened so fast, the last thing I
remember is making the decision to bail because he wasn’t going to save
it. Instinctually, I kicked my feet out
of my stirrups and attempted to dismount mid-fall, but my timing was off and as
his butt got higher, I got sent forward in a half-cartwheel style motion, and
ended up face first in the sand; scorpioned and the uneasy feeling of thinking
Kidd was going to be landing on me any second.. Tuck, Roll and brace for the
impact of 1000lb’s coming crushing down on me.
It’s amazing how time seems to slow down in situations like that. Suddenly, you find yourself questioning weird
things like why Grapefruits are a thing, when there is already fruit called a
Grape.. and how your life will change if you’re paralyzed in the next 5 seconds.
Someone was watching over me that day, because Kidd managed
to avoid coming down on top of me, and one of the 8 people I was sharing the
arena with (seriously, why do these things always happen when there is tons of
people around) managed to grab Kidd for me while I dusted myself off. I tried to ignore the people who were
surrounding me with worry, hopped up, and grabbed Kidd. I checked him to ensure
he was okay, then got back on him. He
was still very worried and didn’t want to stand still when I got back on, but I
walked him a few circles and got off. I’m
still not sure why it happened, but it did.
Luckily none of us were hurt beyond some sore muscles and a bruised and
rug-burned forehead, but we were okay. I
can’t say that it was related to the Jump Saddle as I’ve ridden Kidd in it for
the past few years, but regardless the fitter recommended I find another saddle
if I plan to jump more frequently as it’s just not a great fit for Kidd’s back
type.
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Because it’s semi related, but too short of a story to do an entire blog post
about, I lunged Kidd the next day (full tacked, with my Dressage saddle)
because my forehead was too sore to get a helmet on and he went around his
usual lovely self... until he fell again.
Now I’m confused – fluke, or is something going on? I had a Vet Appointment scheduled for that
Wednesday, so I decided to give him Tuesday off. It’s a good thing I did, because I went home
to find Kai walking on 3 legs due to a puncture wound (seriously
horse??!!!!?). I’ll save my Vet Woe’s
for my next post, but it’s amazing how fast sh*t can hit the fan. Hero to Zero.
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