December 18, 2008

Winter has sure put the skids to things here.

Dark when I get up, dark when I leave for work, dark when I come home....common thread D-A-R-K. We've had rain and freezing rain off and on all week. Tomorrow will be my first chance to get on Phebes again, and rain is forecast. A week between rides doesn't do nice things for her overall discipline.

Should the rain dry up tomorrow, I'm going to try out saddle #5. So far we've tried a Wintec, a custom made gaited saddle, the Abetta, a treeless, and now a Crestridge. The treeless worked great for her, but it did not work for me. So I have a real pretty treeless if anyone is looking. Crestridge made her a western saddle on their J-bar tree (a Christmas gift from my LSEGH). It was originally ordered as an endurance model without the horn. The same week the horn on my Abetta saved my butt twice, and I called and asked them to put a horn on it. Eventually I'd rather ride without one as the horn presents its own safety issues, and I have in fact been badly bruised by one in the past. But for now with her being so green and silly, I'd just feel better to have a place to brace my hand when she spooks, shys, or makes some rather unplanned manuevers. The J-Bar X-wide tree allows for a 13 inch gullet (yes she is that wide) and flares at the shoulder to allow the shoulder to fully rotate. The tree of her Abetta was making curly haired ruffled spots on her fur where the shoulder rotates, and I felt it was causing problems. I'm hoping she will fit into this one, and be more relaxed at that trot, and less prone to drop out of the trot, and into a canter. This saddle is also a little heavier. I'll have to weigh myself and all my gear, I think this saddle may tip me into the low end of middle weight, rather than the high end of lightweight where I've been. I'm still waiting on my hackamore/ and hackamore bridle to show up. I expect that to take another week or two with all the Christmas shipping clogging up the mail.

I have two brand new Easyboot bares size 0 that I'm thinking about selling. Calling it a day ~E.G.

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