Cob Jockey

I was a little surprised to discover that I've never reviewed HalterTags.com before.  From my very first order for his halter nameplate when I first got Connor, it's the only place I've ordered tags, and I've ordered from them five times since 2011.

I think I've replaced this nameplate three times, but it really doesn't matter when it only costs $5.95!

I always like to find products that are the perfect blend of affordable and high quality, and HalterTags.com absolutely nails that.  Their slogan is "We engrave it deeper...CHEAPER!"  and it's SO true.


I've compared it to other tags on my barnmates gear, and a lot of their plates (I'm looking at you, SmartPak) just don't look as luxurious or carefully crafted as the HalterTags stuff.  Plus they cost, on average, over twice as much.

Seriously, that's some quality craftsmanship. In order from top to bottom: Longer Horse Halter Plate Saddle Plate x2 Belt plate

My first couple of orders in 2012 and 2013 took a REALLY long time to get to me (like 6-7 weeks) and I would just like to publicly say THAT IS NOT THE CASE ANYMORE!  They tell you that all orders are custom made and could take some time to get to you, but 6-7 weeks was not normal.  I reached out to them for an update and quickly got a note back that they had some family health crises going on each time, and then got my order shortly after that.  It IS a small business after all.


That said, I still thought the products and price were worth the wait, so I stuck it out.  Cathryn's Secret Santa present was my fifth order, and I was shocked when they were at my door under a week from when I placed the order.  Nice work, HalterTags!

Cathryn's Halter Tags present - this is actually the Toy Dog Collar nameplate!  Love mini tack!

I have now ordered the following products from them, some multiple times:
Longer Pony Halter Plate - $5.95
Halter Nameplate Longer Horse Size - $5.95
Lead Shank Plate - $5.95
Dog Tag - $5.95
Blanket/Bridle Tags - $5.95
Belt Nameplate - $5.95
Saddle Nameplate - $5.95
Toy Dog Sized Collar Plate - $5.95 (You have to visit the website for this one, the example plate for a toy dog says "Cujo".  Hahaha)

And, shipping is super reasonable (For example, the order above with the horse halter plate, belt plate and two saddle plates was $3.75 to ship).

This is not a company I'm an ambassador for, they did not ask me to write this review and they've never given me anything.  It's just a company I really respect for having great products at half the price of a big box retailer, and it's nice share that with you guys.

Anyone else ordered from Halter Tags?  Thoughts?

Remember this?

How could you forget, I posted this on Tuesday.

And this?

The horse, not my mom, but this picture is awesome.

Turns out Louie's owner Anna has been hunting for a Dressage saddle for a long time too.  And it turns out my new Devoucoux is her and Louie's unicorn.  It's best-yet-but-still-not-perfect-but-fine-with-a-half-pad on Connor, but it's perfect on Louie.  And with the two of us being the same height and about the same weight, it fits both riders perfectly.  I told her to give it a try, I had a feeling that would be the case after I saw it.

But!

I am both unwilling to deny a friend an amazingly priced Devoucoux unicorn magically dropping into her lap and hoping for at least a six month break from saddle shopping for myself.  So Anna and I made a deal that she will pay me half of what I paid for it and we would share it until Rolex, when I hope to march into the vendor village and march out with an honest-to-god-fits-us-both Dressage saddle.  And then she'll buy out my half when I buy a new saddle.

Anna and Louie at our February 2016 schooling show.  A few hours after this picture was taken we all almost died in a freak snowstorm and then unexpectedly stayed the night with a fellow eventer because we couldn't make it home in the snow.  Let's just say me and Anna bonded that night!

It's great for both of us.  We almost never ride at the same time, and if we do, we both have jump saddles to fall back on.  And between what I made off my Thorowgood and what she's going to pay me, I will be at precisely $0 spent on the Devoucoux.  There may be something to this French backs thing, since Louie's jump saddle is an Antares, Connor's is a CWD, and the Dressage saddle that fits them both best is a Devoucoux.

Now that we're sharing it I may have to rethink the whole "French bachelor" analogy...

So how has the saddle ridden?

In a word, amazing.

But although being a CWD makes this saddle amazing, this is more a review of having a properly fitted saddle than of having a CWD.  So I hope you keep that in mind when you read it.

This is what my lower leg looked like in the event that we won last year:


I know that's pretty bad, and it's not all the saddle's fault, but looking back on it now, my lower leg is precisely following the front and rear blocks of that saddle.

More obvious example of block-following here, you can see both blocks clearly.

Observation #2: The Toulouse was pretty easy to do Dressage in, because it held my pelvis upright - and I mean REALLY held my pelvis upright.  On the flip side, that made it pretty hard to close my hip angle over fences:

I just want to push my hips back in every jumping picture.

I called Mary after I first rode in it, gushing about how my lower leg didn't move, felt like it couldn't move, at every gait.  And about how much sense it made when I jumped that first tiny crossrail - I was rock solid.  And about how it felt like a glove cradling my butt.  And about how my trainer remarked that my leg looked "snuggled in" to the exact right position.

"Well, you've probably never had a saddle that fit you before.  That's what it's supposed to feel like.

I thought about that in my next few rides.  My leg is staying underneath me now, I feel so stable over fences.  It doesn't take a ton of effort to keep it there.  By no means did it solve all of my position problems, but it made it 75% easier to fix them.  How many hours of lessons did I spend in that last saddle, which was the right seat size but too long in the flap, trying to fix something that wasn't entirely my fault?

Snuggled.  I am in desperate need of pictures of me on my horse in this saddle.  EquiNovice, I'm giving you a call as soon as it's a suitable temperature for humans outside!

I've never been one to blame equipment for my problems, even though I know it makes a difference.  I still won't, but I know what it feels like now to have your tack working with you instead of against you.

One final thought from a short person: I've always thought that flap length didn't matter as much in jump saddles, but mattered a lot in Dressage saddles.  I've told several people that I knew I needed to hold out for a custom Dressage saddle, since I need a short flap for sure in those, but that an off-the-rack jump saddle was fine.  I think these last two saddles have taught me that it actually does matter, and that I do need a short flap in both.

The shortest flap CWD makes.

The moral of the story is, never compromise on fit, and actually having a saddle fitter fit you is worth the money (I had never done that before).

 You asked for more saddle spam, and I can deliver.  Sorry about the flapping billet straps in an otherwise aesthetically pleasing photo, totally forgot to do them up:

That shade of blue is totally his color, at least in winter when he's clipped.  Thanks for the Christmas present, mom!

You guys would probably laugh to see me handle this saddle.  I am so afraid of hurting it.  I tend to be accidentally hard on things like saddles, so I'm being hyper aware of myself when I handle it.  The stirrups are down in that photo because until I get stirrup covers, I am putting them on and taking them off for each ride, and not running them up ever.  I also throw myself off Connor like a gymnast at the end of each ride so my vest's zipper doesn't scratch it.  Thank goodness I own a pony.

Mary says I'm being ridiculous, because they wouldn't put calf on a saddle if it wasn't also durable, plus the previous owner rode multiple horses a day in it for 18 months and it still looks weirdly new.  My Toulouse was in worse condition after riding one horse four times a week for 18 months.

I did finally leave it in our tack room overnight last night.  Baby steps.

I couldn't sleep Saturday night in the hotel.  Not only was I on pins and needles about whether the saddle would fit Connor, I kept having nightmares that the saddle was stolen out of my car in the parking lot.  Nevermind the fact that Mary's car with 20 CWD saddles in it was parked right next to mine.  Thanks, brain.

After an agonizing 5 hour drive, it was time to see if it fit:

Panels make perfect contact with his back all the way back with no bridging...

I can see daylight through the channel, as Mary said I should... Also, that's my awesome Sunday stall replacement in the background.

So after several rounds of photos, Mary declared the fit "FREAKIN PERFECT!!!!!!!!!!" (Her words).



My first ride was unbelievable, and really opened my eyes to what my old saddle was doing to my position - but that's a subject for a post later on this week, after I've really had a chance to test it over fences.  This is definitely not a flat saddle!

Mary, hard at work.

I think  I should have titled yesterday's post "Speechless Saturday," because Mary really left me speechless.


She found a CWD box and packaged it up like it was a new CWD arriving from France so I could experience opening it.


She also said "many things magically came together this week" in order for her to give me some extras that I did not know were coming - everything someone would get with a new CWD, and then some.

Their saddle covers are designed to be ridden in if necessary, and have a zippered cell phone pocket on the back.

Also in the box was CWD's tack cleaning kit, a soft shell jacket, a bunch of CWD iron-on patches, and 48" half hole leathers.  After spending two years fighting the Toulouse leathers, which are so hard to use I always had to get off to adjust my stirrups, I just about cried when I felt the quality of leather in my hands, and when they slid easily onto the stirrup bars.

CWD dork photo, with all of the things Mary gave me.

I don't think I can even begin to tell you what touching this saddle feels like.  I've never really been up close and personal with a CWD before - they're incredible.  The workmanship is evident from the moment you lay your hands on it, and when you really get to know the engineering and science behind them, you're even more in awe - but that's a post for another day.  Mary did a sweet video for you guys that I'll post later this week.

Now for a 5 hour drive to the barn for my test ride.  It's going to be a long drive!

Mary sent me a text last night: "guess what guess what guess what".  I called her immediately.

"I have your saddle in my possession!"  I squeaked with excitement.

"I want to touch it! I want you to describe it to me in so much detail it feels like I'm touching it,"  I said.  From the other end of the house, my husband jokingly yelled that we needed to get a room.

"How about a haiku?" Mary said.

"Chocolate calf leather
Cross-country nirvana bliss
CWD heaven"

She wouldn't send me pictures until she had done a professional strip, clean (with a toothpick, she said, and I believe her) and condition, so I had to wait until this morning, when I woke up to these:





Eeeeeeeee!  It's even better looking with better pictures, and I have details.  16.5", 2013 model SE02, and a short/forward 1C flap.  Full calf.  Havana, but oiled to look nearly black.  The shiny splotches are from the previous owner (a teenage girl showing H/J on the weekends in Florida) using something like Sadl-Tite on it, but I am told they will fade over time.

I'm driving up Saturday morning, spending the day in the CWD booth at a H/J show with Mary, then driving back with saddle on Sunday, and of course making the obligatory stop at the barn on the way home with it.  And crossing my fingers it fits him.  Odds are good, since I'm working with someone who has ridden him/knows both of us, but I won't know til I know.

Well, my December goals are pretty easy!  I am now saddleless!


I had unofficially accepted a lower offer only on the condition that the auction ended without a bid, like it seemed it would for the second time in a row, but someone bid at the last second and it sold for full price. *happydance*

The buyer's in for a cruel surprise, the box is a liar.  There's no County in there.  Also, Christmas decorations!

So December goals are:

1. Get good at riding bareback
2. Continue to train hard while riding bareback - because let's face it, my natural inclination when on a warm fuzzy  not fuzzy! pony in sub-freezing temperatures will be to toodle around with a quarter sheet for a while and then get off.
3. Don't fall off in the arena.
4. Don't fall off on the trails.
5. I still haven't fallen off of this pony yet - don't fall off anywhere.

The real question is, am I going to get bored enough by the end of January to attempt bareback poles/cavaletti/jumping?  And, is our two month stint without a saddle going to seriously put our training back?  What are we going to look like after I'm not able to brace against one stirrup or the other?  There are positives and negatives to riding bareback, but having a CWD that fits that my best friend can work on for me outweighs all of the negatives.

Patience...!

Guys.  Through a series of pretty much miracles, I should be the owner of a CWD in January.  OMG!

I have been told that Mary's cell phone camera does not do it justice, and that it is nearly black all the way around.

On Tuesday, Mary and I had a 2 hour phone conversation in which we hashed out my saddle fitting problems: current saddle's flap is no longer appropriate, horse and rider are collectively unique sizes, no money for custom/new right now.  Our final solution was for me to buy something cheap but with resale value with a forward flap now (Circuit, HDR, etc) and start saving for a custom CWD simultaneously, with the goal of buying custom/new in a year or two.

Then.

On Thursday.

I get this text: "So...Um...I just had an interesting saddle development.  In your and Connor's exact size."

Tell me more.

She had sold a new CWD that day to a family that didn't want the old one anymore, and would be trading in their old one in January when the new one came in.

16.5" seat.  Wide tree.  Pro panels.  Short flap, forward flap.   Shoulder opening cut for a laidback shouldered dude.  Actually, it was owned by a small person/child and built for riding ponies.  "Unicorn saddles," they call them in the saddle industry.  Finding everything you want in a used saddle.


With the discount, it's also at an unheard of price for something with pro panels.  I have three months to sell my saddle and other tack, and ask for saddle money for a Christmas present.  Ready, go!

(Who wants to order some saddle fund homemade sea salt caramels?!)

Goodbye, ugly saddle.

I've been doing some spring cleaning lately and selling stuff I no longer use, horse stuff included.  I tend to not keep any spare equipment that I'm not using on-hand (it almost feels like blasphemy in the horse world saying that!) so I don't really have a lot to sell in the first place.  Also, I promise this isn't related to the fact that we found out our hot water heater is cracked and needs replacing and we also had to have our sewer line worked on, but it certainly has motivated me...

The tale of the saddle in such bad shape (superficially speaking) I hid it from my trainer for two years has finally ended.  Knowing Connor didn't like it even though it appeared to fit made me decide to get rid of it.  It was only on Craigslist for 10 hours before it sold to a young woman wanting it for her 4Hers. I hope it goes to good use and some 4Hers learn to ride well in it.  Sitting in the thing feels like wearing a seatbelt, at least they'll feel safe!  It's time for me to move on to more sport-appropriate tack, which is why I'm also selling my Western saddle:

It's no show saddle, but it's the comfiest thing I've ever sat in for trail riding and general use.  I really love it, and I kept it thinking I'd trail ride in it, but every time I trail ride I find myself reaching for my English saddles first, so it's going on Craigslist as well unless anyone here is interested.

I am also listing the following on Craigslist tonight unless you guys are interested:

- Size 6 Mountain Horse paddock boots, top of one of them was chewed on by a delinquent foster Husky, but they are still in fine working condition, I just prefer my new insulated tall boots, free
- Red Jolly Ball, never used, gift from my non-horsey mother-in-law, make offer? (We all know horses don't actually play with these things, right? I don't expect anyone to buy it.)
- 5 1/4" copper-mouthed D ring snaffle, single jointed, $5
- 5 1/2" thin eggbutt snaffle, single jointed $5
- 5 1/2" Partrade (Metalab) Kimberwicke snaffle with curb chain, single jointed $10

Photos available if requested!

I finally bought the Stackhouse after keeping it on my Watch List for a month.  Maybe it was feeling like I deserved the extra $170 it was over the selling price of the Beval, maybe I am feeling a bit jilted over the Collegiate drama, or maybe it was the two new photos the seller added that made me feel like it wasn't as much of a fit crapshoot as I initially thought.  One way or another, I ended up with a saddle that has the potential to stick with us for quite a while if it fits as well as I think it does, given that it's better quality than I really deserved in my price range and in very good condition.

Now let's just hope this seller actually has something to sell.

Well, hopefully the saddle saga is over for now.  The Beval sold (for $30 more than I paid for it after a few folks got into a bidding war), and I've been watching eBay like a hawk for saddles in our size range.  For the past week, I've been watching a gorgeous Stackhouse with a starting bid of $699 (low, low, low for that quality of saddle) and a Collegiate, owned by a fellow Cob owner, for $375.

I went back and forth for a while, but in the end decided that, especially given our current muscle-balancing and back strength-building exercises, I needed to stick with the cheaper option, knowing that it may only fit for a few months.  I was also persuaded by the fact that I currently have him going in a Collegiate of the same size, width and gullet, so I was reasonably certain that this will fit, whereas the Stackhouse was a bit of a crap shoot.

So, as much as I don't like the yellow panels or color of the leather (I'm much more of a dark havana girl on Connor's shade of chestnut), this fellow is coming home to me:


Fingers crossed!

Contender's blanket came in yesterday, and of course I drove the hour and a half round trip in the snow to bring it to him!  I completely guessed at sizes for all of his tack, and this is how I fared:

- Bridle, size cob: perfect fit, minus the browband which seems a bit tight

- Blanket, size 69: good enough, maybe an inch or two big (Yay, we can wear pony blankets!).  Looks long on his legs to me, but I'm not used to blanketing a Cob.

- Girth, size 40: absolutely the right size

- Saddle, 16.5", M/W tree, purchased over a year ago:  perfect fit for both of us!  This is the most unbelievable sizing, for sure.

- Woofwear boots, a gift, brand new, by the assistant trainer at my barn who bought them for her horse and they didn't fit, size medium: perfect fit

Despite asserting that I'd rather spend more to buy something once than buy it cheaply once and then replace it later, I did have to buy a used blanket (Ebay!) and a new, but cheaply made, bridle.  The blanket will get us through until I have the funds to buy a good one (it's a waterproof Weatherbeeta medium weight), and the bridle, well, all it has to do is stay on his head. I hate to be that guy, but I also need to keep the horse costs down initially so Nick doesn't get nervous.

Essential tack still to be purchased: cooler, heavyweight blanket.  Anyone have anything used?

I headed out for another impromptu trip to Cincinnati this weekend (which included a trip to The Tack Trunk, omg!) and had a rematch with Bella the Wonder Pony, but this time we took it outside.  It was a beautiful spring day, and besides, there was a herd of Brownies (the Girl Scout kind) in the barn doing their pony merit badge, so we needed to make ourselves scarce.

I found out just before I got on that Bella has been sold and was leaving the barn soon.  And by "sold", I mean they gave her away to an area trainer, ostensibly as a prospective flip.  After my last two rides, I would have chuckled at the idea of her ever being good for anything, but I have to say, today's ride changed that.

She still tried to walk off when we mounted, but didn't try to squirt out from under me.  She still was rushy and blowing through my aids, but she came back to me after she blew off some steam.  With lots of voice and steady aids, she actually calmed down through the course of the ride.

The best part, though, was taking her over this little exercise that someone had left in the arena.  There were three ground poles, then about a two stride to a partially dismantled jump that had a ground line and a pole leaning on one standard.  It was perfect, because I didn't know if she actually jumped and my jumping confidence, especially on unknown horses, is, well...low.  But I was pleasantly surprised when she willingly went through it and popped a teeny tiny little jump over the last "fence".  So smooth, so quiet!  We trotted in and cantered out on the correct lead, and I was extremely impressed with the little devil.  She appeared to enjoy it, and we did it several more times without incident.

Afterward, we hacked out around the Dressage arena, and despite the fact that she had never hacked out before to anyone's knowledge (or even been ridden in the outdoor before!) she did very well.  She was a little nervous, but clearly has developed some trust in me and was submissive despite her constantly swiveling ears.  All in all, it was a fantastic last ride on Bella the Wonder Pony.  Now Austen has to find something else as exciting for me to ride next time I come out there.

The other nice thing about today was riding in my saddle again!  I forget how nice it is to sit in something that actually fits me and my leg properly (16" seat), when nearly all of the saddles I've ever ridden in for lessons and shows are too big for me.  Its medium-wide tree is perfect for cobs and ponies, which are my preferred mounts, but doesn't fit shark-finned Thoroughbreds so well, so it will have to stay unused for a while.

I did forget, though, how Bevals are not meant to actually be sat on - that seat felt like concrete after riding only in Dressage saddles for so long!

The time finally came: I bought a saddle.  I had a saddle already, but I say " like Nick and I "have" a steak knife.  We have a single old knife that sort of gets the job done, isn't very pretty, and isn't even meant to be doing what we're doing with it, but it's all we have.  Likewise, my good old Collegiate that I way overpaid on in 2006 wasn't going to cut it on the backs of some of the nicest horses in southern Indiana - aesthetics aside, it fit shark-finned Thoroughbreds pretty well, and wouldn't have fit on roly-poly Cob backs at all.

So I went hunting on Ebay, and found a beautiful 16" Beval CC saddle, approximately 5 or 6 years old.  It had been kept indoors and they'd taken wonderful care of it, just outgrown it.  And with it being a Beval, it's of such quality that it will just keep going for decades with good care.  I was nervous buying a saddle off of the Internet, but I bit it and purchased it for $575.  (I found a Craigslist ad for the same saddle, girl had wanted $750 out of it but I was the only bidder.)

It ended up fitting Aviator perfectly, and he's a pretty cobby-Cob.  It fit his brothers and sisters just fine with a fluffy pad, too, so I think it will be fairly versatile.  But what really made me happy was how well it fit me.  It's no secret: I'm tiny.  I'm 5'0, and my femurs are short.  I've gotten really good at riding in whatever comes my way, thank you college and the IHSA, but most saddle are either too big for me in the seat or too long in the flap/cut, and they end up putting me in a chair seat and making me lose my effective communication with the horse.  I got none of that with this saddle.  It fits me like it was made for me, and the padding and knee rolls are so minimal, I felt like I was sitting on the horse.  In short, it was one of the best purchases I've ever made.  And now I am poor.