So that Wintec dressage put the best sweat pattern on the horse that I have ever seen.
Too funny.
We also tried a Passier GT over the weekend that looks equally viable and under which he moved equally well. So I am feeling much better now.
Got one other saddle that I liked pretty well on Tucker-in-the-cross-ties but haven't yet had the opportunity to take for a spin. (And of course tried a number of others that were various shades of no-go.) Then it'll be down to spending enough time with the leading contender(s) to hopefully avoid any nasty surprises on ride day, as well as figuring out padding and mitigating as much as possible the rider comfort issues.
The Wintec has a longer/stiffer flap than I'd like, with an oddball twist noticeable even to usually-not-picky-about-twists me and no sweet spot; I did a lot of slopping around on top. The Passier is much more rider-friendly -- it's exactly the sort of saddle that I love -- and I was really happy with the ride but the bulge at stirrup bar/buckle is likely to get Real Old after an hour or two.
But this stuff can be fiddled with -- the velcro blocks were not helping my case in the former saddle and will be coming off for the next ride, frex, and the stirrup leathers on the latter for this first ride are not my least-obtrusive -- and obviously if I have to choose between Tuck's comfort and my own on a time crunch, he will win out every time.
So, work to be done here yet, but I am cautiously optimistic!
Sounds promising.
ReplyDeleteSlopping around will turn into hell pretty fast - ask Mel. You can try those synthetic Webbers with the buckle at the bottom and it might help the Passier work better for you?
ReplyDeleteYeah, the more I think about it the less I like the idea of flailing for 50 miles. :-p I had initially chalked it up to being out of practice at riding in a dressage saddle but my seat was instantly within-normal-limits in the Passier. The blocks really were inconveniently placed for my freakishly long though, so I'll start there and see what happens.
DeleteI have heard terrible things about the squeak-squeak-squeak of synthetic webbers -- but somebody just told me they make a non-squeaky leather version! It's not clear to me yet whether the bulge is a stirrup buckle or stirrup bar issue, but fingers crossed for the former; that should hopefully be an easy fix.