A friend of mine is helping me get Breezy ready for her first ride. I’ve done all of the basics: ground driving, bitting, saddling, and the like. I’ve leaned on her back, put weight in the stirrup, and she’s been like “Oh hi, what are you doing?” No panics, no worries, just accepting that her human is doing weird things.
When I was starting Kasane, I did not know a lot about saddle fitting besides checking for basic fit. I had never worried about how having a short-backed horse means the saddle has to shorter or else it hits the horse in the wrong spot. It was never a problem with Isis.
Breezy had a proper saddle fitting to make sure everything was good before I was going to get on her. The last thing you want is for a horse to have a bad experience on their first ride due to ill-fitting tack.
I have three dressage saddles, all of them ones Kasane has had, and outgrown in the case of two of them:
- A 31cm tree, 17.5 seat Prestige Venus K monoflap (medium tree width)
- A 34cm tree, 17.5 seat Fryso Lux dressage saddle (wide tree width)
- A custom-fit-to-Kasane 17.5 Schleese Obrigado (Kasane’s current saddle)
The saddle fitter said that she liked the way that the Obrigado fit Breezy the best, but it was far too heavy of a saddle to start her in. The Fryso might have worked, except the saddle came down too far over her back on the sides and would put pressure on the wrong part of her back. The Venus K was far too narrow.
The final decision: Nothing I had would work for Breezy.
The saddle fitter recommended trying a Passier Compact dressage saddle. We called the tack shop, and they had one in the right width and size — and it was on sale.
For the first time, I took a saddle on trial for a horse that was not yet broke to ride. Adventures!
The saddle fit Breezy very well.
I have the saddle for a week and will hopefully be on Breezy in the next day or so.
