Slow Coast Saddle Fitting

Slow Coast seems to be a semi popular name for local businesses and festivals, and I'm feeling the why of it this year. It's been an extremely laid back summer. Normally we get out for at least one or two adventures but even that was curbed by a local airport closure for a few months and the ferries being completely reserved for most of the spring/summer.

At least it's pretty here

 I'm sure you've all been here long enough to know, but just in case you're new-ish, a quick recap:  I live on the mainland north of Vancouver, but due to the coastal geography it's essentially an island and only accessible by boat or plane, so getting 'out' is normally a day of travel and an overnight adventure all in itself. Summer tourist season really complicates things - everything is normally booked months in advance and showing up without reservations is doable but can be painful. I have to travel to my work office regularly plus we've needed to go elsewhere for medical appts and appliance shopping this summer too. G and I just lacked the motivation to go beyond that this summer.  With two young horses and a Sophie I don't really have any goals with it's been easy to just push things off and embrace the west coast lifestyle a little more than I normally do. I know you're supposed to live in the now, but I feel like my horse/riding goals are on hold and tied up with welsh cobs being under saddle in a couple of years.

With feeding three horses this winter I'm happy to save my pennies anyway. These two ate a bale of hay overnight are looking for more. 1.5 years old, 14hh now and growing :)

I am, however, feeling like I'm ready to circle back to Sophie again. Just hitting the trails regularly would be nice. A fittingly Slow Coast activity, with a side of keeping myself and my questionable back in riding shape for the future.  

Needs a job too

I revisited the saddle we left off with last spring and it really isn't going to work (which is fine, you'll remember I had my suspicions about that). She's much wider than she used to be, and while she could certainly tone up and lose a little weight, even then she is probably a tree size bigger than she was a year ago when I bought the saddle. She is OK with her old, old cheap saddle adjusted extra wide, but it's too long on her back for me to ride in without worrying about it eventually making her uncomfortable, plus it's the kind of adjustable saddle where the xw setting starts to make the channel seem narrow at the back (basically saddles with changeable gullet plates just make the front wider or narrower, they can't make the panels stay equidistant all the way back when you start to get to the extremes of what that particular saddle was designed for). We currently have zero options for saddle fitters or even getting flocking adjusted without sending it away or getting a remote evaluation and I'm not feeling the love for continuing on that path.

No matter how badly I miss lessons and goals and all the riding, I'm not willing to jump back into the 'saddle-fitting-the-hard-to-fit-pony-and-adult-rider-in-a-remote-area' conundrum in general. I'm done with it, and to be honest I think Sophie's well past her limit and needs a time out from being the guinea pig for NQR fitting saddles and remote saddle fitters too. Longer term, I think she needs to go be a fancy pony for a smaller adult or teen - if I fit into a 16-16.5" saddle a lot of the fitting issues could be resolved.

For now, though, I've been exploring treeless and bareback pad options with the intent of some trail rides and just generally keeping my self somewhat in the saddle and the pony somewhat of a riding pony for the next year or two until the boys are ready to take over. I'm open to western, because why not and also I feel like they're easier to find for wide ponies, but the caveat with that is it has to be as light as possible, and the length will likely be problematic - so far no options there. 

This is the current pony situation, summed up in one photo

Throwback to 2020 with a baby Sophie and a Bridget, oh how the tables have turned, Sophie :)

Anyway. Treeless. We did try another one (an Edix Tudor, if anyone is interested) and while I appreciated the idea and the more traditional look of it, plus all the options for adjustability, I couldn't quite get it to sit right on her, the length of the panels didn't look ideal, and she gave it a no anyway. After reading many reviews (thank you again, Jen @ Cobjockey for documenting all the saddles and un-saddles you tried for Connor)  I'm not convinced treeless is a viable option for wide, round horses. I could be talked around, but it seems like a common complaint for most of them.

 I loved the idea of being able to use it for shows, etc without looking wildly different. From a rider perspective, it felt quite up above the horse and not as laterally stable as one might hope, but that could have been the fit/shims not being set up ideally. I would have gone with it if it worked for Sophie but I didn't love it for me.

The endurance folks have a lot of options that seem like they'd be well worth trying on Sophie - despite having no Arabian breeding her back identifies as one :) So, that's an option for the future should things go well and I start feeling a bit more motivated and spendy and willing to fill up the tack room again.

But hey, for now maybe I'm just trail riding for an hour or so a few times a week anyway? So, bareback pads. That's a whole new rabbit hole to travel down. You can get everything from a felsattel (felt saddle) that has a rudimentary felt 'tree' and costs what a more traditional saddle might, to your standard $50 fabric pad with a nylon girth attached. With any of them, I'm not sold on stirrups being something that should be used. Without a tree, you'd literally be focusing all your weight into stirrups that are attached to a surcingle like band at best, or a nylon strap across the horse's back at worst. Either way, concentrated weight directly on to the back in a very limited area. Rider weight in general without a tree to distribute it is a thing to pay attention to, although I did see some references to studies showing shock absorbing materials or good old felt or sheepskin negated the issue to a non worrying level, even in bareback pads.

Buck looking for treats for being a Good Boy. A saddle pad on his back is a first step to a saddle one day and he wasn't sure he felt safe enough to try until recently <3

I'm intrigued to try a set up with some 'panels' in the form of felt or foam shims and a sheepskin pad. Sort of like this Edix Senor. Or the Christ Lammfelle version. From my (admittedly time consuming, but likely incomplete) browsing, all the various brands have very similar designs with almost identical options.

But, those are spendy. NOT judging if you own one, they look gorgeous! It's just being the horse girl I am who has already thrown so much money at the problem and no hard and fast goals other than I'd like to ride sometimes, I have very little inclination to throw more money at something that isn't guaranteed to work. So I ended up with this. 

Filed under things I never expected to buy

It is basically a knock off version of the Engel or Mattes sheepskin bbp for $90. The 'sheepskin' is of course not, it is faux fur fleece :) but that works - I have so many sheepskin and corrective pads after this saddle fitting journey that I have what feels like a never ending selection of pads to put under or in it. I am currently using it with a back on track dressage pad under and a thinline pad in it where there is space for shims and an extra felt pad, etc. For me, the nice thing about this vs a standard bareback pad was that I can pad and shim it however I like. Also the billets attach across the pad in a 'y' shape. I not an expert in physics but I'm hopeful that might help distribute things a little more kindly and securely than one strap over the top.

this is from the Edix website, but the knockoff I have is the same girth attachment idea

Sophie, is of course, not currently a fan of wearing this. But I do feel like this is a good test case. It's soft and fluffy, it has a huge felt pad in it, I'm certainly not doing it up tight. Basically this can't possibly be hurting her, so I'm curious to see if a few weeks of me messing around with it might give us a reset as far as the aversive and anxious behavior she has regarding saddles and mounting blocks. It's not unmanageable or really awful and I think some might write it off as grumpy mare behavior but I think it's definitely come from a not ideally fitting saddle (s) last year and ulcers prior to that. 

Her default is that every feeling comes with a side of Mare, though. Why trot pretty across the sunset when you could also side eye and snake your head? So much bonus content included with this one

Anyway, there's no reason we can't try to go back and make it right again. Full disclosure, I have sat in it a few times and toodled around. It feels more like a couch than a saddle or a 'normal' bareback pad and I'm not sure how I feel about that, but also it's very nice to be able to just sit and let my leg be where it feels right - no fighting anything and with that and the padding my back is immediately so much happier than I had even hoped. Lets hope the same holds true for Sophie. I have no doubt the more expensive pads would have a nicer feel and finish to them, but for what this is and being uncertain of how useful it will be long term, I have no complaints. 

In true Slow Coast style I'm going to keep working on making everything happy and stress free before I actually go for a proper ride. The idea shows promise and I'm happy enough with that.