Saddle Fitting and a Lesson!

Yesterday, I had my three month saddle fitting/check up with my area's County rep. Luckily she said that it still fits Limerick really nicely and complemented how much his back and topline have developed since she last saw him... score!! He was a perfect gentleman for the entire process and tolerated me being on his back for a good three hours. The fitter did say that the saddle had become a little bit unbalanced from where the wool had compressed and that I was more than likely being tipped forward. She evened it out and I rode around in it for a few minutes while she watched, feeling much more balanced and secure. While she was there, I also ordered a pair of matching stirrup leathers since my current ones don't match at all! I'm looking forward to getting those in the next week :)

Then, I briefly watched Hill try out some dressage saddles, which you can read more about on her blog. She and Houston looked awesome and I think they might have found their calling! I'm still advocating that she keep the jump saddle to play around with if she ever gets the urge to jump, but we'll see. Sadly, I didn't get to watch much more of the trial because I had to head to the outdoor for my lesson. It ended up being a "group" lesson with a woman named C and a school pony, Buzz. They are total badasses together and I really hope she buys him someday! They are also inspiring to watch and I love watching her ride. We started out taking turns cantering poles and trying to get the right distances to them, which was fun and challenging, especially making Limmers wait and holding back his tank of a body.

Next, I popped over a cross rail a few times, over which I felt much more balanced and secure. E also shortened my stirrups roughly three holes from where they were for my last jumping lesson, which made me feel like a jockey but helped immensely with balance and keeping my leg underneath me. Aside from my leg, keeping Limerick straight after jumps is my biggest challenge right now. He wants to immediately dive right, something I've obviously identified and recognized that he does but that I'm still having trouble remembering to correct. We ended with a course of poles for me to canter, which E and the other ladies watching assured me was much harder than cantering a course of jumps. Oddly enough, we did it perfectly the first time around. Seriously, it could not have gone better! I kept Lims in a consistent and balanced canter, we got all the right distances and we didn't have any crazy turns, generally hitting the center of the poles. I think they were all pretty impressed, but of course E made me do it again. The second time wasn't bad, just not nearly as awesome as our first attempt. He broke from the canter a few times and I had more steering troubles, but other than that our distances were pretty good and I actually remembered to breathe, which is a victory in itself.

Not so humorous side note- two days after I got my fab new lens, my Nikon D60 (roughly 4 years old) went to camera heaven :( The shutter button gave out on me during Hill's lesson on Wednesday, which was awful timing. However, I now have a new camera to replace it and am back in action! I'm not riding today because it's raining and gross here, but I'll ride every other day this week. I'll keep you posted, it might possibly involve XC schooling or a trip to a local park for trail riding :)

I leave you with random pictures from the past couple of days:

Huer

Lims

Oscar, the other trainer's new puppy

E and Eli, a client's horse

E's dog, Holly

E and Eli

E and Eli

E and Eli

E and Eli

E and Eli

E and Eli

My horse is a goob

Oscar <3333

Sir Houston

looking adorbs