I had been thinking of getting a new saddle, an all purpose instead of the dressage saddle that I now have. But now??? not sure what I am going to do. I thought of taking the large knee block off of the under flap of my saddle so I had a little more knee room. I really like this saddle, the deep seat is really comfortable, so I was almost ready to get my seam ripper and take the stitching off the leather and remove it. Then I thought, well, maybe I should call someone who knows something about saddles before I do this.
I called
Trumbull Mountain Tack Shop and talked to Kitt Hazelton the saddle fitter there, check out her blog for tons of great information,
Saddle Fitting-The Inside Journey. I wanted to know if I really could take the knee block off, she said yes. But then she said maybe what I wanted was to get an all purpose and sell the dressage saddle. If I take the block off, no one else might want it. So another thought but since Gilly needs work on his back, I will wait and see how he looks in the spring. What Gilly is doing in the picture above is what I have heard called long and low, he needs to do this to work those big back muscles.
Monday before I started working him in the round pen I put his saddle on him with only a thin quilted pad that I had made for him so I could see just how the saddle sat on his back. It actually looked pretty good.
Gilly looks like a big butter ball with his velvety winter coat, and he isn't done growing it in yet. When I put the saddle on him I didn't tighten the girth all the way up at first and just let the saddle find it's own place to sit. When I did tighten it up this is where it wanted to be. As you can see though it is still a little high in the front. I hope that with work his back will come up and it will be fine.
View of saddle from back, this one was a hard one to get. I had to stand on tiptoe and hold the camera up and just click and hope I got the shot. That's one big butt to lean on, and pretty fuzzy too! LOL
View of saddle from front, looks like he has room there too. This is a wide tree for a wide boy. So now I will just have to work Gilly when I can and weather permitting to build up his muscles. I ordered a couple of books from Amazon.com (my favorite place to buy stuff) Longeing and Long Lining The English and Western Horse: A Total Program by Cherry Hill and 101 Longeing and Long Lining Exercises English and Western: A Ringside Guide by Cherry Hill They both sounded like good books, lots of pictures it said. I like lots of pictures!
Will let you know how it goes when the books get here. I love doing ground work with Gilly boy, he is fun to work with. Maybe Pokey can learn something too. Then he will be a smart ass! heehee
Jane and the boys
