Feel free to roast me for this, but it's been two years since I last got my saddle fit adjusted for Gwyn. Given that I'm now about a year out from my cross country move, it's somewhat understandable, but regardless, it was time for a recheck.
With my new job I do have some cash and the ability to save up quickly, for larger purchases like a better fitting saddle. Right now I have an all purpose Thorowgood which has been serving me well for all purposes. I know there are some different schools of thought with those style of saddles and I've been mulling over adding a dressage or specific endurance style saddle or going in another direction.
Snuggles while we wait for the saddle fitter to finish up on the previous horse
One of my barn mates was having a fitter out a week ago and I hopped on that train SO fast. Though I didn't know it, she used to work for the lady that originally sold me my saddle and was very familiar with the Hastilow/Thorowgood line. Perfect.
First things... the lines on the saddle rack are digging into the leather on my panels. I need to make sure to pad this if my saddle is going to sit on it for any length of time. It would be better to be smooth.
She was pretty knowledgeable though she isn't fitting full time anymore. Now it's just a hobby for her and she's only taking new clients if they're friends of friends. So yay I got in, haha.
Mark up the pony's back in purple livestock crayon
She pulled out the wool flocking from my last fitting, which was a completely different wool and had packed down all wrong. The width is still good, she seems to think Gwyn doesn't need a hoop tree (again, like the last fitter from Michigan advised) Either way, we tossed it on, there was no bridging or pinching and I tacked up and took her for a test ride.
I kind of liked that the fitter also has some knowledge as a riding instructor because she made sure that I was riding effectively to then also judge how the saddle was working. She answered all of my questions. Additionally, she doesn't think I'm going to need a specialized kind of saddle. For my goals, even taking my lofty AEC goal into account, this saddle should serve me well. At most she'd recommend a jump saddle but not dressage or trail unless I really want to get further there. And while I would love to get my bronze one day, I don't need the saddle for that now.
So what I did have her do was add trail rings to my current saddle. You can see them in the above picture from this past weekend. That should give me a little more utility for endurance. And also if I wanted a little more comfort for endurance, to get a seat saver. All very much economical options compared to getting a completely new saddle.
She also switched up my billet attachments so they're in a slightly different configuration (and she was VERY pleased with how nicely I've taken care of this saddle *preen* and advised that I get a girth with no elastics (ahhhhh). Since I needed a new girth anyway, I ordered a Pro-Lite one on her recommendation. I'm lucky in that Gwyn has not ever been super picky about her tack. She'll eventually let me know that her saddle fit isn't quite right, but it's always subtle. And she's not a delicate flower about other pieces of tack, bits included.
The ProLite is all synthetic, always a bonus, and it's anatomical to allow for shoulder room. Plus this one has a center attachment for martingales, which my previous girth did not, so that's an upgrade! Since it's not elastic, I'm slowly tightening up both sides in an alternating pattern, like a good pony clubber. And since it's not elastic, I ordered the same size for her and it's perfect and not up on the last billet holes on both sides.
Despite all that, when I finally rode in my new and improved same saddle, I still had to get off about 20 minutes in and tighten the girth AGAIN when a barn mate told me she could see daylight. LOL.
Gwyn was a spicy mare too. She was feeling really good and offering lots of canter transitions when all I wanted was an on the bit trot. I had to use a LOT of half halt to keep her focused and eventually just made her canter around the arena twice to get it out of her system. I can still remember when just getting a long side of canter was a challenge! Kind of regret not lunging... hahaha.
I also opted to torture myself with a posture corrector and ended up pulling a muscle in my back after doing a mostly walk ride. Good going, Amy.
It was a warm day on Sunday so I gave Gwyn a bath too. She promptly rolled.
Waiting for lunch
Monday looking bedraggled and confused that I was picking up the trailer and not her
Long story short, they are a good purchase at a great price and handled negative Fahrenheit temperatures quite well. I was not compensated in anyway for making this.
On Saturday, with one kid refusing to come outside and the other intent on 'hleping' (intended typo there...) the SO and I went out to deep clean the runs.
Full disclosure, I am a lazy horse owner and clean outside the barn the way I clean in the house, leaving little things until they're big things and then doing a major deep cleaning. The stalls stay good and the pasture stays good, it's just the dry lot that gets looking bad...
The runs needed a deep cleaning and this was the second day in a row of above freezing temperatures, so thawing manure had to go.
Gwyn and Saffron were taken to the spring pasture, much to their delight.
I hooked up my trailer to the ATV and just tackled the giant pile of poop with the gates wide open to facilitate moving things around.
My 'hleper'
I managed to get all of the not too frozen poop out of the run, and boy was it a HUGE improvement.
My 'helper'
Meanwhile, Eric determined that we needed a new manure pile spot because he apparently has something against using the trash service to haul away manure. So he raked in the old straw from the original manure pile that was there when we bought the property and then made a barrier using the T-posts and some of the pallets we had lying around.
After that, he fixed the stall liner that was coming off the wall for me and then helped me take down the electrobraid that gives me three runs so that the animals could have one giant dry lot. It's just Gwyn and Saffron so I don't really see a need to have three separate runs. It'll make replacing the footing, which needs to happen at some point, easier if it's one big space.
So now my dry run is much nicer and cleaner. And so every night since I've been making sure to pick up what new poo has acccumulated and you know what?
My fingers don't go numb when I do this.
This may sound like a strange revelation, but I have some poor circulation issues, a combination of Reynaud's and cold urticaria. Most nights in winter even the thickest gloves would leave my fingers like ice, and super painful.
If I do a brief poo sweep, and fill my manure bucket, not even the full wheelbarrow, all I need are my Back on Track liners and I come in with hot hands. Just adding that little bit of activity is enough to push me into blood moving versus normal barn chores and it's been lovely. My barn is cleaner and my hands are happier each night when I go back inside.
I've also now used the Magic Brush twice in a row. I love how mud just disappears and how soft it leaves Gwyn's coat. Tonight I tried it on Saffron. If Gwyn is a sappy, loves any kind of attention that could be semi-related to grooming kind of horse, Saffron is the opposite. She is standoffish, she is not affectionate and she tolerates me grooming her (she'll stand still for the kids for hours though)
I think she likes the Magic Brush. Which means it's definitely magic. And bonus, Donkey winter coat is super wiry and thick. Normal horse brushes really don't work well on it unless they're super stiff and yet the Magic Brush cut through and lifted dirt off of her. I couldn't believe it.
So now I need to get Saffron her own. Maybe two for Saffron so the girls can brush her at the same time.
A few days before the hunter pace, my Megasus Horserunners FINALLY arrived. This was, of course, after I caved and put shoes on Gwyn. I grumbled to Eric about the irony and the hit to our checkbook when I had to have the shoes replaced days after they were initially put on. They had been holding.
Had been.
A couple days after the hunt pace I went out to feed and Gwyn was once again missing a shoe. I wailed about a bit and gnashed my teeth and finally opened up the horserunners box because dammit I wasn't about to pay YET AGAIN to have the farrier put shoes on when these should do for such a situation. Nor did I want to miss out on a moonlight trail ride in two days and I also did not want Gwyn to be on that ride missing a shoe.
So... the unveiling:
I kickstartered for 2 sets. Apparently I also got the winter version? I don't remember that being an option and I'm a little miffed about it as I would have gotten the summer ones, TBQH
Fancy packaging. Was this the delay?? Who knows.
Like I said, we got the winter edition? They'll have to deal with being used in the summer because I'm not paying again for these fuckers.
They are pretty solid and a garish orange and blue that makes me flash back to grad school at the University of Florida.
The thickness. Those slots are where the clips that attach to the hoof slide into
All of the additional gear needed to attached these suckers to the hoof
The tiniest nail polish size bottle (with nail polish brush) of solvent I've ever seen. Smells like paint thinner
The covers, more on this in a moment
Nice bright blue
The tapes attach to the hoof and provide one side of the 'velcro' that the clips lock onto
The side clips
So I got to prepping Gwyn's foot for Megasus attachment. First up was cleaning her hoof. They wanted me to bloody buff the hoof but I settled for wire brushing it. I might go find a buffer to sand down her hoof to get better adhesive attachment for future tapes but I'm not displeased.
You start by putting in the front two clips. You mark on the hoof where the center is and line that up, then also mark where the clips are. This is your guide for putting on the tapes.
You can see the nasty crack I've been fighting. Also, there's still nails in her hoof from the shoe. WTF is up with that? I rasped and wire brushed her hoof and then avoided touching it since the instructions say to not have grease of any kind on the foot or it'll ruin the adhesive. You mark around the hoof on the shoe itself.
It looks long in the back, but that's okay, because it pretty much is guaranteed to get removed.
With those markings all set and ready to go, you use the solvent on the hoof and let it dry, which will happen quickly because it's a solvent and pretty much trying to evaporate as soon as it hits air. Then you carefully remove the backing on the tapes and apply them to the hoof, starting at the markings you made from where the front clips land.
Now, I misplaced these on the hoof. They should curl up more and be further from the ground. But again, I'm not too put out by the error and it's working okay for now.
Then I set up the covers, which go on over the tapes.
I put the covers on at night and went back the next day to prep her for my night trail ride. The covers were gone. So much for what I said about them in the video. As of this writing, I have only recovered one cover from my pasture. So that leaves 3 horse shoes and 1 megasus cover unaccounted for.
Friday I also used the jigsaw to cut away the extra shoe. The whole thing is a pretty thick plastic. Gwyn is pretty solidly a perfect fit to this size so I really didn't need to do much adjusting. It also meant that I didn't have to worry about sharp edges. I did use a rasp to take it down a little bit. I did not do the recommended 45 deg angle under the heel as I just didn't have the time.
Upon retrieving her and inspecting the tapes, the back bit of tapes pulled away from the hoof, but that's also where I wasn't able to really rasp down the hoof and prep it for adhesive. I clipped away what was no longer sticking. Everything else was solidly attached so I went ahead with doing the final clips and adjustments. Then we loaded up for our trail ride!
The previous owners of our house are starting a non-profit designed to help veterans with PTSD and they were hosting a Full Moon Trail ride on the Polly Ann Trail! She needed to get a special permit for the ride as after dark usage is not permitted.
I met Alicia there and it was great. My tail lights were out of battery, which made me sad because that would have helped at some points on the ride as it turned out. Instead I had reflective gear, which was at least beneficial for the road crossings. Alicia forgot her cinch, and ended up riding bareback. Oops...
The following pictures are screen grabs from the go pro.
Just after mounting up, 9pm at the Leonard trail head. Moon has not risen.
Gwyn immediately thought we were going to go fast again. Oops
Crossing Rochester Rd. If you turned right and went a few miles you'd get to my house!
Bareback Alicia
Two happy horses in the lead.
Gwyn pretty much took off at a swinging walk. She wasn't impeded at all by the Megasus shoe and in fact was moving very confidently. We were leaving the quarter horses in the dust and they had to trot to keep up with us.
This the field where later a fucking truck was off roading at nearly 11pm at night and scared the FUCK out of Gwyn and she went spooking toward this opening only there's a bloody chain across it and thankfully I stopped her in time.
The full moon, also a blood moon, as seen on the go pro, lol
The ride was very eventful. I think Gwyn likely has at least some bit of moonblindness as she got incredibly spooky once it got dark. While she is very much a 'must be leader on the trails' kind of mare, she was much happier after dark following other horses. The final nail in that coffin was when a fucking bicyclist was coming at us. Us humans couldn't see him, he wasn't lit up at all and Gwyn lost her mind. Remember, we had a special permit for night use. He should not have been there.
We all may have yelled at him, made him get off the damn bike and talk constantly as we passed him. Gwyn thought she was going to get eaten.
Did I mention that two of the horses were studs? They were decently well behaved until one spooked a little and his bit got caught in his breast collar. He went up and over backwards with his rider - who was not wearing a helmet - and we all freaked out. Old house owner S hopped off immediately to help, her daughter who is like 12, was freaking the fuck out and Alicia just calmly started running through a concussion screen like it's her job because it basically is (she's a vet tech).
The rider was shaken but thankfully okay, and so she and S walked a bit of the trail on foot for a while to calm down. We were still 2 miles from the trail head. We had done an hour out but two of those miles in the hour out were at a decent clip and it was not going to be the same time going back as we were much slower.
On top of it all, S's horse (one of the studs) was in the pen they have and ran into a nest of yellowjackets and they both came running out in a panic because he got stung and S is allergic.
So it was eventful. But it was also beautiful. The fireflies are still going so the darker forested parts of the trail just sparkled and glittered with their blinking light. We were dive bombed by bats feasting on the bugs. I didn't get one mosquito bite. It was almost chilly, in the upper 60sF and while there were some clouds, they cleared as the moon rose, beautiful and red, with Mars trailing to the side bright as could be. Alicia and I laughed and laughed, even through some of the scarier parts because I'm a nervous laugher. But we had an amazing time. The shoe held up quite well and was a pain to get off, which I'm calling a positive because if I have to freaking pry the thing, it's not going to just come loose on the trail. I have an amazing mare who trusts me and is game for pretty much anything, which is my dream horse. Instead of being frustrated at our slow return pace, I worked on using my seat to rate her back and she was mindful and listened. I hold no blame for her spooks. I knew this is an eventuality with her eye injury and because she's part Appy. I blame the idiots who were joy riding. I blame the moron riding his bicycle where he was not allowed.
She's my best mare and my buddy and it was really nice to have 'just' a ride with friends that night. It was the perfect end to a really long work day.
Due to the deep freeze and snow storms across the east coast, me actually getting home (a separate post in itself for my non-horse blog) took ALL YEAR. 😂😂😂😂😂
No but seriously, today was the first full day I was at home in 2018. AND it was getting progressively warmer throughout the day and night, which meant that my designated riding time (after 8pm) would be actually warmer than the daytime! SCORE.
So what's a horse girl to do when she can ride in a rain jacket and no gloves and not freeze her cheeks off? Ride of course!
Fat!Pony is not impressed with the the fact that her stall is closed and her halter is on. (Please ignore the dirty stall, I cleaned it after)
Use the arena floodlights for the best lit selfies
Unless your Fat!Pony wants to rub her face on you and becomes a blur monster
But then she gives you kisses because it was 8 fucking days apart and that's practically torture and don't you know she was SO hungry and cold even though the nice neighbor lady came and fed her every day.
I love this view
The snow is turning to slush it's so warm
We practiced stepping under and using her back and also our geometry. 10 m circles are easy to evaluate in the snow
More circles!
Ugh that poor mane. Super thick and long near her head, wispy and thin toward the withers. HOW FIX, BLOG WORLD? HOW?!
You may note that my stirrups are super reflective! Woefully, I have been searching for a good winter boot to wear whilst riding. Everyone suggests Mountain Horses, but the tall boots that would fit my ginormous calf are not being sold any more in my foot size. Joy. Since I need a wide footbed in addition to a wide calf, I tried ordering a pair of mens Ariat paddock boots, Extreme H20. It was too tight across the top of my foot and I immediately started to lose feeling in my foot while wearing them. Definitely not gonna be good for riding.
I also ordered a pair of ovation winter paddock boots. These things are a two layer system that just sucked. Nope. Getting returned. If the ridiculous thinsulate booty was not a separate thing from the boot itself it might have worked, but I couldn't get my foot in the boot when the pieces were already together, and if I took the booty out and slid my foot in already in the booty, my toes got jammed up and cramped by the booty in the boot and it never loosened up.
I'm picky. And both of those are getting returned.
What I currently wear in the barn in the winter is my muck boots, super thick rubber and plastic, but my feet have never been cold in them. But they're super duper unsafe for traditional stirrup irons because of the lack of heel.
So, I figured since I do endurance, and they make stirrup irons for non-traditional riding shoes, why not embrace the muck boots and just get a safe stirrup iron? It would do double duty as a wide bed stirrup for endurance rides and a safety thing for winter if I wear my muck boots.
So merry christmas to me! I ordered from Distance Depot with my swell discount for being a new AERC member and they arrived while we were gone!
They are, obviously, in purple beta with reflective overlay.
My muck boot fits well in them, I'm not fighting to fit the ginormous boot into them, so it gives me confidence that they'll work well in the summer too. I'll have a bigger shoe option to wear for endurance.
But really, the big question I have for you all, what do you do with a mane that's super uneven in thickness? Gwyn is half friesian, so I tend to err on the 'let it grow' mentality and just braid it in the summer when it's hot. I would like the mane to be more uniform, so I might as well work on that now. How do I do that? I'm already supplementing with Biotin for her hooves (which has worked out wonderfully, btw) What else should I be doing for care? I minimize brushing it, but will finger pick the worst. She doesn't rub it (to my knowledge), doesn't wear a blanket regularly, and really never gets it super tangled.
