Cob Jockey

Last week, we had our sporthorse vet out (who is not local, as opposed to our emergency vet, who is local).  I had asked for a lameness exam, chiro and a teeth float, even though he's still never taken a lame step in his life.  First I told her what had been going on:

Connor telling me he wants to be a Western Pleasure horse in December, PC: Austen

- Saddle fitting festival since October
- Riding mostly in the flapless since the beginning of November, in an extended trial to make sure everything was good before I buy
- Started to notice NQR in late November, abrupt change. Change occurred right after we REALLY started to push Second Level work with GP trainer
- Goes better on a loose rein than with contact
- Bit or bitless doesn't make a difference
- Even when he's going well with rein contact, which still happens sometimes, his back just never really loosens up and I don't have the forward button
- Never taken a lame step, but the left hind has always tried to get out of work if possible

We HAVE had SOME good rides since the NQR started. Flapless here

She started by running her hands all over him, and found the culprit almost immediately: back pain, confirmed.  Before I even told her what kind of saddle it was, she found two areas of soreness: one along the spine under the rider's seat, and one at the very back of his saddle patch:

Saddle patch, for reference.  I've noticed some ruffled hair there just in the last few rides, so this didn't come as a complete surprise to me. PC: Austen

When she asked to see the saddle on him, two points on the saddle lined up with the areas of soreness: the back edge of the panel seemed to be digging into his loin, and the top inside edge of the panel in the channel area was digging diagonally into his spine.  She felt like the flapless would fit great on a full-sized horse, but even though Connor's back is relatively long, the uniquely long panels are poking him in a place they wouldn't poke a full-sized horse.

My own thoughts: it's possible that the saddle fit his conformation in November aside from the panel length, but as the back edge got more and more sore, he lost muscling in his back, and then the area of soreness under the rider's seat developed as a secondary issue due to the muscles there shrinking.

(The teeth and chiro were interesting in their own right, but not ultimately related to the NQR, and I'll cover them in a different post.)

TEETH DAYYYYYYYYY

Because I do genuinely love this saddle and we're so far into this process already, I'm giving ESS a chance to figure it out.  Via video call, their owner/founder taught me how to palpate his back and she was able to see his back muscles spasm when I hit the sore spots.  She assessed the fit of the saddle relative to the sore spots and ultimately said, "I've been fitting these saddles for 20 years and I've never been this stumped before.  He's clearly sore and it's clearly the saddle, but nothing jumps out at me as to why, and I don't know why nothing showed up on the pressure pad either."

We just finished another round of Nexium and he's back to being ears up under saddle all the time, even with the soreness, so that's good.

ESS's founder and my vet both recommended the same thing: go back to the CWD for a while, let him heal, go from there.  The vet also gave me a stretching regimen for him.  They do not want me to stop riding, because it takes active work to help his back recover from the soreness, just chucking him in a field won't help.  ESS is going to go back to the drawing board with some ideas also, and has asked me to do pressure testing on the CWD just for the sake of having a comparison on the same back.

Vet also recommended using Back on Track before I ride, and I was like "AWESOME because the sheet I got for practically free in Canada finally arrived this week!" This shade of bright navy is definitely his color

How do I feel about this?  Mildly upset that my little buddy is hurting, but also, not beating myself up over it, because this is exactly why I wanted an extended trial of this saddle.  Better to have him tell me "no" like this than to drop [mumble] thousand dollars on a saddle and then figure out he hates it.

I'm not throwing ESS the bus, the fact that he's back sore doesn't mean this is a bad saddle.  In fact, I still freaking love it and don't want to ride in anything else.  They've been nothing but honest and amazing to work with, with the founder telling me she will not take my money until my horse is going better than ever.  However, it's possible that as much as I love this saddle, the panels are just not right for Connor's particular back shape, and I'll walk away if I have to.

We'll see!

We've had some surprising twists in the "why is Connor NQR" and "is it the saddle" saga over the past few weeks, so buckle up!

In our mid-December lesson with CGP, he was extremely resistant to bending, wasn't forward, would not "follow his nose" around a circle, would not lift his back and was exceptionally tense in the mouth.  CGP was stunned at how much had changed in a month.  She palpated him (far more aggressively than my own palpation technique) and declared him "probably" back sore (although admitted other things can cause the appearance of back soreness), and gave me some stretching exercises to do with him, and also advised me to get a hold of my vet.

NQR but real cute!  PC: Austen

I wasn't 100% convinced he was back sore, but the idea was enough to make me email Eq Saddle Science and say I wanted to send the flapless back for now, as I was renting it weekly at the time (with all rental fees going toward the eventual purchase price of my custom saddle).  They convinced me to let them send me a Port Lewis Impression pad to prove whether the saddle was digging in anywhere.

PLI pads are clear plastic half-pads filled with fancy Play-Doh.  You ride in them for 20-30 minutes, and if your saddle is causing pressure points, you'll see them clearly because the Play-Doh will be thinner/let more light through in that area.

The Velcro isn't lined up properly here, plz ignore

Now, I 100% took this pad on the basis of "is this saddle making my horse sore?", but I have to admit I was curious to see whether there really were four circular indentations in his back because I'm just so skeptical of the Reactor Panels.  But I couldn't have been more surprised when I lifted the saddle off his back after a solid 40 minute ride and saw...nothing:


It was so smooth, so even, I was absolutely shocked.  There were just very faint indentations where the panels were.  The pressure was completely even all the way up and down the panel.


I hadn't intended to actually buy this pad, but in the end I did.  I want this data, for all of my saddles and all of my current and future horses.  No, it's not going to tell you EVERYTHING about the way a saddle fits, but it's a great starting point for information we normally have to guess at.  As the owner of a stoic horse, I'll take all the saddle fit data I can get, even if it means buying a half pad I'll probably use twice a year.

Resetting the pad by rolling it out

(PS - If anyone local would like to borrow it, I'm happy to let people borrow it for a small usage charge, since these do have a limited number of uses in their lifespan.)

No real areas of pressure to note, except where I sit real hard on my left seatbone (facepalm)

The good news is, it's not the saddle, but the bad news is, it's not the saddle.  Next...