If it fits, we sits.

Bailey and Foxie saw the saddle fitter last week Monday, and I was super pleased with the results. Unlike last time, this fitter didn't try to sell me anything and did tons of fantastic work for a very reasonable price. I had her look at both my Classic Saddlery dressage saddle and my Courbette Vision, and she kindly looked at the fit of the saddles on Foxie as well as Bailey. She also (out of curiosity) flexed and looked over my two Philippe Fontaine saddles.

The Vision fits both horses really well and the fitter was super happy with it after adding some additional wool and fixing some lumpiness, she suspected, that was created by the previous fitter. The Classic fits Bailey well enough, but rocks too much on Foxie. It isn't perfect, but the fitter felt with some more muscle development and bulk (and evening out Bailey's larger left shoulder) we should be able to remove the shims from my Thinline pad and work out a better fit. The Classic isn't too long for Bailey (sigh of relief!) and the main goal is to get it sitting on her back better rather than lifting in the back. 

After my fitting appointment, I took Bailey out for a quick jump school on the XC fences... and she was a Beast. Despite forgetting my crop, she jumped everything super willingly (except the Novice picnic table that had some flowers and ferns sitting on it - we only got that one direction successfully) and felt really awesome. I adjusted my back blocks up higher on the velcro and between that and the improved  balance of the saddle post fitter, I think my leg sliding rear block killing problem to be a thing of the past.

Wednesday last week, we did some dressage and I noticed both that day and Saturday that my half pad was sitting crooked when I was pretty sure I started the ride with it straight. Both days were obedient, if nothing life changing. I still like the balance of that saddle and find it super comfortable, and Bailey doesn't seem to mind it. On Saturday, S, who own's Bailey's mom, Cali, was at the farm riding in the Dom Schramm clinic. I handed her the reins and had a lot of fun watching her put Bailey through her paces and hear how she compared to her mom. Bailey is sweeter and more compliant than Cali, but also is kind of sassy - but in "slow motion" which is quite funny when you think about it. Cali is 50/50 WB/TB and Bailey is 3/4 TB - technically she should be the hotter, more forward horse, but she's not. 

Monday this week Bailey put in a brilliant jump school thanks to our friend Lindsey (and the adorable Ollie) who came and jump crewed for us. Bailey was generally good and forward, and we got most of our distances. I buried her once, and we had some wiggles to the last fence of lines, but generally she jumped clean and did so happily. I was very happy with her - the fences were larger than I would have set for myself and she jumped them with ease. 

Yesterday, though, was a grass growing but also exciting day...

I took Foxie out for a long trot, which of course involved her taking off with me a bit. After having some major pain related protests to the farrier on Monday, I felt like it was time to start rebuilding her topline more seriously to counteract any soreness, while also resolving to Bute her before her next farrier visit. She came back in off of a canter to a long trot in frame, and was barely puffing. That fact in of itself made life so much less stressful - she's finally acting like the Foxie I know, and not the sweating, puffing mess she was this summer. 

I don't usually ride Bailey second, and I think it's still not the best for me to give her the ride she wants. With Foxie, the contact is heavier and steadier, and when I ride Bailey second I go looking for that and end up riding her sucked back behind the vertical. I worked on getting her soft and walking forward, and while the trot had some struggles (we were in the small indoor and there were people doing lots of canter-halt-turn on the haunches type moves) I was generally happy with her. She wasn't brilliant, but she wasn't bad or disobedient in any way. 

Her canter, however, turned into something really cool; I don't know how I found it, but I managed to get myself into a position and was able to half halt her into a really nice, sitting canter. There was a lot of power there and it felt much more like the back-to-front ride I've been looking to find forever. I see lots of collection work in our future, because I want to harness that power and see what that can do for us over fences. Apparently now that the saddle fits and I actually work in said saddle, we can do cool things like sit at the canter vs loping around like a show hunter. 

Looking towards the weekend, I'm stuck between wanting to go play on the new XC fences and doing some dressage work. Maybe we'll do a flatwork session and then do a few XC fences to make a compromise; I keep reading about how your warm up changes your jumping, and I think we could definitely use some improvements across both. 

Turn Out

This summer has been a weird one for me - no showing, no schooling (off property) and no lessons. I'm basically a wild person who does things with no direction or goal. With Riders4Helmets coming up this weekend, and having recently discovered that BOTH of my Tipperary helmets are way over due for a replacement, I'm trying to fit my helmet taste into my current and future riding schedule.

Helmets didn't used to matter, back when I was jumping scary huge things and falling off a lot...

I've had a "Show" helmet designated for several years now. For a while, it was an IRH that ended up giving me awful headaches. I generally schooled in a Troxel, and from there, discovered Tipperary. And I've been loving Tipperary things for many-a-year. However, they've discontinued their Skull Cap, which robs me of my obvious choice of helmet; I've had a Sportage for hot weather, a Skull Cap for XC and have used my "show" CO JR8 for dressage and show jumping for the last couple of years. I've always had a "pretty" helmet that wasn't very rider-friendly, temperature wise, and would default back to the Tipperary Sportage if it was hot. I'd rather get around XC in the saddle than get some sort of heat related malady from wearing a "nice" helmet for the photos. 

Despite the smile, this helmet was squeezing my brain into a migraine. I show jumped in my Skull Cap.

I dearly love my Tipperary Titan. I do. But it's old. And it's hard to find a replacement, especially when local tack stores (of which there aren't tons to begin with) don't generally carry skull caps. And since no one on the internet seems to be willing to actually say, "Skull Cap 4 fits like Blah other helmet in our line minus the brim, obviously" it makes life hard. Ugh. Plus, I looked damn cute in my Tipperary Titan:

Despite reservations, I did try on a One K Defender at the tack shop last weekend... and while I'm not making an all star face, I didn't hate it the minute it went on my head...

Perhaps I need to go a bit selfie crazy and try on all of the helmets I have, now, to compare. I have a list of wants (washable liner being paramount) and, so far, the One K is hitting all of them. I just wish I could try it on (and then run through the store/house to test the ventilation) before buying... but I guess there's always a return policy! I feel bad wanting a $160 helmet when I could buy a $60 Tipperary Sportage, but I'm such a sucker for my covers... and the look... and ____ that it's hard to not want the skull cap. 

How do you feel about helmets? Are you loyal to one brand? Does anyone else have helmet related anxiety after purchasing something that really doesn't fit?

Big Fat Face

Bailey normally has a pretty big ego, in my opinion.

She's darn good looking, after all

However, she's not supposed to have an actual FAT face. Not normal at all, yet that's what greeted me at turn in time on Monday, approximately 1.5 hours after I had decided to skip the barn and hang out with my husband instead.

I, of course, hopped right in the car to drive up to investigate. I arrived, got about 6 or 8 benadryl into her swollen little face and took her out to do some cold hosing:

So yeah, Her face was really, really swollen. It almost looked like her cheek was swollen into her mouth, but I couldn't really get her to open her mouth to confirm. The cold hosing didn't seem to help, and the benadryl didn't have a magical instantaneous effect, so I set up some days of pills for her and once I had confirmed she was able to eat and drink (and breathe) I headed home. Not much you can do, I guess.

Barn friend J checked on her last night, and while she looked swollen, it looked like it had maybe gone down. I get to check on her tonight, and hopefully will fit a ride in on Foxie before I have to leave to meet up with someone who is buying a saddle from me. 

Our last ride before the great fat face escapade of 2016 (as I'm calling it) was pretty sub-par. We jumped around at sub-2'11 and it just wasn't... special. I'm a bit disappointed I don't have media, because I had a camera person there... but also I don't know if I want to see us sucking. The ride itself wasn't hard, but it wasn't easy, either. She wasn't in my hand, and I had the feeling that we were moving very slowly while also not feeling in control of the idiot's feet. Foxie was lunging like a beast with the husband while I jumped, and it just.. wasn't amazing. I think we're going to do dressage again until I feel like jumping - we aren't competing, so I don't NEED to jump her. And I've been enjoying our dressage rides. Once we get the face deflated, we will work on getting the B back in good muscle and, hopefully, hear from the saddle fitter about an appointment. 

Cross your fingers for a deflated face so B and I can get back to work!

Werk Werk Werk

Both mares have been working pretty steadily since my last post. 

I've jumped once since the velcro-back-block near disaster, and honestly... I don't love my saddle as much without the back blocks. How do I keep those suckers from popping off? I'm thinking I may have them sewn into a larger, vecro-ey piece of leather, but I'm also wondering where the heck they're supposed to sit, because maybe that's the problem. Bailey jumped pretty nicely around lots of XC, and again the big questions that we struggled so hard with at Dom got easier. I just felt like a loose noodle of a rider, so I'm adding the blocks to my large list of things to think about.

The mares are enjoying their turn out time together, and I'm enjoying the fact that they seem happy and like they like eachother:

I'm still a little annoyed that they don't always seem to be getting the hay that they need, but they're both doing better than they were. Bailey is no longer getting injured, Foxie is no longer getting chased away from the food. Now, to get all barn hands (including the teenagers) on board with the 3 flakes each on both ends of the day. 6 flakes a day is mathing at the base end of their forage needs, so I need to work out if I can add something like... alf pellets? Or hang nets with additional hay that I refresh? To get their intake up a bit further. 

In other news, I'm seriously enjoying my dressage rides right now, on both mares. Bailey had some time off last week and came back on Friday with surprisingly little argument. I am still getting distracted by saddle fit problems, but got permission from my husband to finally call a freaking saddle fitter, and I'm hoping she works me into her schedule soon. Despite my legitimate concerns about the dressage saddle, Bailey's been going like a total trooper lately, and I'm really enjoying the changes from beginning of ride to end of ride. I felt some big changes in Bailey's way of going last night - we actually seemed to have a bit of collection at the canter and I felt like she was squatting and stepping wide, which was AWESOME to feel and I hope it was actually happening. 

She's been doing some super annoying interfering up front in her open front boots that is bothering me - is it because she's uncomfortable in the saddle? Or is it that she's really pretty narrow conformationally? Or are those boots just sticking out enough that they catch on each other and she doesn't actually interfere?

Who knows. 

Last night I spent some time working with my saddle fit again - I almost felt like my saddle was getting wider every time I rode in it and while I don't think the Wellep tree is stripped. I cranked it substantially in and managed to find some wither clearance back. I think the problem is that the point billet really does pull it down in front... which means I need to find a happy medium of tight girth and tree size to keep the saddle even and comfortable for the B. Cross your fingers that my saddle fitter comes soon, though, because lord knows I'm not one. 

All in all? We're doing stuff. Nothing is too exciting. But I'm hoping we can get in enough work to take some dressage lessons before the snow flies. I want to go see my trainer!