Oh, boy, what a good find!

I was looking on eBay yesterday at saddles, saddle pads not really anything in particular and found a dressage saddle like I have; Thornhill Vienna II. I checked the seller and found that she carried a lot of really good English tack, gloves, riding breeches and a lot more. I also found some shims for my Parelli English Theraflex Self-Inflating Pad. A great price for these so I ordered them. She also has these pads for dressage saddles! I already have the English pad and it seems fine for my saddle so I probably won't be getting another one....well, not right now anyway! My pad looks like this below.



I have to say that these self inflating pads are worth every penny and they are expensive but Gilly is a horse that is a hard one to fit. I tried 5 saddles before I found the round skirted Abeta western saddle. I had a gorgeous Circle Y saddle that I loved but didn't even get to ride it. When I tried it on Gil the back of the saddle was up on top of his rump! He is very short backed and has big shoulders. You can see from the picture, taken a few years ago, how his back is. (got a little hay belly going there too Gil!) Those big shoulders want to push the saddle back but with the saddle pad and the shims in the right place the saddle stays put.

Here is Gilly 3 years ago with his dressage saddle on. This was the first time I had it on his back. The pad has a valve on each side to adjust the amount of air in it. I don't know how or why it work, it just does and I love it!

This is the dressage pad, longer on the sides than the English. Kelly at Netfilly has these pads; link below picture. You can check it out and read more about these pads. I know another woman, Sheri, who trains and shows dressage who also swears by them, matter of fact she is the one who told me about them. Sheri has three and is thinking of getting one of the dressage pads. (cause I called her today and told her I found these)

I just wanted to share this find with all of you English riders who follow my blog; sorry western gals, I don't think there is any western stuff. But there are some neat riding gloves, called Bionic gloves. I don't know anything about them but they sound like your hands would love them!

I know, I know someone is going to give me flack about using a saddle pad to make the saddle fit, but it works for me. When I take Gilly's saddle and pad off, his back is wet everywhere, no dry spots. Both of my saddles have wide trees and the Abeta saddle was recommended to me by a woman who trains Tennessee Walkers, she said these worked well for the horse to be able to move his shoulders well.

So any comments about this pad. Does anyone else have one? If you do tell me what you think of it; do you love it like I do?

Oh, by the way......the SNOW is melting, melting, melting!!! Yippee, it was actually almost 40 degrees today! How exciting....yes, I am a little giddy over this, I am hoping that this means spring is just around the corner!!!