More saddle stuff...long

[CorrineOsborne@email.com]

Well all, I'm certainly no endurance rider--yet--but I've been on the back of a 
horse a time or ten :-).

Wow, where to start...
Otay, well....first off, I'm 30 yrs old, 5'2", 115lb and female :-)

I guess my favorite saddle genre is an English style saddle.  Right now, I'm 
riding a Coventry Saddlery AP 18".  My current complaint with this saddle is 
that it needs longer billets so I can use a dressage girth with it.  With the 
current billet length, the buckles end up right under my knee.  For the moment, 
I've solved the problem by buying a girth extension and making the buckles on 
either side of the saddle come up under my thigh instead...more meat, less 
bone to bang on up there.  This saddle has a wide tree and fits my gelding 
well.  I use a Tokolat Woolback pad with it, and always have a nice dry channel 
down the spine.  I tuck the pad up into the gullet and it really stays put well, and 
keeps the pressure of the edge of the pad off of his withers (which are quite 
prominent).  I've toyed with the idea of a full saddle cover, but since I'm afraid 
the extra padding will cause a chafing issue (had a really bad time with some 
very padded bicycling tights once--ouch) I've put off that purchase.  Aside from 
a breast collar, it's pretty plainJane.  It really needs some dee rings, but I think 
what I"m gonna do is put some grommets on the woolback pad and attach the 
rump rug to it instead.

I have a barrel racing saddle which fits him too, but boy does it do a number to 
my inner leg!!  I have two scars from riding 3 (yes three) miles in it where it 
rubbed a huge blister on both legs.  Thought it was just me, but my 10 yr old 
daughter is riding it now and it's chewing her legs up too.

I have a BigHorn cardura cheapy saddle that has a wide tree that is the 'spare' 
saddle (actually, it was my mother in law's saddle and she sent it to me when 
she sold her horse).  I don't like to ride it because the twist is so wide.

I sold my Collegiate Alumnus AP 17" this winter because the tree was too 
narrow, but liked it for me.

Just bought a 'natural ride' saddle (bareback pad w/ a fork), and have found 
that the complaint that a couple people warned me of is exactly true--tough to 
get your legs under you when the stirrups are hung from the fork which is in 
front of you :-).....however, all I really wanted was the fork (and couldn't buy it 
separately) because it will give me a place to hang 'stuff' from.  My 10 yr old 
daughter originally was riding it and liked it because she could feel her horse 
so well.  But, I didn't like her riding in it because her horsemanship is not good 
enough to keep her from killing the poor horse's back from bouncing the trot so 
hard.  I plan to modify the natural ride significantly--use some Velcro sheets to 
ad a bit of closed cell foam between the pad that came with it and the 
WoolBack that I love cause it's so 'sticky'.  Hopefully, this will keep my butt 
bones out of my horses back.  Gonna get the stirrups off of the fork too and put 
them on the pad somehow.  Might make them just mounting assistants to be 
honest.  I don't tend to use my stirrups to keep my balance anyway.

So, after the ride today in which Alyssa and I (my daughter) only rode about 5 
miles at a walk and jog put more blisters on her legs, we're gonna trade 
saddles.  I'm gonna give the Natural Ride a shot, and she's gonna ride my 
English saddle.  Hopefully my gelding who likes to do the "oh my God it's 
gonna kill me!!" still won't dump me too many times LOL.  Ah well, guess we'll 
just have to test that LidLocker warranty, eh?

My favorite things so far: My woolback pad, a good pair of breeches without 
Ultrasuede knees, thank you (still debating on tights or breeches/padded or no 
padding--jeans and me don't ever want to see the back of a horse together 
again, thank you--ladies, ya know what I mean!!), a sports bra (even if the no-
bounce effect is not the reason I wear it--purely comfort in hot weather 
reasons), no big shoe/stirrup issues for me since I really don't put tons of 
weight in them since I post the trot exclusively and have pretty decent thigh 
strength to keep me balanced in the saddle.

Gee, getting wordy...gonna hush now :-).  Hey Roger--if ya read this and got 
this far--thanks for the conversation today, and sorry the baby decided it was 
time for us to hang up :-)







Corrine  Osborne
corrineosborne@email.com

Download NeoPlanet at http://www.neoplanet.com