My Soapbox for Equestrian Writings
Readers of my blog know that I have a pretty full-blown saddle addiction, but the one thing I’ve always resisted is ordering a custom saddle. Well, not quite. I have a saddle that was made to measure for me — a Roosli Pilatus dressage saddle. Not technically “custom” it was assembled to fit my measurements […]
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Bitting up for hunting can mean the difference between a fun ride and a continuous tug of war. Whenever someone says you should be able to ride every horse in a snaffle, I chuckle and think, “you’ve never been foxhunting.” That’s not to say you can’t hunt a horse in a snaffle. My Trakehner was […]
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Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to jump downed trees in a single bound. Look! Running after the hounds! It’s Zelda! For sure, Zelda had the locomotive part down pat. Riding her was a bit like being on a runaway train. Without brakes that worked well. Zelda and I had […]
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When you lay down big bucks for a saddle pad, the temptation to keep it clean is very strong. I started using a SaddleRight pad under my treeless saddle some time ago as it provides spinal clearance, it distributes pressure and doesn’t compress over time. These nifty pads run about $350 new (although you can […]
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How many ways can a saddle not fit a horse? It turns out there are many. In fact, there are probably more horses wearing saddles that don’t fit than which do. My evidence? Recently, I joined a saddle fitting group on Facebook. It’s a page where people post photos of their horse and saddle and […]
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Just because a saddle fits a horse that’s standing still doesn’t mean it will still fit when the horse is moving, because saddle fitting for the horse in motion has to take into account how the horse’s back changes. I came across an interesting post on Facebook by Erica Allen, a certified independent saddle fitter […]
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Check out this 1700-year-old Mongolian saddle which was found in the Urd Ulaan Uneet burial cave — the only burial cave in the region from this era. Every long time reader of this blog knows how much I love saddles and this one is amazing — it’s so perfectly preserved that it’s hard to comprehend […]
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Almost everyone has heard the three-finger rule for saddle fit: that you should be able to fit three fingers between the withers and the pommel of the saddle. But do you know why? It’s more than just protecting the nerves and muscles that run down your horse’s back, the saddle also needs to leave enough […]
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