Sunday, October 27, 2013

Shifty Semi-Solution

In addition to Comrade's back being uneven, his saddles are too. Not surprising his saddle reflects him. I need to start looking at my saddle panels more often.When I had this issue with Barry, my Mom made a pocket in my saddle pad to hold shims. Unfortunately, Comrade's weak spot is more in the middle so using a pad is not as helpful. Plus since the jumping saddle is tight he has no room to take extra padding. So for both saddles, we used a small cloth and inserted it under the panel which rounded the flat area. Not a perfect fix, but it allows for changes without going through adjusting stuffing.
Wintec Isabel before

After

Black Country after
After riding in both, we found Comrade moved better in the dressage saddle. The BC is a tad tight causing Comrade to move less forward. If Peggy gets the stuffing worked on it should help. Our temporary solution to the shifting did help. The Isabel did not move at all and the BC only shifted during canter.
The pony is not liking the concentrated effort to strengthen his back. He tries to personify molasses to get out of work. That's when I really love my dressage whip. We did shoulder in on the circle, left and right, then forward for a short while until he started to lose the lift and then into a volt. Towards the end he was able to do volt figure eights and move forward maintaining his form. Super happy with his work today.
For cool down we went out on trail to enjoy the fall foliage and watch the dogs romp in the leaves. I love this time of year.

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