Cob Jockey

I have to be honest, I was terrified to open this box last Friday.

Real talk: when my back hallway outside my office looks like this, so does my brain, lol

I knew the fitter wouldn't make any mistakes a second time, but just like the first time I opened that box in September of 2021, I couldn't shake that feeling that so much had gone wrong with my saddle fitting journey to that point, it would just be par for the course for it to be wrong in some way again.

But.

It wasn't.

In fact, it was - finally - perfect. Two months shy of three years since I rode in the Mary Wanless clinic in May of 2019, and she told me I was fighting my saddle and apologized for how hard it would be to find a saddle in mine and Connor's combined conformation (she was not wrong!).

Mary declared the fit "just about perfect". It's a bit tight behind the withers, but it's not because of the tree shape, that's perfect. It's the flocking, and that will either resolve itself as it breaks in and the flocking compresses a bit, or it will get resolved when we see Kate at her annual spring trip to CGP's barn (she comes twice a year, so this thing will get regularly adjusted).

This time, it does have serge, so she can stick her needles through literally any point in the underside of the saddle to get the flocking perfect.

Seeeeeeeeeeeeeerge! Also check out how wide the channel had to be for my wide boy. This saddle feels WIDE.

All of my other complaints about the original are resolved. Per my request, they made the flap a hair - and I do mean a hair - shorter. Would I have taken it even shorter, absolutely, but I bet they were afraid to go any shorter on a Dressage saddle, and this is fine, especially in my new stiff boots that naturally have less "horse feel" through them anyway.

I mean that flap is a solid six inches shorter than most of the Dressage saddles I've owned in my life, so it's definitely an improvement over everything except the flapless!

We also requested teeny tiny jump saddle blocks this time around. Which, I am definitely going to miss the "locked in" feeling of the external block on the loaner (that I got at Lamplight in August, and have had this entire time!), but 1. I don't really need the blocks to lock me in, and 2. I still have commitment issues re: block positioning, so no regrets going the monoflap + Velcro block pocket route.

Mary was most excited about the billet positioning. On this one, the billets come off the waist of the saddle, and while there's a pocket to make the front one more of a point billet, the first thing I did was take it out.

With that billet out, it made the saddle sit like this.

Photo taken after my ride, with the non-ergonomic (but shaped) Stubben girth.

Which Mary could not get over. It kept girth and saddle right where they should be, and even in an abbreviated ride, Connor was perfectly willing to lift his shoulders into it, which was my litmus test when saddle shopping.

Warm enough for a tanktop on March 5, yes please!

So this is it: we can finally put the saddle shopping saga to rest! Hats off to Patrick for making this right in the end. Now, is it too much to ask for Disco to grow up to be the same shape as Connor so I never have to do this again? Haha.