Where does the time go? Isn’t it still February?
Colleen, my wonderful sponsor and friend from Advanced Saddle Fit, came down for a saddle fit clinic and consultations, something she does a few times a year. I LOVE Colleen’s visits—I love Colleen, of course, but like any Mom figure Colleen always tells me a) my horses look great (they do), and b) I’ve lost weight (not so much).
I wish that attending one of her clinics was mandatory. So many people—myself included, for many years—know nothing about saddle fit and are quick to accept the hype as fact. I guess it’s a testament to the power of advertising that no one ever gives thought to how the saddle fits the HORSE anymore—all the ads you see in the magazines talk about how the saddle is going to fit the rider. Does it matter whether the rider likes it or not if a saddle pinches like crazy over the stirrup bars, or has a totally wrong shape tree for the horse, or has panels as hard as rocks?
But her visits are always a whirlwind of activity, and combined with our first Fix-A-Test Sunday, my “day off” on Monday that really wasn’t, and a crazy teaching day yesterday, I’m only now realizing I’m four days out from my next show. Yikes!
Fortunately, the horses are good. We’ve had stellar weather, so I’ve been able to work Fender outside in a 20×60 ring, which he no longer thinks is that big a deal… at least, I hope. He’ll do training level again this weekend, and I just mailed in my entries for the 4-Year-Old tests for the end of next month. We’ll see—I’m certainly in no hurry. I want him to be happy and comfortable and have good experiences at whatever level.
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Ella’s been in conditioning work since we got back from North Carolina, which she and I both find boring, but I think it’s helping. I did make her piaffe a little yesterday, and it’s still not as quick and snappy as I want it, but there’s time. She did clock off 17 ones like it was nothing, and then hacked around the field and ate grass. I call it Hack-And-Snack, because I am a dork. We’re doing the Brentina Cup test twice this weekend.
I think Midge may have rounded a corner. One of the many things Colleen brought down in her Van of Joy was a saddle I’ve been waiting on. It’s an exact copy of a saddle I’ve been riding Ella in, but in brown; Midge goes in a similar saddle, so I thought I’d pop this one on him. And WOW!! What a horse! The difference between the two saddles is so tiny I didn’t think it would make a lick of difference, but he went like gangbusters—floatier, more comfortable in his neck and back. Seriously neat. We’ve just been playing, but he made his first good line of twos, and even made a few ones (!), and is on the verge of a big breakthrough in the topline control in the pirouettes. He’ll do 4-2 and the Developing Test again this weekend, but I’m bored at fourth level with him, so I entered his first recognized Prix St. Georges for the end of May.
My other training horses are good, too. Douwe the Friesian has changed shape so much in his time here that we’ve held off on getting him a saddle until he was really going. Now that he is, Colleen fit him for a great saddle that, for the first time, doesn’t make me feel like I’m constantly rolling around to the right. He’s got a very gooey quality to his skin and muscle (even though he’s getting BUFF—looks like Ahnold), and everything I put on him sort of wiggled, no matter how tight the girth was. And Friesians have a funny shape, but this saddle really works for him, so yay. He just entered his first recognized show, too, at training and first levels, but I think he’ll be close to second level by the end of the season.
I have a few new ones in training too, all fun. There’s been a lot of in-barn activity in the last few weeks—horses for sale, horses coming and going, staff changes. No wonder the weeks have flown by. After this weekend’s show I’m done competing myself for more than a month, which will be a BIG relief. I’ve been waiting all winter for things to speed up, and now that we’re really up and running I can barely keep up! I love it, though. Bring on the horse shows! And bring on this weather—it was 92* here, and while that kind of heat this early in the year can’t last, it means horses out baking in the sunshine and clothes drying on the line, two of my favorite things.
