Cob Jockey

As you all know, a few months ago I gambled that Eva and Disco might be the same tree size and shape when I bought a saddle for Eva by way of a blogger. Drumroll please...

Wow, did THAT ever pay off. It sits beautifully on him. And in a stroke of perfect timing, the original panels just got back from my fitter, who I paid $145+shipping to add the missing feature to them to ensure that that didn't cause pressure points.

Mmmmm, the way the panel follows the shoulder is so delicious.

While I was trying that on him, I also tried a couple of Connor's other saddles on him, even though I knew they would be all wrong. I just had to know.

My beloved CWD looked like a tiny little hat on top of his withers. But it's getting lots of use on Connor these days between his part leaser and the two kids that ride him regularly, so it will be sticking around.

And the Patrick, as suspected, is also a big no. Connor and Disco are different back-to-front tree shapes, and even when the Patrick was built, when Connor was at his fittest, Connor was narrower and had more of a wither than Disco. Disco may yet sprout some wither, since he's only 3.5, but not enough where this saddle will ever fit, and I'm at peace with that.

I've known for a while I should sell it. It's still nearly new, since I all but retired Connor a few months after getting it, and Connor's retired dad bod won't be using it. Seeing it on Disco was the push I needed to sell it and then plow those funds into a Wow jump saddle for him.

SO, any short legged riders out there looking for a Dressage saddle, I would be willing to make you quite a "blogger special" deal on the Patrick, especially if you save me from dealing with listing it. I only want to get out of it what it will take to get Disco a jump saddle, which is nowhere near what I paid for it.

2022 Patrick Saddlery Liberty II

17" wide monoflap

Velcro pocket for knee blocks (comes with small blocks, can order other shapes)

Extra short flap

Wool-flocked serge panels

Would best fit a horse that is wide with some wither and a semi-curved front-to-back tree profile. Will not fit a flat back.

Hit me up via the contact form on the blog if you're interested or if you know of someone who might be interested!

I have to be honest, I was terrified to open this box last Friday.

Real talk: when my back hallway outside my office looks like this, so does my brain, lol

I knew the fitter wouldn't make any mistakes a second time, but just like the first time I opened that box in September of 2021, I couldn't shake that feeling that so much had gone wrong with my saddle fitting journey to that point, it would just be par for the course for it to be wrong in some way again.

But.

It wasn't.

In fact, it was - finally - perfect. Two months shy of three years since I rode in the Mary Wanless clinic in May of 2019, and she told me I was fighting my saddle and apologized for how hard it would be to find a saddle in mine and Connor's combined conformation (she was not wrong!).

Mary declared the fit "just about perfect". It's a bit tight behind the withers, but it's not because of the tree shape, that's perfect. It's the flocking, and that will either resolve itself as it breaks in and the flocking compresses a bit, or it will get resolved when we see Kate at her annual spring trip to CGP's barn (she comes twice a year, so this thing will get regularly adjusted).

This time, it does have serge, so she can stick her needles through literally any point in the underside of the saddle to get the flocking perfect.

Seeeeeeeeeeeeeerge! Also check out how wide the channel had to be for my wide boy. This saddle feels WIDE.

All of my other complaints about the original are resolved. Per my request, they made the flap a hair - and I do mean a hair - shorter. Would I have taken it even shorter, absolutely, but I bet they were afraid to go any shorter on a Dressage saddle, and this is fine, especially in my new stiff boots that naturally have less "horse feel" through them anyway.

I mean that flap is a solid six inches shorter than most of the Dressage saddles I've owned in my life, so it's definitely an improvement over everything except the flapless!

We also requested teeny tiny jump saddle blocks this time around. Which, I am definitely going to miss the "locked in" feeling of the external block on the loaner (that I got at Lamplight in August, and have had this entire time!), but 1. I don't really need the blocks to lock me in, and 2. I still have commitment issues re: block positioning, so no regrets going the monoflap + Velcro block pocket route.

Mary was most excited about the billet positioning. On this one, the billets come off the waist of the saddle, and while there's a pocket to make the front one more of a point billet, the first thing I did was take it out.

With that billet out, it made the saddle sit like this.

Photo taken after my ride, with the non-ergonomic (but shaped) Stubben girth.

Which Mary could not get over. It kept girth and saddle right where they should be, and even in an abbreviated ride, Connor was perfectly willing to lift his shoulders into it, which was my litmus test when saddle shopping.

Warm enough for a tanktop on March 5, yes please!

So this is it: we can finally put the saddle shopping saga to rest! Hats off to Patrick for making this right in the end. Now, is it too much to ask for Disco to grow up to be the same shape as Connor so I never have to do this again? Haha.

 July

My barn officially became a co-op using a hybrid plan I came up with, and I became the "ringleader." I sent Connor off for a two-week tuneup with CGP before National Dressage Pony Cup, and NDPC was a freaking blast with friends from all across the country coming to support me. We won my first ever neck ribbon!

Family, friends and framily!

August

I went trail riding with my new barnmate, Mary and I discovered my CWD's tree was compromised, and I showed at Lamplight for the first time ever!

One of my favorite photos of me and this horse ever.

September
I bought a bunch of Jump4Joy jumps from my Aunt Paula, Connor gave pony rides to my gym friend's autistic son, we freaking brought it to win the Second Level IDS Championship title for 2021, and my saddle finally arrived...but it was missing some features.

October

The fitter decided to completely re-make my saddle to fix her errors at no cost to me. I bought Annie a baby saddle, and Connor showed with all three of us, me, Mary and Annie at the Welsh North Central Regional. Disco won literally almost everything, and was Champion C/D Colt, C/D Grand Champion, and was Supreme Champion all ages/sections/sexes under one judge, and Reserve Supreme Champion under another. After that show, I sent Connor to CGP's for flying changes training.

I had no idea that I'd get not only my first, but also my second and third neck ribbons ever in 2021!

November

My CWD came back, repaired! I brought Disco home, and cleaned up at our GMO's year end awards. CGP made incredible progress with Connor.

December

I only posted five times this month as I struggled with a period of growth in not only horse ownership and riding, but also at work. Disco was a good baby for everyone at the co-op, and Connor made lots of progress with CGP but less with me as I struggled mightily with some imbalances in my body. Connor came home on December 26th.

Disco's geriatric best buddy

I know I said I wouldn't have a post today, but I now have a resolution to my saddle problems so I wanted to share! 

Beautiful but wrong

The saddle fitter and I were finally able to connect yesterday, which had proved challenging between her kid's major health issues and my new job.

I had gone into that call intending to tell her I could live without serge panels, but she wouldn't hear of it. She completely owned the mistake as her own, explaining that she hadn't followed her usual process when doing my surprise last minute one-off saddle fitting in June, which led to her making a mistake in not writing absolutely everything down.

She said her reputation matters too much to her, and these saddles are too expensive, for it not to be exactly perfect. And she said the serge would matter to Connor, and long-term, it matters to her too, since she's the one that has to flock it and it's much easier to flock serge panels than leather.

This but make it fuzzy

So that requires a complete rebuild! They can't modify this one, they have to make a ground-up new saddle. Mind, blown. And they aren't charging me a thing, beyond, you know, the still-can't-say-it-out-loud original purchase price, lol.

She said she can sell my current saddle no problem (her dime, her effort) if I send it back to her now, so she can sell it in as new of a state as possible, and she asked if I was okay keeping the black loaner (which I still have) while they re-make mine. I laughed and said that Connor is going to CGP's for full training through the end of the year on Monday, and the black one would fit CGP much better anyway, so I think we'll all be happier with that loaner for now.

That made HER laugh, since she's good friends with CGP. "It's all about her, isn't it!" she laughed.

Because it has to get completely remade, I'm taking the opportunity to make a few modifications. I've asked for it to come back with a teeny tiny thigh block - she's actually probably going to use a jump block. I also asked to cut the number of rhinestones down to one, and make it purple. Three feels like a lot with how much I have going on on the cantle, now that I've seen it in person:

No croc though. This bad boy has enough visual interest as it is.

She's of course doing the serge and moving the billet, and then I'm also having her shorten the flap. 14" was doable and it's in the ballpark of what I like, but if I'm having it re-made anyway, we're going shorter. I'm not sure why this surprised me, but CGP is 110% on board with that, and said the 14" is as long as she'd go, but she'd have preferred shorter for me. I asked for them to shorten it another inch to an inch and a half, although I could probably go 2" and still be fine.

Long story short, human mistakes were made, and I'm glad I didn't get out the pitchforks, because my gut feeling that they'd make it right was absolutely correct. Being nice and understanding and taking a deep breath before freaking out definitely was the right move here.

And now, we wait! Again!

It worked out well that my saddle arrived last week, since I already had an in-person lesson scheduled with CGP and she could take a look at it.

The bottom line at this point is that we're both really happy with it, as long as the point billet is as loose as can be. I mean, look at how effortlessly he lifted his back on Saturday. I didn't even really have contact here and certainly wasn't trying to affect his way of going aside from riding biomechanically well:

Breastplate up! My barnmate from home who's known us since 2015 was also at CGP's for a lesson on Saturday, and she commented to me and CGP that she was stunned to see Connor both stretch AND keep his chest up.

The whole reason this saddle search took so long is that in most saddles he's not been willing to lift his breastplate like that, which is why the reinback is such a good diagnostic for whether he likes a saddle or not. 

He'll reinback in both saddles he likes and saddles he doesn't like, but in saddles he doesn't like, he buries his chest into the ground rather than shifting his weight back over his hindquarters and lifting his chest. It's subtle if you're not looking for it, because in both instances he willingly moves backward, but once you see the difference you're like "OKAY, I GET IT!" just like the fitter said to me in June.

I want that right hind more underneath him, but again, last weekend was 0% about improving the horse, so this is just whatever! And I'm thrilled with his breastplate here!

I discussed the missing features extensively with CGP. She thinks the billet move can be done without sending it back, but the serge panels would likely mean a trip to England. And while it's disappointing that they were left off, the point was to get a saddle the horse likes, and clearly, he likes it as configured. The primary downside to leather panels is that the flocking adjustments are less precise since fitting tools can only enter the saddle in one spot, plus they're warmer in winter and are less fussy about maintenance.

But is any of that worth sending it back to England, likely while he's at the trainer's for flying changes? No, it's not. I want him in a saddle he loves for that, and he clearly isn't missing the serge panels. Especially not when the leather panels on it are so soft, my trainer asked if they had memory foam in them (they do not).

Another benefit of leather panels: I can ride in my glitter pads without worrying about glitter getting embedded in the serge panels, lol #imachild

As for me, during the lesson on Saturday she asked if I was ever actively engaging the too-big blocks. I laughed, "I did Dressage in a jump saddle for years, no I am not using the blocks." She said, "I thought so, I'm just going to take them out." And that's how I rode most of that lesson.

Shown: no blocks

Because it's a monoflap with a two-sided pocket at the front for Velcro blocks, just the knee pad and the pocket combined already feel like a skinny block to me. So while we will order a teeny tiny thigh block, I really don't need them right now.

(As she pulled the blocks out, I joked that she's the reason I wanted Velcro blocks, so that she could play with my leg position without me freaking out that I just spent *mumblemumble* on a saddle that's all wrong, lol)

I mean really though, if you have a biomechanics expert in your corner, why limit her with a single block configuration?

So hopefully they do still make the error right in some way, but it likely won't end up with serge panels, and that's okay with me and Connor. 

This whole thing feels like a lesson on trusting the talented people you put in your corner. Sure, people make mistakes, that's human, but the way this saddle fits us both doesn't just happen by accident. With a saddle we both like and a great fitter and trainer, it feels like the sky's the limit now for what we can accomplish next year.

Before my in-person lesson with CGP on Saturday, my head was already spinning with so many new thoughts about riding and biomechanics, and then CGP proceeded to completely blow my mind.

THIS. FEELS. SO. CROOKED.

In the picture above, she had just physically grabbed my left thigh (after asking permission, lol) and yanked it down the saddle while moving my quad muscle behind my leg, then put her hand underneath my left seatbone and asked me to drop my weight down onto her hand. "There," she said. "Now you're straight." "Um don't take this the wrong way, but I don't believe you. I feel like I'm falling off to the left." So she went and got my tripod and took the above photo to prove it to me.

Mary Wanless teachers and touching people, name a more dynamic duo

When we moved onto doing this at the trot, she had me stand in the irons with 75% of my weight over the left side, then go back to sitting or posting. I'm doing that in the below GIF, and while it feels to me like I'm about to fall off of his left side, I'm actually pretty straight.

We also worked on my posting mechanic. It took both of us quite a while to get through to each other on this, but when she said "You're getting to the top of the rise and adding this extra...motion," I suddenly realized what was happening. I was using my glute maxes to lock out my hips like a CrossFit air squat, and it's that lock out motion that causes my leg to swing in the posting trot. You can clearly see it here:

Ingrained movement patterns are hard, yo

She had me think about keeping my hip bones pointing more forward instead of down and shortening the distance from my boobs to my pubic bone by keeping "crunched". And just to complete the CrossFit air squat thing, she also got onto me about sending my hips backward in the post, saying I need to kneel down more than sit back.

A lot of the posting mechanic work ended up being about my shock absorbers. I tend to neutralize my shock absorbers by not allowing my joints to flex in the saddle:

I lose my balance and post once partway through this GIF because I'm not allowing my shock absorbers to absorb his motion. I look still, but it's not a good still.

But it wasn't until she told me to soften the underneath of my foot to allow my arch to also act a shock absorber did things really change. The irony is that I teach a running class at my gym in which we begin our form analysis by jumping with a totally straight leg so they can feel how the shock moves through their body if they neutralize all their shock absorbers, and then jumping while allowing the joints to flex, allowing the arch to act as a spring. But for some reason I had never thought to apply my own lessons in the saddle before.

The last piece of the puzzle Saturday was my left arm. See, (and I have a whole other post on this, lol) Connor loves to toss me onto his right side using diagonal force that goes from the left hind to the right fore. I spent a lot of this lesson learning to identify and fight that, and you can see it clearly in this GIF right as we come alongside the door:

She's not wrong, you can see it in tons of my photos over the years. And sure enough, keeping my left elbow by my side felt like the last piece of the puzzle Saturday.

We didn't work on Connor AT ALL, he was practically a glorified lunge lesson horse, and yet:

Mary was like "What did you DO? I've never seen him move like this before!"

Literally nothing, except fixed my position!

...and bought him a saddle. "None of this would have been possible in any of the other saddles you've had since I've known you," she said. "You are not wrong!" I said.

After throwing myself a pity party from the moment that box opened on Wednesday until Thursday morning, I decided I needed to take a deep breath and put a ride on my new saddle without the pressure of it being in a lesson. I just needed to play.

And all is not lost.

During the lesson, I had done up the point billet, not as tightly as the rear billet, but it was still actively engaged. Last night, I left it as loose as I could safely leave it without running the risk of catching my foot in it. And Connor said "Oh my goodness thank you."

I have no proof of this, but just trust me, this level of stretch and relaxation did not make an appearance at my lesson the night before.

He hates point billets. He HATES point billets. He haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaates point billets. Period.

Reviewing the video, it was also my first time seeing myself in the saddle, and wow. Even with a way too long block sticking partially out of the front of the saddle to give my knee room, you can tell it's perfect for me. As annoyed as I am that a mistake was made on the manufacturing side, I cannot deny that the fitter is a biomechanical genius. None of the other fitters I worked with could have done this:

Check out that arrowhead leg, Mary Wanless!

So, I still haven't talked to the fitter (again, for very good reasons, I can't stress enough), but at this point I have a feeling she'll take a look at it, adjust the flocking, then send it back to England to have the point billet moved back to the waist, to have the panels recovered with serge, and it'll come back with a different, shorter Velcro block.

Little underpowered in the interest of getting him to let go of his underneck