Dressage Saddle - Reflocking

A couple of lessons ago, Debbie mentioned that she thought I needed to have my saddle checked.  She noticed that I appeared to be having trouble keeping my position, and at the canter she noticed movement in the back of the saddle.   A few others at the barn also needed a check up so I volunteered to set it up with their favorite saddle fitter.

This is the first time I had Patty Barnett (East Crow Saddlery) work on my saddle and I have to say I wasn't disappointed.  She starts out with general information on your horse - age, breed, disciplines besides english/dressage, any medical issues, etc.  I was happy that she didn't notice any asyemmetrical issues, which means we're doing a good job working both sides of the horse.   What she did find was that he was ever so slightly tender in the rear thoracic.   Exactly where the rear of the saddle would've been bouncing.  She also found that the panels were beginning to pinch and rock at the stirrup bar.  So to fix she added wool to the rear 2/3rd of the panels to firm and raise the cantle and added just a smidge of wool to the panel fronts to firm up and alleviate the pinch/rock.  When she was finished she said although she didn't make any major adjustments that I should notice the difference immediately.

She wasn't kidding.  The minute I sat in the saddle my positon was perfect.  My legs fell exactly where they should and no shifting to find my seat bones.  Off the the outside track we went.  I'm thinking this is great, I feel more balanced I hope G feels it too.  We walked a few laps to warm up and then I asked him to step it up into the flat walk and what he did next surprised the heck out of me.  His beats were so even I started clicking my tongue softly and within a minute or two his ears started flopping back and forth along with his funny little grunts he does when he gets chugging along.  G has never ever flopped his ears when gaiting, never ever!  Yeah he'd flip one back here and there listening to me, but this was pure relaxation.  Big heavy sigh~ lol.  I just figured he wasn't one of those horses that did that!  Ya know some click their teeth, some flop their lips.  So now that I've seen it, I know it's there!! It didn't last though, because as we were riding along they started taking horses into the barn for dinner.  Well, you've heard stories, Mr. G is all about food.  Food is his life, and with each pass I could feel his body change - he would turn his head toward the barn, head and neck would raise, ears forward, body tense.  I got him to refocus on me a couple of laps, but he never got back into that relaxed groove and as we rounded the corner by the thick bushes he dropped his shoulder and spun to the left.  I remember when moves like this would've unseated me.  Part of the reason I started wearing full seat breeches.  But lo and behold I was wearing my new Fuzzy Logics that don't have full seats and I still stuck like glue to my boy.  Another heavy sigh.  So I asked him to pick up a canter and completed the oval and brought him back to a walk.  I was having such a good time I hadn't realized that we had been out there 40 minutes.  So I called it a day and walked him back to the barn.  Now it was his turn for a heavy sigh. 

So six months from now I will have Patty come look at the saddle again, as now that I've seen how it should fit, and how well it works when done right I'm all about saddle adjustments!