Cob Jockey

 I got a pair of Dubarrys for $50, and took so.  many.  lessons. with CGP. This was also the first time she ever rode him.

Yesterday, after all that, I finally bought a Dressage saddle. I ended up with a 12 year old wool flocked CWD for 1/3 of my budget, from my pseudo-local tack shop. Which is, you could say, right where I started.

Get ready for some French saddle porn

I learned SO much from this experience, but I think my most important takeaway is that saddles should be seen as temporary residents in your tack room (thank you, JenJ).

Your position changes, you get fat, you get skinny, you start working out, you stop working out, you have a baby, your horse loses topline, gains topline, gets fat, gets EPM, and the saddle that works for you today likely isn't the saddle that works for you five years from now.  And I feel like that's especially true for Dressage saddles.

Getting its first deep condition in my workshop. It was clearly well-taken care of, but it still soaked every bit of it up.

Combine that with not really ever having a "wow!" moment with any of the trial saddles, (do not tell me how amazing it will be if we order mine with slightly different features, I need to feel it before I sign my life savings away), with how much new saddles depreciate as soon as you take delivery, with how expensive they are, and with how generally screwed you are if you don't like it/it doesn't fit, and I ultimately decided a custom saddle isn't for me, and truly, it isn't the holy grail of saddle shopping I thought it was. Maybe if custom saddle money was throwaway money for me I'd do it, but it's not.




It's entirely possible that two years from now I'm going to be moving this CWD along after one or both of us changes, but at this price point, I'll almost certainly be able to recoup most of my money, whereas I wouldn't with a custom saddle, which made signing away the money so much less painful!

After conditioning. It has a 13.5" flap measured from the bottom of the stirrup bar, tee hee.

Some of my other takeaways:

1. Searching for used saddles is time-consuming and frustrating, but ultimately less risky than going custom

2. It's impossible to know what a saddle will feel like just by looking at it, which makes used saddle shopping insanely difficult. Heck, just looking at the picture of the CWD I ended up with, it doesn't look like something I'd like. But I love it.

3. I still firmly believe the saddle industry is broken. I have no answers. I admire the people who are trying to do something about it.

4. Brown Dressage tack would have been awesome, but a saddle we both love matters SO much more than aesthetics.

5. Maybe Connor does have a type.

At any rate, I'm now the proud owner of two CWD saddles, so I guess I can keep wearing my jacket!  Now to sell my brown short girth...

It's really a shame we didn't get video of my lesson last night (I'm not using the Pixio until this blows over because I don't want to have to disinfect a million pieces of plastic), because we had such a fantastic lesson!  In the trial saddle, too.

Tacking up at my trailer bc social distancing #2020things

My trainer really focused in on keeping me firm in my torso, keeping my shoulder blades slid down my back and making my arms move separately from my torso.  That's on top of last week, in which we had a great lesson focusing on bend and really getting my knee snugged into him, which the CWD Dressage makes a lot easier than the CWD jump does.

Not knocking my jump saddle at all, it's just not a Dressage saddle

In fact, the CWD Dressage makes EVERYTHING about riding easier.  I am really starting to like this saddle.  The blocks keep me in place without being annoying, I don't notice them except it's like "Huh, I am really not moving around up here and it's not even hard!". 

The short flap gives me just enough skin-boot contact to feel close to him.  I can move my pelvis around without feeling like the cantle is all up in my business.  The monoflap and the complete lack of knee pad behind the block make it easy to snug my leg into him.  The wide twist takes up the space between my legs completely.  I just feel STABLE in the thing.

"This is highly irregular" - Connor

I don't have to make a decision for basically as long as the state shutdown lasts, however long that is, so it's another extended trial, although I'm keeping a close eye on Connor's back to make sure we don't have back soreness round 2, since this one isn't flocked right for him.  So far he's going amazing in it though.

Truly not horrible even though it's not right

So after starting this saddle search nearly a year ago "knowing" I wanted a CWD Dressage saddle just like my jump saddle, waiting four months for a custom one that didn't work (on my birthday!), being heartbroken and deciding to see what else was out there, having a budget for custom, trying over 50 saddles from many manufacturers, and paying let'snottalkaboutit in fitting fees, I may be ending up exactly where I started, with a CWD Dressage saddle.

Life is weird.