....in 14 months!
No wonder I'm skint!! Since the K&M disaster, I've actually been borrowing an Albion Legend 5000 VSD which I know is a tad too narrow, but Gracie has been surprisingly happy in it! She definitely let me know she didn't like the K&M!!
One of our local saddle fitters is a GFS Monarch supplier and I had noticed that in their new Regency range that they now do a "Cob" version, which can go to 4XW so I'd messaged a few weeks ago to try one. They are so new, she was waiting for actual stock, which arrived on Monday, so she came out yesterday. The saddle "only" had a 2XW gullet in it...and she had been assured by Monarch that lots of research had been done into widths and that 2XW was average for a chunky traditional. I snorted wuth derision She took Gracie's measurements with her flexi-curve and plotted them onto her history sheet. You can really see how she's grown this past year. The red line was yesterday...
I showed her how Gracie has become "a leg at each corner" since purchase...
Actually, the photo on the right was taken the day after G arrived, during the saddle fitting, so she remembered it (back in the days when G was a mere MW!!!) Then she put the saddle on Gracie and said "Hmmm.... I think we may need the next gullet". However, once girthed, I repositioned Gracie as our barn floor slopes upwards, it actually sat level. As SF said, saddle is new and softly flocked so it will need to bed down. So we decided to leave it as it was. I mounted up and she checked it again and said that all the points were sitting where she'd like them for a be saddle.
Anyhoo, I rode round to the school, walked around and all was fine. Upped to trot and Gracie humped her back and threw in a few shapes!!
I've NEVER known her do that in trot before, she can get excited in canter when we are jumping or doing mounted games, but never at trot. My heart sank. Walked a bit more, changed the rein, asked for trot...more proncking!! Saddle fitter was concerned, so I suggested trying the Albion as I've had no issues riding G in that. Swapped saddles and she did it again!!! So then we swapped back to the Monarch and she intermittently threw some shapes so I rode her through it. I had trotted her up to the school with absolutely no issues though! Now clearly something was up so I'm a tad bemused. She jumped keenly on Sunday, stayed in because of rain on Monday and went out for a few hours yesterday morning...still on her winter field, but she didn't roll because she was still clean. I don't think she is hurting because she was still forward yesterday, she just seemed to want to skip trot and canter everywhere. We did lateral work and she obliged kindly. I've said for ages that I don't think she likes the school surface (had a lesson recently on sand and was a different horse), plus it was quite wet. Our school drains well but we have had a LOT of rain recently. I think she's either in season, was having an objectionable day...or the spring grass is kicking in.
Saddler has advised me to hack out and has left it with me for the weekend.
Going to try a short hack later. Think I'll wear my BP!! I've never, ever had a brand new saddle before!!
No wonder I'm skint!! Since the K&M disaster, I've actually been borrowing an Albion Legend 5000 VSD which I know is a tad too narrow, but Gracie has been surprisingly happy in it! She definitely let me know she didn't like the K&M!!
One of our local saddle fitters is a GFS Monarch supplier and I had noticed that in their new Regency range that they now do a "Cob" version, which can go to 4XW so I'd messaged a few weeks ago to try one. They are so new, she was waiting for actual stock, which arrived on Monday, so she came out yesterday. The saddle "only" had a 2XW gullet in it...and she had been assured by Monarch that lots of research had been done into widths and that 2XW was average for a chunky traditional. I snorted wuth derision
She took Gracie's measurements with her flexi-curve and plotted them onto her history sheet. You can really see how she's grown this past year. The red line was yesterday...I showed her how Gracie has become "a leg at each corner" since purchase...
Actually, the photo on the right was taken the day after G arrived, during the saddle fitting, so she remembered it (back in the days when G was a mere MW!!!) Then she put the saddle on Gracie and said "Hmmm.... I think we may need the next gullet". However, once girthed, I repositioned Gracie as our barn floor slopes upwards, it actually sat level. As SF said, saddle is new and softly flocked so it will need to bed down. So we decided to leave it as it was. I mounted up and she checked it again and said that all the points were sitting where she'd like them for a be saddle.
Anyhoo, I rode round to the school, walked around and all was fine. Upped to trot and Gracie humped her back and threw in a few shapes!!
I've NEVER known her do that in trot before, she can get excited in canter when we are jumping or doing mounted games, but never at trot. My heart sank. Walked a bit more, changed the rein, asked for trot...more proncking!! Saddle fitter was concerned, so I suggested trying the Albion as I've had no issues riding G in that. Swapped saddles and she did it again!!! So then we swapped back to the Monarch and she intermittently threw some shapes so I rode her through it. I had trotted her up to the school with absolutely no issues though! Now clearly something was up so I'm a tad bemused. She jumped keenly on Sunday, stayed in because of rain on Monday and went out for a few hours yesterday morning...still on her winter field, but she didn't roll because she was still clean. I don't think she is hurting because she was still forward yesterday, she just seemed to want to skip trot and canter everywhere. We did lateral work and she obliged kindly. I've said for ages that I don't think she likes the school surface (had a lesson recently on sand and was a different horse), plus it was quite wet. Our school drains well but we have had a LOT of rain recently. I think she's either in season, was having an objectionable day...or the spring grass is kicking in.Saddler has advised me to hack out and has left it with me for the weekend.
Going to try a short hack later. Think I'll wear my BP!!
I've never, ever had a brand new saddle before!!
