Good/Bad News

Bad news: saddle-fit problem became evident on Wednesday, six weeks out from our first 50.

Good news: turned out saddlefitter was already scheduled to stop by the barn on Friday and was willing to squeeze Tucker in for a quick thumbs up-or-down preliminary.

Bad news: no way I could be there (but hurrah for helpful barnmates).

Good news: fitter thinks the saddle is probably workable; he'll be coming back Wednesday for a more thorough assessment inclusive of rider up and horse in motion.

Bad news: it occurs to me that we may have not a saddle fit problem so much as a saddle appropriateness-to-the-job problem.  I love this saddle and "your horse has changed shape so much that it can no longer be made to fit him" is the only reason I can imagine being willing to part with it -- but selling the jump saddle would turn financing an endurance saddle into a non-issue.  Adding a second saddle, on the other hand, especially until my dressage saddle finds a new home?  Non-non-issue.

I said mid-conversation at GMHA last weekend, "I used to event."  Didn't even think about it until I was walking away at which point: yikes.  Is that true?  Am I a former eventer now, or am I still an eventer and also a distance rider at the same time?  I honestly don't know.  And I am okay with not knowing!  But I don't think I'm ready to be without a jump saddle, either way.

Good news: don't have to make any decisions right now and assuming we can get the Quantum workable for the 50, I'll have all of Tucker's vacation to get my ducks in a row for next year.  Honestly I can do most of his initial legging-up bareback and probably will do regardless of the saddle situation!  Long bareback walks in the snow are the absolute best.

I am not totally surprised that this is the situation.  We're six months out almost exactly from the Quantum's last fitting and given that Tucker's job has changed so thoroughly, I've been idly thinking for a while now that I should probably reassess our saddle situation this off-season.  But saddle stuff?  I would rather chew glass.

Funder's comment on last post nailed what I expect to be looking for when the time comes: something English-style and preferably dressage-balanced without locking me into a dressage stirrup length, with lots of dee rings and super weight distribution.  In a perfect world I would like to keep my jump saddle and add a saddle suitable for both endurance and mid-level dressage.  But I do tend to ride short over terrain and I am long from hip to knee and I spend a lot of time in two-point, so a super-straight flap is probably not the world's best idea.  Should be comfortable, of course, but I am not fussy about twist width or depth of seat, etc.  Should probably have a tree; I continue to flirt with the idea of treeless (he goes so well bareback, you guys) but in practice I spend so much time standing in the stirrups that I just don't see how it would be sustainable for us over lots of miles.

Should fit Tucker fantastically well, which is where I get lost, because in the abstract I understand back-shape and tree-shape but most of the voodoo details are totally opaque.  So I figure when the time comes, I know upon which professional's mercy I hope to fling myself, and we will just see what they say once they've had a look at my horse.

In the meantime, I shall make myself crazy window-shopping, because I do have some vague idea of a few models that might just be the ticket but man, I do not want to fall in love with something that may be completely nonviable!

And in the actual meantime, we ride.  10 miles on Tuesday, trotting the dirt road up the front side of our mountain and then ambling back down.  The short bareback hack on Wednesday and then we did another 10 yesterday along the dirt road and the trails on the backside -- tried to smooth out the terrain effect, kick the speed up a notch, and fit in canter stretches where we could.  Varying the workouts is easier said than done in our area; I am not at all sure that our hill days include any more climbing than our steady-state rides, and we don't have a good option for set-it-and-forget-it long trots -- I had been using the park across the street but at this point the footing is so hard as to be slippery on the descents.  So we just do what we can and see what happens; I am too new at this to have a well-developed methodology, anyway.

Planning to get in a long slow ride tonight and then do a couple laps of the mountain tomorrow for a high-mileage week, as our weeks go, followed by a more laid-back stretch.  Weekend after next we'll haul somewhere.  I'm eying GMHA's member's day trails, if I can find somewhere to crash since it is a non-camping weekend for them, and I had briefly hoped to drag the whole family up to Acadia but alas, their stabling is fully booked, so I'm looking at a few places closer to home as well as trying to figure out why nobody seems to trail ride in the White Mountains.  We'll get in a long ride somewhere that weekend, anyway, and there's certainly no adding useful fitness in the last month before the 50, so I figure we'll play and chill out.

Probably literally, given that the ride is mid-October in Vermont...!

Also some pony is totally getting a soapy bath and a new buzzcut this weekend.

So that's the plan.