Thursday, May 27, 2010

Pleasure Pony!

One of my students came out last week to photograph our lesson for the club. I selfishly sent him images of pleasure horses and asked if he could try to capture my horse looking like one....



Ta Da! A Pleasure Pony!

Ignore my short legs, I keep my training saddle stirrups a little high so I can still post in it. Ignore my back, too, clearly I need to roll those hips back a bit.

But the lope isn't that good...




We still struggle with that. I've come to the realization that his lope is the worse in my training saddle than it is in my English saddle, or even my show saddle, and when TJ rode him in my saddle she felt it, too. I had thought it was more about slow lope vs. canter that made the difference in the English saddle, but I loped him at the show in the English saddle and he was MUCH more even than normal.

Greaaaat. Just what I want to have to do: buy a new saddle. Although since I really don't like my show saddle, maybe I'll get rid of them both and get this one for work and for show:

It's technically a "classy working" reining saddle, so the fender placement is a little farther forward than the Equitation seats, but not severely. I think it's really pretty and understated. When you show a bay roan paint you could use a little understated! What do you think? It has a headstall to match...

Anybody want to buy a 1991 16" Circle Y Equitation saddle with matching headstall and breastplate? Come on, you know you do!

7 comments:

  1. Oh how I hate buying saddles. It's such an expensive mistake if you make a mistake! Nice pictures for inside the arena. Your student did a good job!

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  2. Great pictures of Junior!

    I wish I could hire a photographer to follow me around everywhere and take pictures. :)

    That saddle is really nice and I think it would make a great show saddle. It's fancy enough to look great in the show ring but not too much that it overpowers Junior. It's pricey (what with horses isn't, though) and I'd be worried about using it for work and show but that's because I'm always having to set mine in the dirt.

    Circle Y saddles stay good forever! I'm sure your current saddle would be easy to sell.

    I looked up that horse for you, but all I could find was his pedigree. He doesn't have an APHA show record, or a progeny record, but I got a PDF of his pedigree. Shoot me an email and I'll email you the PDF. Did you need me to check anything else?

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  3. Get a saddle that 1) fits your horse; 2) fits you; and 3) is the best quality you can afford.

    That saddle would do fine in the ring around here - some of the best horses at the paint shows are in well worn training saddles.

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  4. Oh yeah... my email is rlilbitofcash[at]gmail.com :)

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  5. I'm not in a hurry. I might go ahead and try to sell my show saddle after my next show, then go sit in this one at Congress and see what I think.

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  6. Beautiful pictures! You're so lucky to get decent photos of you taken. I have to rely on my dad who isn't too great with technology to take pictures of me when I ride on the very rare occasion that he's up for it. Saddles can be a pain to buy, but it's always worth it in the long run. You can always sell old saddles that you don't need anymore, which is always incentive to take care of your stuff!

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  7. Hi, I would like to tell you about draft horse saddles for horse this is one of the nice saddle and gives perfect looks for your horse.

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