India's New Saddle

Two pictures of me and India taken this morning at the end of our trail ride. She's wearing her new Wintec saddle, the one that took forever to arrive, or so it seemed.

India and Asia have the same coloring, but they are so different in shape and personality. India is definitely built like her father and she's also much more self confident. I wonder if Asia would be more like India if she'd not bounced through so many owners before I got her? Interesting thought and we'll never know.

The last two times I've tacked India up last using the Stubben, she was so incredibly pissy, turning her head towards me and threatening to nip, so much that I decided that until I got the Wintec, I just wasn't going to ride her at all. This morning when I started to groom her, she got pissy once, but then realized that I wasn't putting the saddle on and her attitude got nicer. When I finally did put the saddle on, she didn't act ugly at all. It is so much wider that when I tighten the girth, I suppose it's not pinching her withers, so yes, money well spent. YAY! What is odd for me until I got used to it was how much higher I sit in this saddle than the Stubben. It's just got more bulk and I felt as though I was taller, so I suppose that I really am. It took me about 20 minutes to get used to the difference and not feel as though I was in the wrong place. It's a very comfortable saddle for me, too. I had the stirrups too short when I first got on and got off, moved them down two holes, got back on, still too short, got off, moved them down another hole, got back on and they still felt too short, but only by a hole, so I left them there. I'll change them tomorrow before I ride again.

I was very pleased with how well she did loading on the trailer and standing nicely tied while being bridled. I'd put the saddle on back at the barn, along with the breast plate because I knew that there would need to be some futzing with them both and I wanted to do that while we were at home rather than at the ride site where she might be more hyped up, but thankfully she really wasn't. I didn't leave the rope halter on under the bridle this time as I felt confident that she was going to behave and she really did. Going to South Carolina was so good for us both for it gave me confidence that she's acting so much more like a grown up horse than a baby and good for India that she got a chance to show me how well she's doing. That said, she had one baby moment out on trail when she realized that Katie's mare, Paloma, with whom she'd trailered over and therefore they're BFFs forever, was getting way ahead in the first group (we'd split into two groups, a group of three and a group of four) and she wanted to be up there with her and I refused to let her trot to catch up to that group, which was only about 100 feet further down the trail. Well, she spun in place (we were in the front of the second group) and then started backing down the trail thinking that she'd evade my direction by that manuever. The group I was with patiently stopped and let me school India through this moment, which involved asking her to turn left and go forward and then try going straight back to that group, or go right and then straight, so we zig zagged our way back. She didn't want to go forward in a straight line, but hey, I got her back to the group and we didn't get into an argument about it. It only took a few minutes and everyone was patient, which I really appreciated. We then dropped into the second row of our group and walked forward to join the other three, who were patiently waiting. Oh, she also bucked once at a canter but I made her keep going as bucking means more work, not a release from cantering, and the second time we cantered, she was fine.

So, all in all it was a really good day and I'm pleased with how well she's doing. And to make it even better, the temp got up to 71 this afternoon and we could ride in just sweaters, so it was quite comfortable. She loaded pretty nicely for the ride back, too.