Away to Santa Fe

Life kind of got away from me last week, so I decided to get away from it.

My friend Karen and I have been talking about taking a quick weekend trip to Santa Fe for years.

Well, there's no time like the present.

It's been a great couple days of exploring,

shopping...

and dining.

Today we're going riding.

Have a great Sunday, my friends. I know I will!

Saddle up, part two

In my life, I've ridden a lot of horses, which means also I've ridden in a lot of saddles. 

Not going to lie, I miss some of those saddles almost as much as the horses they belonged to.

Judy's Hermes Steinkraus 💔

I always said that when I got my own horse, I was also going to get a really good saddle, the kind that makes riding a joy because it's so balanced and comfortable. Sadly, I do not feel that way about Olive's Duett. 

A couple weeks ago, my friend, Therese, and I paid a saddle fitter to come to the barn and fit our horses. I was hoping to get an endurance saddle, but Olive's a tough fit. None of Danna's hornless saddles came close to fitting her, but we did find two lightweight Western trail saddles that felt like they might work. The first was a Big Horn trail saddle built on a Haflinger tree. 

Because Olive was reactive while saddling, I put her on the lunge line before I rode in it. She was fine, so I climbed aboard.

This saddle fit Olive really well. She looked cute and rode well in it.

Unfortunately, I didn't love it. It was fine. It had good balance and was comfortable enough. I could have made this work,  but I really wanted to be in love this time. 

So it was onto saddle number two! This was a roughout Cashel Trail saddle with a wide tree. 

Olive looked cute in this one, too.

As soon as I sat in it, I knew it was the one. The seat was so comfortable and the balance was just perfect. Olive liked it, too. As we trotted past one of the barn's trainers, she told me she had never seen Olive move so freely through her shoulders. On the next pass, she told me that I was sitting better than usual, too.

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

The next day, Seth, Piper and I drove up to Gilcrest to return the Big Horn and pay for the Cashel.

I had not been to this tack shop before. I was very impressed with the selection and service.

Instead of bringing the saddle home with me, I left it there for a few more days to have the stirrups turned. Piper and I picked it at the end of last week.

I've ridden in it almost every day since then.

I could not be more pleased. It's comfortable, balanced and fits both Olive and I perfectly.

I actually love it.

Because I know someone is going to ask, here's a closer look at the turned stirrups.

Instead of hanging parallel to Olive's sides, the stirrups are now permanently set at an angle. This reduces the strain on the rider's knees and ankles and makes the saddle a million times more comfortable. I can not recommend this alteration enough.

Anyway, that's the scoop. Olive is a cowpony and I'm a cowgirl. Who knew?

Saddle up, part one

It never fails: Every time someone publicly spends a lot of money on a model horse, someone else is sure to exclaim indignantly, "You could buy a real horse for that."

But really, you could buy a college education for that

It's true, but also irrelevant and completely meaningless. After all, every single one of these three dollar and nineteen cent stablemates costs more than Olive did. Heh.

Of course, with real horses, the purchase price is just the beginning. When we got Olive, I told Seth that every dollar we didn't spend buying her was going to go towards saddles. Partly this was because I have high saddle needs, but also, I'd seen that back. I knew it was going to be a saddle fitting nightmare.

Sure enough, none of the saddles I already owned fit her. I started looking for something - anything! - to get us going and came up with a lightly used Duett Companion.

I didn't love it, but it fit Olive, and sometimes something really is better than nothing.

In the eight months since then, Olive has gotten less fat and more fit. Her topline has changed significantly, and the Duett is fitting a little less well.

I'd just started thinking about what I wanted to do next, when fate intervened in the form of Therese. She recently purchased Thunder for her daughter, Claire, and had booked an appointment with a Western saddle fitter. She asked if I wanted to split the cost, and of course, I said yes.

Before the appointment, I took lots of pictures of Olive and sent them to the saddle fitter with a description of what kind of riding I do and what kind of saddle I wanted.

Finally, the big day arrived.

Danna came with a whole bunch of saddles.

I really wanted some of them to fit.

This one so much.

I lost count somewhere along the way, but I know we put every single saddle in this picture on Olive. It was a long, hot and often frustrating day.

When it was all said and done, we'd identified two saddles that fit Olive really well.

That doesn't sound like a lot, but it was two more saddles than fit Thunder. Ugh. Sorry, Therese.

By this point it was over one hundred degrees, and everyone - humans and horses - was hot, cranky and exhausted. Instead of riding in the two good saddles, I made arrangements with Danna to keep them for a few more days. After all those months in the Duett, it was really important to me to get something that both of us liked this time.

Summertime blues

BreyerFest was great.

The rest of this summer... not so much.

I have had so many health issues - still not Covid - but dang near everything else. First it was con crud, then an ear infection, then a blocked ear, then an allergic reaction to the ear medication...  None of it has been life threatening, but all of it has been painful, frustrating and expensive. The staff at our neighborhood Urgent Care now knows me by name. Yay!

Of course, it's also been really hot...

and really buggy. 

Between the heat, the bugs and the ears, I've barely ridden. 

I realize that's the definition of a first world problem, but it's still a problem, at least to me.

To top it all off, James' college housing situation fell apart just a couple weeks before the start of school. 

He started talking about a gap year, and at that point, I was really, truly done with this summer.

Fortunately, in the last week or so, things have started to turn around. My ears are mostly better. My hives are mostly gone. I bought a new saddle - more on that soon! - and today, I got to ride in it.

Best of all, we were able to find James' a new living situation.

It's actually an upgrade.

Yesterday was move in day.

We met his new landlords, and everything went really smoothly. I think he's going to have a great semester.

For the first time in more than a month, I am feeling cautiously optimistic about Summer 2022. There's one month left. Let's make it a good one!