My First Encounter with a Saddler

For those of you have have regular access to saddle fitters and leather repairs and tack stores, this post really isn't for you. Also I hate you a little bit. For the rest of us, here's a basic walk-through of the saddle fitting process.

I live in an area where horse keeping isn't THAT expensive because (fun fact!) we have lots of space and almost no amenities. So that's awesome. I've learned the mechanics of how a saddle should fit through trial, error, and picky horses, but I have never before had access to any sort of saddle-fit professional.

until now

Enter Adrienne Hendricks (using full name with permission and because it's part of her business name). I've seen her name bounce around a few times locally and knew she did minor leather repairs. Then I found out she was interning with a British-trained master saddler and did fittings and flockings and the like. I filed that information away, but since I've never had access to a saddle person, I didn't really know what to do with them.

And then Courage's sweat marks under his dressage saddle started changing. I'd never really liked them, but he wasn't complaining and the saddle seemed to be the holy grail that fit both of us. But they kept changing, which of course correlates with him developing as we do more and better dressage work.

And once you have the holy grail, it's in your best interests to try to keep it.

So I called Adrienne. (Or more like, sent a panicked facebook message, then got cold feet, then scheduled her, then almost canceled, then went ahead with it.) We set up my first-ever full-fledged saddle fitting.

First off: I was super happy with Adrienne--she's personable, she rides, and she was very professional. I hadn't met her before, but she put me at ease pretty quickly. She started by asking some questions about or level of work (low) and our history of saddle maintenance (none). Next. she carefully evaluated how my dressage saddle sat on Courage's back.

(you've all seen my horse with a saddle on before)

Then. Out came the saddle fitting curve! This is something I've read about online a lot, but it seemed a bit more complicated than what I was comfortable with on my own. And yeah, it was. She took three measurements of Courage's back (withers-ish, mid-back, and back back. I'm so technical!). There was a level attached to the curve to make sure all the measurements lined up and she transposed them all on to the same piece of paper.

She also used them to compare with the underside of my saddle, and we came away with this information:
1) Courage is pretty symmetrical in general and exhibits no particular back soreness.
Comment: Huzzah! I was right!
2) The only noticeable variation is that his right hind is clearly his weakest link--there is a bit of a corresponding hollow in his back.
Comment: Less pumped about being right about this.
3) My saddle actually fits him quite well.
HUZZAH
4) The flocking in my saddle is a bit like roadkill on a country highway that's been left out for a whole winter. Like, still technically recognizable as a saddle, but hard, lumpy, and way dead.

not gonna lie, this was terrifying. RIP saddle.

We'd initially only planned on the fitting, and minor flocking adjustments, but there was no denying what needed to be done. There was also no denying that my checking account would in no way accommodate my crazy new plan to just DO IT ALL NOW. I have a long, tragic history of beating that poor account with a stick, so we rolled with it. I told Adrienne to take the saddle home and do the full reflock.

She felt really bad about how that was substantially more money than I was planning on spending, tried to talk me out of it because she wasn't trying to take advantage of me, and then offered to throw in a free dye job on the saddle, so it would be beautiful. Not saying no to that.

I also got to go to her workshop and watch some of the work being done, which was fascinating. I'd never seen a deconstructed saddle before. Fun fact:

this is the saddle

these are the panels

They come apart in two totally different pieces. This is also why lots of saddle people think half pads are silly--if your saddle has decent flocking, you basically have the world's best half pad sewn on to the bottom of your saddle.

That's pretty cool.

In a couple of days, I had my saddle back. I could feel the difference in the panels IMMEDIATELY. They're always been hard and lumpy, and now they were squishy and soft and even and comfy. I can definitely see how Courage will be more comfortable with them. The dye job was lovely and even and made the saddle look brand new, and she'd made a couple minor repairs to the stitching and d rings.

I love it.

It's like having a brand new saddle, only without all that buy/sell hassle.

before--greying out everywhere

after--gleaming, beautiful black

 I've had my saddle back for several weeks now, and I really couldn't be happier. It fits great, Courage goes great, it looks great. I can ride with confidence because I know Courage isn't in pain at all. We do have a plan to meet up again in a couple months and re-evaluate the flocking as it settles, which is a normal part of the saddle-maintenance routine.

This may be my first time using a saddle-pro, but it definitely isn't the last. I'm thrilled with the possibilities. Let's face it--instead of the perennial saddle-shopping side show, I got to spend far less money with a much more satisfactory result. (And if you're local, definitely give Adrienne a call. Well worth the money, imho.)

If you're like me and had never been around the process before, this is a little bit of what it looks like. If you've done something similar with your saddle, how does it compare?

Epic Pony Weekend: Failsauce

magic blanket ftw

Saturday of epic pony weekend was 90f. Which like, WTF WEATHER IT'S LATE SEPTEMBER. Oh well. I pulled Courage out of his stall and threw him in the crossties to wear the magic yellow blanket for a while.

It's supposed to have magnets or something I think. Anyways. Theoretically, it soothes sore muscles and after two days of jumping (and since I was a little crippled), I figured Courage needed all the help he could get.

As I got him set up, I took a close look at his now strangely larger and lumpier hock, and saw this:

good job, horse.

Yup. Nasty ol' cut inside the hock and another gash running down his cannon bone. Y'know. Cuz that's cool.

all work needed ottb approval

In better news, I had scheduled the saddle fitter to come out and look at him and his dressage saddle that day. Fun fact: I have literally never used a saddle fitter before because bfn DOESN'T HAVE ONE. Until now.

I had a couple mini strokes over what the whole shebang cost, but figured it was worth the money to get C checked out. After all, we can't have a dressage princess OTTB with a sore back.

measuring

It was a very interesting process--the fitter took tracings of Courage's back in three different places and then measured them. She said he wasn't sore at all and that the differences in muscling were not concerning at this point. She also verified that his right hind is the weakest--slightly asymmetrical over there.

She also put the saddle on him and took it off and screwed around with it and measured stuff and we nerded out about tack together, so that was cool. Her analysis was this:

1) My saddle is very nice quality and well constructed.
2) It actually fits my horse very well.
3) The flocking is like WAY super dead, which makes the bottom of the saddle rock hard and lumpy.
4) Rock hard and lumpy is not super desirable.
5) The sweat marks I was freaking out about aren't a super big deal (given his conformation and lack of back sore-ness).
6) We could probably fix it with some minor on-the-spot flocking adjustments that would involve adding new flocking to old flocking as a stop gap until I could afford to do a full reflock.

not gonna lie. this was scary.

So she went to adjust the flocking, but the port was in a weird place and she's like "do you mind if I take your saddle apart a little?" and I'm like "uh are you sure you can put it back together?"

She seemed confident.

I stood there and tried to look professional as my saddle was in multiple pieces and I reviewed what she'd told me, which pretty well aligns with what I already knew/suspected anyways...

So I put on a (hypothetical) steel-toed boot and kicked my checking account in the crotch as hard as I could.

Which is to say, I told her to take the whole thing home and do the full reflock now. It's a good saddle. It fits us both. I want to keep it. It's worth the money to me to maintain it.

And hey. This is the first tine in the history of living in BFN that it's actually possible to do routine saddle maintenance. LET'S DO THIS.

That is the story of how I managed to spend a shit ton of money without even riding my horse one day.

brb have to beat down bank account again