Saddle woes continue, but in the mean time I’m trying a couple of (very generous) friends’ saddles in pursuit of a band aid for the situation. This particular saddle is a County, with a narrow tree and skid row panels. The saddle seems an OK fit other than being a bit tight at the front, but it was interesting to see him go in it and get feedback from Smitty himself.

https://youtu.be/TGfuMmBrvC4

Overall, he was maybe not as free and forward in it as he was in the Stubbens, but not terrible. You can see in the video that he was a big stride, but tends to get behind the leg, which causes some not-so-wonderful tendencies in me. I’m continuing to work on not nagging and using voice and a quiet leg/whip combination to get the forward, but as the video shows, it’s very much a work in progress. I’m quite pleased with the canter transition though, and once I can get his back up in the canter I can ask for a trot more like this:

https://youtu.be/huyfeNw3zVM

And even in the downward transitions I have to remind him to march forward. So much to work on! Then yesterday, we did this:

Baby fences! It’s hard to even call them jumps, because at this stage we basically just canter over them. The vertical was initially a cross rail, and when that went well I hopped off and changed it. It’s maybe 18″, but it was a good place to start. My approach was basically grab the neck rope and keep my leg on, and bar a couple long spots, it went quite well! Perhaps next time I’ll get some video proof.  (Many thanks to A for videoing the above!)

Wednesday I am heading to the American Eventing Championships in Tryon to provide moral support for a friend. Shout out if you’re headed there too, would love to meet up with folks!