Cob Jockey

Now that the trailer is getting all fixed up, that leaves me with one last item to check off my list before I move barns.


I currently co-own this saddle with another girl in my barn.  The backstory is here, but basically, last fall I found a saddle that fit me perfectly, and fit Connor passably with a half pad.  But it turned out it fit my barnmate and her horse Louie PERFECTLY, so we decided it would eventually be hers, but we would share it until I got one of my own.  She's going to buy my half out when I get a new saddle.  It worked out really well - she got to pay two installments over six months and I can count on a modest check to help pay for my new saddle when the time comes.


I took one more stab at trying to self-fit a saddle, and trialed a Stubben Juventus D in a 32cm (wide) tree, from Pelham Saddlery last week.


It was a 'meh' fit without a girth, a little too high in the front...


And it got way worse when girthed - it went straight up in the back.  Slightly exaggerated here by Connor trying to graze while I took the photo, but still - bad bad bad.

Mary talked me off the ledge counseled me like only a former professional saddle fitter can and said that the tree size isn't necessarily the issue with a lot of the saddles I've tried, but the long narrow points on the horse-sized Dressage trees are the issue.  Our CWD jump saddle fits so well, and was a lot easier to get right, because of CWD's short flexible tree points (and the integrated panel, to a lesser extent).

So I called in the infantry.  I am out of time.  I'm doing a remote saddle fitting with a lady out of Florida that comes to this area twice a year to do fittings and flocking adjustments.  Half of my barn has used her before, a mix of remote and in person and she's good at what she does.  She's a brand-agnostic independent saddle fitter with a large inventory of nice used stuff at various price points.  She also doesn't give up until things are totally right on hard to fit horses.

Here are Connor's remote fitting photos:

Wearing the Devoucoux - which really doesn't look bad from the side, but looks terrible from the front.

And naked - cutest.  picture. ever.  Trainer: "He's really good at that, isn't he?" Me: "What, looking cute when I fake give him a treat?" Trainer: "Yes."  Me: Welsh shows for the win.

And here is his tracing, taken by my trainer:


I am supposed to talk to the saddle fitter this afternoon, should be interesting.  Stay tuned!