Billets and Snow

We're having a colossally snowy winter this year. Over in Wisconsin, at the farm where Arya and I went to ride (ok, groundwork) with Tik Maynard, their indoor's roof fell in from the fiendish combination of a day of rain on existing snow plus ten new inches added quickly on. Luckily no one was hurt (except, perhaps, the chickens, but one has been found!) and roofs at my house are looking pretty decent thanks to the 40 mph winds we enjoyed for a day and a half last week. I feel like all I do is shovel out my barn doors and the path I take to the barn, especially if it's been windy, but we are managing.

I'm not totally sure how deep the snow can get before I shouldn't ride in it, but the horses still choose to bomb around the pasture, so I've been fitting in short rides with Bailey and continue to groundwork Arya. We've had a lot of positive progress; I've had a few really magical nights when I go out to catch Arya and Bailey for turn in and Arya will approach, stop about 12-15 feet away (which is the length of the rope I've been using for ground work, give or take) and I can use the same cue with my body that I use on the line to invite her into my space, and she walks up to be caught. It's a pretty tingly experience! 

We do still have bad days or nights; usually if there is a lot of snowmobile traffic, and still have a few minutes of discussion during daylight hours, but that's all it is. We discuss, for 10 minutes or less, depending on how fresh she is. If she's fresh, she and Bailey do some galloping away and back from me kicking and being dorks, but I don't walk after them at this point, because Arya comes right back towards me. In her groundwork we're focusing on softening to light pressure on her face, moving the front and back feet and crossing over/disengaging the hind while still retaining a respectful space around me. She's a good learner and seems to really enjoy being in my space when she's allowed (it probably helps that I massage her tight poll and behind her ears). 

Bailey has been lovely and stretchy during our rides, and seems to like the myler loose ring I finally got onto her bridle. I'm hoping Arya likes it, too, once we start working with tack again. I also finally replaced my dressage girth; I'd been using Arya's for Bailey, which was fine, but I really prefer to have her in shoulder relief girths just based on how she's shaped. We had a 28" that I sold when we got a different saddle that it didn't work with, and bought a 26". When I sold the 26" I wasn't going to get another TSF; the 26" gapped pretty badly, putting pressure on only a small part of her belly. I could fit my whole hand in the gap without making it wider. I broke down and got another TSF, but a 28" again, and in the synthetic. It fits really well and I am always a fan of less leather to clean, so I am very happy with the purchase (plus it was a steal!). 

I still intend to send my dressage saddle to have it's tree stretched, but I will be able to get the billets re-done locally; due to my partnership with a local fitter, I can get billets redone in trade for work I've already done for her. This is super exciting to me, and I'm all ready to get the dressage saddle to her. I want to redo the Courbette Galant's billets as well (and she is going to do both eventually) but I can't decide how to redo them.

So I ask, blogger friends, would you put long billets on a "normal" jump saddle? 

I've had problems with both of my jump saddles and buckles digging into my leg so I am very tempted, and both horses have a good wither and I don't have problems with lateral slippage. Is there a reason not to put long billets on a double flap saddle? I'd love your opinions!

Walking Her Down

I had a moment of serendipity last week, when right before I went out to do chores, I was reading one of my Richard Maxwell books that just had arrived and I ran into the "what to do if your horse does x" list. And one of those items is "What to do if your horse is hard to catch".

Arya has been off and on hard to catch for most of her time with me. It has gotten worse, especially lately, and tends to coincide with her being difficult or impossible to ride. The respect is totally gone when she's like this, and translates to both on the ground and under saddle work. So instead of opening the gate and letting the girls run in and out like I have been, I've been walking them in and out, and requiring Arya to be caught every night. This weekend was a long holiday weekend for me, so I not only got to do more horsing than usual, I also had three solid days (make that four, with today) of being able to catch Arya multiple times.

Angry, sweaty, steaming horse

It seems like her moods come in waves: the first night, she hooted and hollered around bucking, kicking and leaping for probably forty-five minutes before she abruptly stood and let me walk up to her. She then didn't want to lead, and got groundworked heavily all the way into the barn because we don't refuse to walk nor do we run over the human. NOT OKAY.

The next night involved less running (thankfully, as she had sweated up both her liner and blanket and had to stand with a cooler on for half an hour the previous night) and more of her power walking away from me looking stressed before she relented. The rest of the week, she seemed to have figured it out. It took 10, 15 minutes, tops, to catch her for dinner, instead of the protracted 45 minute affair. And then on Saturday, she decided to revert (also, catching her during daylight is TOTALLY DIFFERENT, in her mind) and ran around a whole bunch. She played and galloped and bucked a ton, and actually spooked Bailey through the fence with her kicking antics. Bailey. luckily is totally fine, as her blanket took the rope burn, and lucky for me, that blanket is a Smartpak Ultimate, so it's replaceable now that it has a hole.

After my first catch Saturday, I worked the naughty horse on the ground, and put her back out. And caught her again much more easily that evening. Sunday, I caught her at least twice, if not three times. And yesterday, another two. And today, by accident, she got another two good catches.

Today's catches were easy; the first one involved less than a minute walking away from me, and absolutely no shenanigans once being led, and the second (shockingly, because she'd been turned out less than 30 minutes before because my farrier was late) was effortless.

I'm trying to think up what I want to tackle next with her, as the catching item seems to be becoming more consistent; her groundwork has continued to be wholly obedient and respectful. I have, in the sessions I do quickly once catching her (mostly because I feel like I have to do something with her when I catch her, or she could fall back on her old trick of allowing herself to be caught and then acting shocked and being a pill when you try to lead her anywhere) started to focus on yielding her poll and to the sides, and on stepping under and disengaging the hind end. This has been improving, as, slowly, have her manners in her stall. She still isn't trustworthy loose when I'm in her stall, but she is starting to figure it out.

On other fronts, I don't think I am going to continue with the SmartTranqulity supplement. Despite my great hopes, it really seems to be the work, and not the supplement, that is making a difference. I do still wonder if I should try Smart Mare Harmony, just because a friend with a similarly smart-but-anxious mare had great results with it, but haven't made up my mind. I had some hope it would help, but she doesn't seem any less reactive to the sounds and situations that tend to set her off, and she definitely isn't lacking in energy to run around and/or scare her sister through the damn fence (it wasn't electrified but now it is. Hopefully that deters any attempts at freedom). I didn't expect it to knock her on her ass like sedation, but I was hoping for a more relaxed demeanor than I am seeing. If she gets worse once the paks run out, I might change my mind, but for now, I'm going to skip the extra cost and try to keep feeding relatively simple without a lot of extras.

On the Bailey front, we've been riding, and she gets very confused and stands behind me while Arya runs in circles around us on her bad catch days. She's a good girl, but she also gets hard to catch if her sister is being a shit, so hopefully the time I'm putting into walking Arya down (and the energy - walking through super deep snow is exhausting!) will benefit both horses.

Still Bad at Blogging

I keep writing this post and failing to post it. Fail. This one will make it, self. Write the damn blog, and get the words out of your head to make room for other things.

In the last month, things have been pretty ho-hum.

- Arya still has ulcers. Well, maybe not anymore but it's currently too cold to check by putting a leg over her. I felt like the Nexium wasn't working after we had a very up "ride" where she spent most of her time zooming around (politely) on the line. When I was on her, we did some walk and trot, but a combo, I think, of anxiety and being 5 and not getting enough exercise bit me in the butt and I came off. I haven't put a leg on her since (ride was 1/5) as we've worked mostly on line, went on a field trip, swapped to feeding Ulcergard instead of Nexium and froze our asses off thanks to lots of weird weather completely icing my property down.

- Bailey has done some weekly toodles, and hasn't been bad. In fact, she's wonderful, if a bit fat and out of shape. She is still kind of like "what r half halt" but she remembers pretty quickly and in retrospect, she's no longer a total dangerous hellion in the winter, so... win.

- We went to free jump at my friend Nina's indoor which was super fun! Arya was unsure and had to be walked into the chute for her first several runs, but kind of figured it out by the end and let us direct her down the chute and over the tiny cross rail and vertical without being led. Bailey had a grand time showing off in the indoor until she realized there were jumps, and then started putting herself through the chute. She was super happy and enjoyed herself a lot, and jumped a pretty big jump with ease.

- On the way home, my truck, Lessie, got a flat. Which sucks, because Lessie is rusty AF and you can't get the spare down (much less, I don't want to drive on a totally rust covered rim, thanks). It sucked more because Hubs, who had to come rescue me with his entirely-too-nice-to-pull-a-trailer truck threw out his back and was in a vile mood. We all survived having to unload, re-hitch the trailer to a new truck, load and get the mares the 3 miles home, and I didn't scream or cry despite having to go back and get the truck towed, remove the plow because AAA can't tow trucks with plows, and the plow sits too low to put the truck on a tow truck anyways,and then babysit a super heavy plow until we could get it home after the plow driver dropped off the truck. Hubs was super mad at me, despite the majority of the stupid being his doing. We still aren't mobile, as the truck has 4 functional tires, but needs the other front swapped out so the front tires match, and I didn't get it done before it got really cold this week, and... fuck that the truck can sit with mismatched wheels another week until I am not in danger of frostbiting my face. 

- I decided to sell my 17.5" Vision. Not only is it spoiled by getting me in trouble for buying it, but I have come to terms with the fact that I really, really need a larger seat. My last ride in it made my knee caps unhappy for like two days after, so it reinforced the fact that wedging oneself into a too small saddle just doesn't work well for me. If anyone is looking for a glorious black and brown dressage saddle, LMK. Instead of replacing it, I am going to send my damn 31 cm 18.5" saddle off to Connecticut soon and have Smith Worthington stretch the tree for me. I'm trying to decide if I live on the edge and just send them Arya's tracing. I traced both mares again after having done it last May, and Bailey is probably fat, because she's lost her wither definition compared to her last tracing. Funnily enough, she and Arya measure nearly identically now (they're within a few 16ths of an inch at 2, 3, 4, and 5 inches down from the wither), though Bailey gets wider at the end of her measurements due to her pear shaped barrel. Arya is basically identical to what she was last May, and now both mares share her kind of hoopy A shape with little contour. I'm curious if her tracing will change when shes in steady work, but I'm crossing my fingers she continues to fit into my saddles. If anything, at least the dressage saddle will fit Bailey, which is half the battle. 

- Speaking of, I sold Bailey's TSF dressage girth, as it was gaping badly under her belly and I felt like should be able to do better with fit than that. Of course now I am not finding anything anatamically cut that I like, or that seems to be of decent quality. I'm wondering if perhaps I didn't have it sized right, but I'm not sure which direction I should go in size to try and even out the pressure. Ugh!

- I bought the mares a Magic Curry and Arya nearly died of pleasure the first time I used it. Best 5$ I've spent in a while! 

- Arya has also gotten easier to catch - we had lots of practice, as I took to letting them out to hoot and holler (and spend most of their time staring at cows closer up, who are we kidding) in the pasture as the paddock is completely ice. Bailey got worse about being caught, and last week I actually had Arya walk up to me while Bailey was like RUN AWAY, which is usually the opposite. Mares are weird, but we'll continue to work on associating mom with treats and scritches in hopes that my horses start to like me again.

-  On the farm front, it might be easier to get hockey skates for outside chores, to be honest. I got to create a whole new budget category for ice management - we tried barn lime (waste of money), salt/mag chloride mix (good but I tried to use sparingly), Fine chicken grit (which is ok, the bigger stuff is better - but there wasn't a bag to be found at any of my local places as everyone beat me to it) and pot ash granules (which seemed to work well) along with wet shavings, despite the fact that they will make things extra gross next year when we melt out. I bought a hand spreader thingy which I think I will enjoy for grass seed more than winter use, but it's been an educational few weeks. The ice is now covered with non-packing snow, which does... absolutely nothing for us. Except that we can't see where the ice is in the pastures, where they aren't totally covered. 

All of these words make the last month look a lot busier than it actually was - I spent a lot of time sitting on my ass under a heated blanket snuggling with dogs and eating my feelings. I also spent a lot of time anxious, got a FeedXL membership and have wasted way too much of my life creating diets to try and fix Arya's issues with nutrition. We are actually going to try a smartpak supplement (SmartTranquility) with B1, which seems like the most likely to actually be an issue hole in her diet, but I want to wait to start it until we're looking towards some weather where I can at least haul out to ride, if not work at home. I want to be a bit more scientific in trying things with Arya, so hopefully we come out of this deep freeze quickly and can get back to work!

Ulcers (again)

Well, it was 40 degrees yesterday (December 18th) so of freaking course I had to trash all of my well behaved plans and get on a horse. I had planned to get on Bailey, but found her unwilling to rise from a nap in the dark so I did chores first, and then turn in. And then, because apparently I'm a glutton for punishment, I decided, randomly, to lunge Arya in tack. Which turned into riding her. And Bailey basically got skipped because my solar lights ran out of juice as we were starting trot work.

Whoops.

I had planned to give Arya some (more) time off to let the Nexium do it's thing (again) but guess what, guys? It's already doing it's thing. She lunged out nicely but seemed to not trust the ground, which was kind of half melted, half frozen. There was one spot where she kept pulling me out and then ending up on the slick spot, so we had to do some gentle reminders that we don't just pop our shoulder and fly sideways on the line. I was a bit nervous about my decision to ride once I made it- she seemed to be swishing her tail a lot as we went to get the mounting block and didn't want to stand nicely without being gotten after... but no fireworks.

I had been wishing that she would learn to walk and hack like a Denny Emerson horse and I think I might be getting my wish; she marched out pretty politely, and didn't dance around or get weird like she can when she thinks she needs to canter canter canter (Foxie was much worse about this) the minute you get on. She walked out and snorted and sighed, and didn't offer the trot. We did some trotting and again, she was good, if a bit tense. I can't tell if the tension may be protecting her stomach, not wanting to move out on the ground or if she's just... tense. She was, however, very rideable in both directions. She wasn't perfect, but she like... was willing to try bending and was mostly remembering what half halts were. I have low expectations, what can I say :D 

Her canter work was very conservative - she basically wanted to drop to a trot whenever she went through one area where she had slipped previously, despite having since broken the ground down enough that I felt she had decent grip. She's a cautious one! On the other 3/4 of the circle she was steady and good, with just some mild headbanging to remind me that she is a baby OTTB who probably hasn't willingly cantered in weeks due to the ground and she had feelings about it. Which luckily, she didn't act on. Maturity, people.

For a 20 minute ride, it was a good one. She's definitely still got ulcers; I think the tail swishing, and the way she reacted to being brushed tells me that, but she's definitely feeling better. I'm disappointed that the supplement and management I've been doing hasn't been enough; I did swap her to the Smartpak Leg Up Stomach pellets a couple of weeks before she started acting up, but I'm not sure if that means her previous supplement wasn't working, or if this new one isn't working. Or if neither of them work? I need to figure out how I feel about the supplement... hopefully I didn't just buy a year supply of something that doesn't work for her

I've been doing lots of math when it comes to Calcium content of supplements, alfalfa pellets and the two feed options (regular and gastric care Ultium) but I'm lacking so much experience with ulcers. Does anyone have a winning combo they'd be willing to share? I feel like majorly lack experience in caring for an ulcery horse, and these relapses don't exactly help my lack of confidence in this type of management. 

I also am taking note here and on my calendar of her behavior; our ride last night was marked with an open mouth/chomping a lot and an extraordinary amount of rooting to stretch down. It got quite annoying, but she really seemed to want to streeeeetch all the way down, and shockingly her short little neck can make my reins feel too short, like I need OS reins. Could it be a stomach stretching maneuver? The dog stretches when he eats too fast and his stomach hurts because it's too full (he has the weirdest problems)... or perhaps a reaction to walking like she's on eggshells for the last several weeks as the footing has been rutted and rock hard with no snow to pad it, despite cold temps. I'm hoping we get some snow once we go back to non randomly-tropical winter temps.  

Catching Up

First of all, thank you all for the support and sympathy on my last post. Your words brought me to tears, in a good way, and I had to hide in the bathroom at work because despite there being lots of bad things in the world, there sure are a lot of good things, too. And you guys are the top of that list.  

Things have been moving apace here at the farm. The first week of December we said goodbye to Bizzy. When hubby first declared we'd be moving next summer (there may be some changes there, but holding my cards until I'm sure) I reached out to CANTER, where I got her, and asked if they could help me re-home her or how to best go about finding her a new landing place. CANTER came through in a spectacular way, and Bizzy now resides at a farm in VA with a new job as a nursemare. I think she will do fantastically, and the chore and hay stress lightening now that I have one less horse to feed and care for has been nice (if bittersweet). She was kind of uncommonly mean to Bailey, and tried to kick her in the face in passing when Bailey was drinking right before her departure, so I was less sad to see her go than I could have been. 

I broke the tractor (aka blew the hydraulic fluid. Again) but a) fixed it, without having to ask Hubby for help/making him aware and b) also figured out why it's blown all of it's hydraulic fluid like 3 times now and can fix the issue. The problem being that I have to wait for the plug to shift because I stupidly put it back in without the recommended solution. Whoops. Hoping I can fix the issue this weekend. 

I've been working that side gig job and doing some photo work, including at a saddle fitting event that I brought Arya to. I was nervous leaving Bailey home alone, as this was a week and a half after Bizzy left, but she survived just fine without her sister, though she whinnied most piteously when we returned and paced the gate as soon as she saw us. Arya had been off and on good and iffy, and had a really bad day (aka she reared, but shockingly went back to work just fine, and ended the ride hacking around the pasture on the buckle) the day before the clinic, so I tried really hard to keep a lid on it when I did my riding portion of the saddle fit clinic. I brought both dressage saddles and while I was there for free, because #eventphotog, I didn't feel like I got a lot out of the experience. Arya did, however, not totally try to murder me while at the nice heated barn, and everyone thought she was very pretty. I was impressed that she didn't stall walk and actually took a nap while she waited for me to be done, despite being tucked into a corner stall with no other horses nearby. The fitters came to the conclusion that neither of my dressage saddles fit Arya particularly well, but I guess I don't 100% believe that the fit is as bad as they seemed to think. I am going to go back to riding in the jump saddle on Arya exclusively for a while either way as we know that fits her better than anything else.

I've started her back on Ulcer meds, as she seems to be having problems again, but I'll save that for another post - I've got a few stacked up that I've partially summarized into this one, so hopefully you'll forgive this wall of text! I've figured out how to blog at work (Yay!) but I can't include media except by editing posts on my phone (boo!) which sucks as Blogger no longer has an ap. Perhaps its time for a new platform? Idk. I do love blogger. 

The End In The Beginning

I apologize for the radio silence of late. Life has been a lot, lately, and a new job prevents me from blogging at work on my lunch breaks as I had been doing before. 

There have been a lot of big things going on, and it seems like nothing is ever sure enough to post about, but I think it's finally time. Over the last few months, my marriage has been in trouble. We've fought, my husband has gone off the deep end and tried to prevent me from buying hay to feed my horses after our hay guy decided he just wasn't going to cut our field again despite his promises, and that was added to stress on our finances that already exists. I've considered divorce, and honestly, it's still not off the table. But for right now, we're trying to focus as a team on getting ourselves into a better financial place, which is the first step in the other big, crappy life event coming down the tube.

We're going to be moving away from the farm.

My husband has never been happy here. He doesn't like the commute, he doesn't like the house and he doesn't like all of the work having property has come with. I think we have a lot of things to discuss before we figure out where we go next (and if we're going there together) but either way, I can't stay on the farm by myself, and he doesn't want to stay, so either way, I'm going to have to say goodbye to my beloved farm. 

It's already begun, and every day is like a little bereavement, knowing that all of the work I've done, and all of the stress and happiness and joy and pain I've experienced over  the last year and a half won't be my future. I'm dreading heading back to boarding. 

Sometimes I can see the huge pros; I can have my free time back from chores and projects and endless mowing and weedwhacking. I can have an indoor. I will have a place to get away and make new friends and build a social life that isn't dogs and horses while I wait for my husband to come home from his own social life. I won't be tied down because I have to feed and do stalls.

But there are also huge cons. I heavily manage Arya's ulcery self through forage, and boarding barns at least locally seem to not feed hay like I need. I will have to struggle with keeping weight on them again, if I can't provide my own feed or can't sustain the extra cost when I'm forced to pay for barn grain that I don't want to use. I'm already anxious about introducing Arya to a herd of horses again; after her fights with Ginny, I'm nervous she's going to get hurt. Or hurt someone else's horse. I won't be able to walk out the door to blanket, and I won't be able to sit in the barn every night and listen to the quiet munching of content horses. I won't get to work from home and watch them playing and running out the window. I'll still be tied down, because someone still has to go home to feed and let out the dogs. 

I haven't ridden consistently in far too long, and it breaks my heart. The rides I have squeezed in; sneaking out of the house and doing chores at double time to squeeze in a ride under the lights or hopping on a horse when my husband is doing inside work and can't say I'm neglecting the work I need to do outside to get the property ready for sale next spring and summer; have been generally good. Bailey is out of shape, and I get annoyed with her, and Arya has been good, but she never progresses because I never have time to do more than drill the basics. 

And now it's dark at 5 pm and my heart is heavy. I don't know what the future is going to bring, and I am desperately trying to figure out how to afford two horses not at home again. It's amazing how much it hurts to even think about board prices again, and how much anxiety I have already about Arya, in particular. 

I'm also disgusted with myself because I don't want to ride Bailey. She's not fun when she's out of shape, and has spent the last year and a half out of shape, pretty much, after being fit and in good work the year before. It's like night and day, and it eats me up. I wonder if she's not the horse for me. I wonder if anyone would actually pay money to lease her. I can't fathom selling her, but I also choose to ride Arya over her, and still feel inkling guilt that people think she deserves to be showing and out there being big and fancy and on display. 

I'm extra hopeless about my riding situation because I'll shortly be starting a part time job, because apparently I don't pull enough of the financial weight around my house. And while I am hoping I can still squeeze in rides, they're still going to be inconsistent and it's going to be hard, as of course winter decided to show up after a week of disgustingly wet weather and freeze my paddocks into modern art and flood my arena into a skating rink.

TL;DR: My life is a mess, and I'm sorry. It's not going to stop. It probably won't get better, and I'm also highly likely to spend a good portion of the winter in a deep, deep depression. I feel like I've poured my soul into my farm and I don't know who I am anymore, and now that I'm facing some huge and terrifying changes, I am drowning. 

Slow Updates

I'm a bad blogger, and I'm sorry.

It's been a busy couple of weeks in my life, though the riding side of my life has been pretty routine.

RE: my last post, I swapped all the girls to Ultium Competition and have added canola oil to their diets, and I'm really happy with how they look. It brought back a nice shine into Bailey's suddenly dull coat, Bizzy seems to be gaining that extra bit of weight, and Arya looks fantastic. 

Before I could decide on a supplement for continued gastric support, we got some cool weather and Arya spent a lot of time huddled in the shelter, and I think she gave herself ulcers in that process. We had a tough day on the line last week Monday and then Tuesday when I got on, I knew we needed to get some Nexium back into our lives; she reverted back to her explosive, behind the leg, offended by the leg and contact overly defensive self and I got off pretty quickly. She's had about a week off at this point, and has been on Nexium, and our ride last night was extremely positive. She really responded nicely to inside-leg-to-outside-rein and walk-trot-cantered both directions without dramatics or trying to bolt/kill me.

So I definitely need to get some gastric support on board ASAP, and despite myself I'm eyeballing the Gastric Care Ultium again along with G.U.T by Uckele. It feels odd that I pull her off of the gastric care feed and she relapses, but also I happened to time it with a few days stretch of misty cool days. Today it's rainy and cool, but the mares are out on the pasture after spending the night tucked into the shelter (and I've been keeping the hay nets in the shelter filled since this cool weather kicked in).

Work got busy with our system's go-live weekend fuckery, and I got a new job all at the same time, so I've missed some rides due to that, but on the whole, both horses (now that Satan's Mistress has been ulcer-medicined back into a horse I recognize) have been working really well. Bailey has been jumping a lot, lately, and we tried some of the different bits we have around to see if I could get her off her forehand and to stop leaning on my hands constantly because she was too out of shape to want to carry herself. We tried a slow twist full cheek with a Dr. Bristol center link (funky, but too much) and have been using the Beval/loop ring Shires bit I have lately, which was pretty decent. I want to add a chain or gag cheeks to it because she does tend to hang on it more than she does other bits, but we shall see. She also finally put in a very solid, polite dressage school last night - without spurs.

I've been jumping without spurs out of lazyiness and have just been carrying a crop, but the dressage school was pretty darn good. Her canter departs aren't quite as clean as they are with spurs, but she reacts to my leg (which never used to happen) and stays forward with just the occasional showing or tap of the crop. It's nice to feel like I have my old horse back, and I'm determined to keep her working and in better shape so we don't have to struggle for a month before I feel like I can ride her well.

The last bit of news I have is that because I got a new job, I bought myself a present. Because that makes sense, right? There has been a Courbette Vision dressage saddle in a delightful 33 cm tree (I have never seen a 33cm marked Courbette for sale) on Ebay that was located in Germany, and I've been lusting after it for like three months now. And after I put in my notice, I came home and got into a bit of a offer-war with the seller, and it's now on it's way towards me from Poland, I think. I need to get my tack room settled for winter, and soon will have four saddles, so I need to figure out stirrups (and I'm debating if I get normal stirrups, ones that will fit my mukluks if I ride in them, or both), leathers and covers. Arya's black Courbette Galant came with a cover from the friend I bought it from, and I purchased stirrup leathers, and had irons for it, but the cover isn't waterproof and I don't have any other strap goods left in my stash now except for a very old pair of unlined black stirrup leathers, and they aren't matched (annoying). Between the saddle and Arya's fancy new boots, she's going to be looking very spiffy!