Saturday, August 28, 2010

I don't have any pictures, but I had a great time with Scout today. We finally got around to doing some more ground driving. He wasn't doing too hot at first, but when I got my buggy whip and made him walk at a normal pace (instead of turtling along) he suddenly started paying attention and responding a lot better. Eventually I opened the round pen gate and took him out in the field so we could practice some straight lines. When we were done I was so tempted to saddle up and get on, he was being so good. But it's not time yet.

I'm in the process of trying to find a good padding option for Tonka. Strangely, he has perfect sweat patterns with the saddle we use, but the area behind his shoulder blades is atrophying and he's now starting to develop what feels like lumps of scar tissue on the bottom/back of his shoulder. I'm considering 3 different saddle pads. A custom Skito pad, a BioFit Classic Equine pad (it has great reviews but I'm not sure because I don't like my Classic Equine pad because of its poor quality fleece), and the Chris Cox pad. None are cheap but the Chris Cox one is REALLY expensive. My dad is giving me an awesome birthday present if that's what I end up getting. For now I have made my own shim by cutting up an old neoprene pad. We'll see how that works. I rode in it earlier with no additional padding, and it was good, but not perfect. I think I'm going to go out now and try it with a pad and see what happens.

Bella is still doing well although I can still feel heat in her right front foot.

I can't get my photos to load! I want to send a picture of Tonka to the people at Skito and find out what they recommend...
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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glad the ground-driving went well - I find it very fun and helpful.

Sometimes a saddle fit issue, particularly one where the saddle is too tight in the shoulders, can't be easily remedied with pads/shims . . .

5:10 PM
Andrea -Mustang Saga said...

Actually the saddle is slightly too wide. His big bony shoulders do make it hard to find the right saddle though. I realized just now that it's the skirt, right where it attaches to the breastcollar, that's digging in and causing the problem down low. So I might do well to either leave off the breastcollar or attach it somewhere up higher. The shim is lifting up the front of the saddle pretty nicely.

6:23 PM
froglander said...

I had pondered the Classic Equine Bio-fit pad at one point, and I finally saw one in person at the tack store, was not impressed bye the fit/shim/raised part. The pad I am pondering getting at some point unless Cody miraculously fills out a lot (and it's not like I have a wide saddle, lol) is the Ricotti saddle pad that is distributed by Toklat. I've not personally used it, but I have seen it and felt it and tried it under saddles and sold it at the tack store I used to work at. I remember one couple I suggested it to, they thought and thought, finally bought it, and turned out they liked it so much they came and bought another one for their other horse. If you've not considered it yet, I think it would be worth taking a look at at least. Good luck!

9:02 PM
Andrea -Mustang Saga said...

I had forgotten about that pad. Thanks for reminding me! I wish I could get my hands on all of these pads (or better yet, try them) before making my decision.

10:31 PM
froglander said...

Good luck with the decision. Is there any sort of online bulletin board/forum/mailing list for people in your area? Maybe you could ask if anyone has, or has tried these pads?

6:59 PM

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