Had the saddle fitter out again today. Ended up trading in the Albion K2 Legend for a used Bates Isabell. It's in very good shape, looks new except for a few brown horse hairs in the nooks and crannies ;)
Ideally, I would have liked it in 16.5" with the small knee pads, but she didn't have one of those used. So instead I got the 17" with large knee pads, which works out pretty well, too. So here I am, with a deep-seated saddle with large knee pads and a wide twist, exactly the opposite of the open seat, small or no knee pads, and narrow twist prerequisites I had for a saddle, go figure. But it looks like it should work for the horse, and my balance is good in the saddle, so I'll just have to learn to live with everything else ;) I'm looking forward to trying it properly, although I'm a bit paranoid about it, keeping my fingers crossed that he'll be OK with it!!
Then of course there's Wintec/Bates' annoying feature of shorter billet straps than other saddles, so I needed a new girth, too. Luckily, my old one was a well-kept Stübben, so the saddle fitter took it in trade for a longer one. I also bought a longer girth for the jumping saddle, his bulging muscles had grown out of the old one. So now we should be about set.
Detail worth remembering, the Isabell takes a narrower gullet than the Pro Jump, he has blue in the Isabell, red in the Jump.
He has a 2 cm long superficial cut just above the coronet band on his right hind that just won't heal because it keeps getting dirty, so now I cleaned, it and wrapped it up in cotton and bright red vetwrap (suits him nicely), wil keep it out of the dirt for a few days, hopefully that'll take care of it. He also has a few spots of dew poisoning on 3 legs (the joys of white legs in a wet climate), so I'm trying to keep his legs clean and dry in Denmark in winter - hah!
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2 comments:
Does the Bates Isabell have the Bates feature of stirrup bars a couple of inches further back than normal? I rode in one once and loved the feel of the saddle, but it was disastrous for my position, as I tend to lock my hips anyway. Putting them back a couple of inches made the problem even worse. It was a real shame, as I liked everything else about the saddle. Hope it works out Ok - saddle fitting is a nightmare! ;)
it does have the stirrup bar placement, I'm not quite sure what it does to my position, this saddle is so different for me to ride in that I need a little time to settle into it and figure out exactly how I feel about it ;)
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