Saddle at long last!

I've finally found a saddle, in my price range, that fits me and is super comfortable, and fits Rose as well as a non-custom, non-adjustable saddle is going to fit her ever-growing and changing warmblood back. Rose was a bit miffed that her vacation was interrupted for 20 minutes Sunday afternoon, but she got over it. Now she can go back to enjoying the remaining 5 weeks of vacation.

What is it? It's a used JRD Accord. Prior to trying out this saddle, I'd never heard of a JRD before. However, upon closer observation in my surroundings, I discovered that several people at my barn have them. The only thing I'm not totally thrilled about is that it seems to have the heck flocked out of it. That's no biggy to get fixed though. I'm hoping that the saddle maker/owner of JRD, Mehrdad Baghai, will be up our way in the next couple months so that he can adjust the flocking for Rose's back. Right now seems to sit just fine on her back, but I know that it was flocked for the previous horse that was ridden in it, so I'd like to make sure that there isn't anything weird going on that could make her crooked, etc. I'm being overly paranoid about it I'm sure! It also seems a tiny bit wide for her. However, that's hard to judge because she's lost some muscle tone already, she'd butt high again, and I think the pommel shape is just different than the saddle I've been borrowing to ride her in. There is still plenty of room between the pommel and her wither...so I think it's just fine. However, I think I shall have Mehrdad look at that as well, given that apparently he can do some minor adjustments to the trees of his saddles. I figure in the worst case scenario, I can put a shim pad on her.

Well, I'm looking forward to 2011 and this horse vacation being over so I can play with my new old saddle!

Happy trails and swooshing tails!

-DS

Adventures In Colt Starting