Cob Jockey

Two weekends ago, Connor and Disco's breeder Lisa and I found ourselves road tripping to Canada to attend the Canadian Royal Winter Fair for the first time since 2019. And this time, I was going to see MY OWN horse show in it!

Disco in the big big world

I was so glad Disco's lessee was able to enter him this year. She was on the fence about it when he went through a growth spurt this summer, and I told her that I supported whichever decision she made, but I was secretly hoping she would enter him. I didn't care how he placed, but the atmosphere of the Royal is like nothing else, and would be great for developing the brain of my future show horse.

Powering his way up the iconic ramp from the first floor to the second floor of the Horse Palace

I mean, spoiler alert, he looks amazing right now and ended up being the 2 and under Champion Welsh Cob and Reserve Champion Youngstock. 

Pro photo legally acquired, all other photos by me

But the real victory was the way he conducted himself. While he is very much a two year old - still learning how to emotionally handle being bored and anything within reach is still a toy - he wasn't bothered by a single thing the entire weekend. And there were a lot of Things.

Like, I stood there watching as he was tied to the wall for an hour in a busy show aisle with a mare next to him while he got groomed to perfection, never screaming or looking around wide-eyed. Just a little bored.

I even learned a little about proper Welsh show prep. Here's Disco getting his feathers hair sprayed and teased out! I sent this to Mary and she just sent back a picture of Andis clippers, lol.

 

Or also, he got a bath in a little enclosed bathing room with horses of all genders on either side, "didn't even need a chain. Not for that and not for anything the whole time," according to his lessee.

One of the bathing rooms at the Horse Palace

He stood down by the in-gate before and between his classes for over an hour, and only got fussy when every single horse there went into the ring for a BIG C/D mare class. In fact, that was the only time he screamed the entire time.

I was handling him at that time since his lessee was in the ring showing her mare, so when he got fussy, we started handwalking around and around the bleachers that line the show ring. He immediately settled and focused as soon as we started walking, even though we were walking past and through a true circus:  past big black Percherons with their dinner plate-sized shoes, past strollers, through crowds of distinctly non-horsey spectators, past tractors bigger than he's ever seen, past video cameras, past horse carts and wagons of every shape and size, past little old ladies in wheelchairs that inadvertently backed directly into our path.

I could not have been more proud of him. It was like he was born in a busy indoor show facility and that was all he knew, even though it was his first time in an atmosphere like that. I STILL have never seen this horse afraid of anything the entire time I've known him. He has retained that natural confidence and curiosity that I love so much, and that I desperately wanted after dealing with (and loving <3) Chicken Little for the last decade.

Even though I fiercely love Chicken Little, being afraid of everything made showing him interesting at best and terrifying at worst, and I am ready for something with some confidence.

Although it would have been easy to forget given his behavior, Disco IS still a stallion, and I gave everything the appropriate amount of space and applied an appropriate amount of situational awareness to every situation while handling him. Even with a well-behaved stallion, you can't ever stop being more aware of your surroundings than you would be with a gelding or mare. But as I walked him around, I couldn't help but get excited for his future. With a brain like that, and with movement like he's starting to show...well, it's exciting to think about.

It was like he knew I was watching when at one point during the judging he took off down the long side in what was supposed to be a trot, but instead he gave the most delicious three strides of slow, powerful, in-hand collected canter like it was the easiest, most natural thing.

I couldn't help but think how right it all felt. It feels so right for Maude to have him right now, to be getting to live her dreams with him, building her breeding program with him, and giving him experiences that I couldn't at home and training that I am not qualified to give (such as harness training, which he has already started in-hand). It really does feel like the stars aligned.

The Canadian dream team

Disco's ribbons

See you in a year, little buddy.

While at the Royal, I wanted to sit in as many saddles as possible, since there are brands there I hardly ever see in my area.  There's only so much you can tell sitting on the barrel horse, but I wanted to see if I liked any of these brands enough to put in the effort to track down a rep that could come out to me.  Even though none of these were winners, I thought it'd be interesting to share anyway.

Devoucoux
# saddles tried: 4
Overall impressions: I spent a half hour talking to a gorgeous French fellow who said Connor had "perfect conformation for saddle fitting" right in front of his breeder, what do you think I thought of it?  😂  On a serious note, they did the best job of selling out of all of the brands I tried.  He had me sit in them with stirrups (no one else did) and tried hard to figure out my preferences.  He also asked for a conformation photo of Connor so that he could figure out which saddles would and wouldn't work for him.

"Is Daniel Radcliffe moonlighting as a Devoucoux rep?  More at 10!"

I tried the Makila S (monoflap Dressage aimed more at eventers), the Makila Lab (deep seat straight flap aimed at Dressage), the Loreak (a model aimed at eventers that they don't make anymore), and the new Makila Harmonie (monoflap with carbon fiber tree aimed at Dressage).


My favorite knee rolls and flap were on the Loreak (RIP), but my favorite seat balance was on the Harmonie.  I've loved carbon fiber trees ever since getting the low-down on them from Mary while she was fitting CWD.  I love the way they conform to and move with the horse, while still retaining the structure that allows them to distribute weight well.  Wood trees just can't move like that.  I remember from watching Mary demo the CWD 2GS how the carbon fiber tree allows the seat to move with each step of the hind legs (it almost twists through the waist with each hind leg movement), and I've drooled over the idea of that in a Dressage saddle ever since.

I also really like where the billets come off of the Devoucoux saddles, on the flap:

Harmonie

Butet
# saddles tried: 3
Overall impressions:  I had a bit of a language barrier at Butet, the guy spoke barely any English, and they also only had massive 18's with long flaps, so it was hard to tell.  Butet has one model of Dressage saddle which is then customized from there.  Since then, I rode in my barnmate's heavily customized Butet and found it to be very nice, but without enough support compared to some other saddles I've tried.  Which, it should be said, is more of a personal preference than anything else.

Can't decide between black or brown tack?  Butet has a solution for you!

So pretty

Antares
# saddles tried: 3
Overall impressions:  This young French Canadian fellow was the most charming and flirtatious out of all of them (you needed to know that, right?  It's very important to saddle fit).


The leather quality on the Antares just could not be beat.  After trying virtually every French saddle brand available last weekend, I feel like I can make that statement confidently: they are the best at leather.  The twists were nice, but they really like their straight flaps, and while I think I could make it work, I found myself still putting Devoucoux ahead of them on the whole.

Bruno Delgrange
# saddles tried: 2
Overall impressions: Like Butet, Bruno Delgrange only has one Dressage saddle model that gets customized from there.  The rep was apologetic, calling themselves a "small company" and they're clearly more focused on the jump saddle market. They were very open to remote fittings, which was nice, but the saddles didn't wow me enough to go to that effort.

I didn't end up with any photos from BDG or Equipe so have some more pictures of the Devoucoux guy

Equipe
# saddles tried: 1
Overall impressions: This rep was nice, but the least thorough out of all of them, and it felt like she wanted to get me out of the booth.  She asked my preferences and what kind of horse I rode, and based on that said "here's your saddle". Oooooooooookay.  They were nice, but I definitely judged the saddles on how uncomfortable the rep made me feel.

No pictures since it ended up being a very brief interaction

The only thing I didn't try?  CWD.  Sorry guys.

The bottom line for me is, all of the French brands feel so similar, and it's not just because I was on a whirlwind saddle sitting tour.  I think you could blindfold me and ask me what nationality a saddle is at this point and I could pick out French vs English in a heartbeat.  Devoucoux was the only one that stood out to me, but it wasn't worth the effort to get my "local" rep out (who lives in VIRGINIA!)

Do you have a significant other who is interested in cars but not horses?  Here's a handy visual translation guide to the vehicles of 200 years ago and the vehicles of today to bridge the gap between your two worlds.

Semi trucks:





Grand touring sedans:







A grand touring sedan with a flat tire:

 






Roadsters:





Box trucks:







Cute little underpowered convertibles that handle well and are aimed at the female driving market:

Do you know what's better than Rolex Land Rover-style shopping?  Land Rover-style shopping where every time you buy something, it shows up on your credit card bill with a 24% discount over what the receipt says you paid, since right now the Canadian dollar is $0.76 USD.

I didn't go as crazy as you might expect, partially since I bought two expensive riding shirts recently, but even I am not cheap enough to pass up the one thing I did buy: a Back on Track mesh sheet in navy, plus the matching neck, plus a BoT jump pad for $174 USD with free shipping to the US.

If you're keeping score at home, that would normally be $347 USD.

The lady told me the price and I stood there silently for a second running the math in my head, and she said, "Come on, that's practically free in USD!" 😂 I'd been wanting a "nice sheet" and a BoT jump pad for a while now, so yeah, at nearly $200 off what I would pay in the US, even Black Friday won't be able to touch that deal.

Here's a photo montage of the more interesting things I saw:

I liked this scoop, especially for getting through frozen sweet feed in the winter

These padded halters were $30 USD

Weatherbeeta blankets

Apparently everyone but me knew these existed, I totally want to try one.  I love the warning label that basically says "You're F'ed the second shavings get on this thing, sorry".

LEMIEUX HAS A COMPLETE MATCHY MATCHY MINIATURE HORSE LINE AND IT'S SO CUTE!

This Schockemohle vest was gorgeous, and thankfully not in my size or else it might have come home with me.

The fabric on this Schockemohle pad was absolutely stunning, almost had a linen look to it.  Those circles were so padded, we thought they might have been memory foam at first.  I want to say it was around $130 USD.

HKM had these stunning pads, with matching breeches and halters

These boots sold out so fast.  That's a rubbery sparkle background behind the perforated shimmery gold outer layer (it didn't photograph well), so I don't think they'll loose their sparkle over time.

I would buy an Antares just to get this platinum gold padded detail on my brown saddle...just saying.

Interesting wool and mesh half pad from Antares, underneath side shown below

It kind of felt like one of those mesh dish scrubbers, and the mesh had quite a bit of structure to it.  I can imagine the airflow would be good, but it also seems like it might be scratchy.

It was so heavy!  So well-constructed!  So swively!

Just look at that noseband.  LOOK AT IT!  IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL!

No seriously, I'm going to make you look at it again

I am not an Ogilvy fan but I know there are a lot of you out there.  The Ogilvy booth was so cute, and really big.

This black and metallic gold saddle pad didn't photograph well, but in real life it was a gorgeous bright yellow gold metallic color that almost-not-quite looked sparkly from far away

I was tempted, but didn't end up pulling the trigger because every normal Dressage pad in the world looks massive on Connor, so I have to be really careful on sizing.

This BR Equestrian Equipment brand was very popular and very cheap.  TONS of matchy matchy sets in literally dozens of colors.  The matchy matchy pads were $30 USD.  They also were definitely doing some copyright infringement on some US brands though, so take that for what you will.  They had a knockoff of the SSG 10 Below gloves that were so visually accurate, you couldn't tell them apart if you hid the logo.

This navy Samshield shirt, which I'm pretty sure I've seen in the US, but not in person before.  It was ridiculously beautiful.

Tomorrow, saddles!