Sports Saddle Trial Rides

My Sports Saddle came a couple weeks ago and I have been able to use it on each horse. Here's Daniel modeling it. It's brown and in really nice shape.

I first used it on Serts, since he is my bareback horse anyway. I figured if I couldn't ride that saddle on him, I had no hope for the other 2. Fortunately, in my years of buying saddle pads, I had an Equipedic pad with inserts hiding in my storage room so I didn't have to wait for a new saddle pad to arrive.

The saddle seemed a little small riding on Serts. I had to adjust my riding just a little. He is a little sway-backed, though, so it was to be expected that the saddle would sink some. I rode him for 4 miles that first time. I would like my stirrups back just a little and I need to replace the leather stirrup covers with sheepskin or woolback covers, but all in all, I was encouraged that this saddle might work for Snap. After all, I bought the saddle for him.

My next ride in the saddle was on Tanna. I used the same set up on Tanna with the Equipedic pad. Tanna was a bit squirrelly with the saddle. He does not like anything new. Especially when I got on and he could feel me move a lot more and I could feel him. I wouldn't think I could feel that much with the saddle and the pad and the inserts between me and the horse, but amazingly, I could feel Tanna very well. It was an interesting sensation. Not exactly like bareback, but way different from a treed saddle.

Tanna and I did our normal 9 mile out and back ride. I did feel I had a bit more room in the saddle with Tanna than with Serts. The difference between a sway back and a straight back. I'm still debating if I need a larger seat size. The saddle I got is a 14" or 14.5" saddle. I might like a 15" for endurance, but for training Snap, I think the saddle I have will work well.

I have not ridden Snap yet. I am still waiting for the right time. The time will come. And I'll probably wonder why I waited so long, but I'm waiting until it's right for both of us. At any rate, I did work Snap in the round pen this week with the saddle on. And for the first time in a long time, we had a 45 minute session where he did not kick or buck!!! In fact, he looked awesome. He did this really nice long, lean trot that looked like it would cover ground and be very comfortable. I spent some of the session stepping on and off my 29" mounting block next to Snap on both sides, working on getting him to stand still for mounting.

Sorry, no picture of Snap with the saddle. My new camera ran out of battery and I had to set the battery on the charger. Definitely need to order a spare battery.