Giant grey Irish oaf free to good or bad home*

[Annagain]

*In return for a donation to the cost of a new tree for his saddle.

I still don’t know how he managed it.

I took Charlie to the local forestry for a ride on Thursday with a couple of friends. We parked up, I got him off the trailer, tied him to the back and started tacking up. I put his saddle on, did the girth up loosely, went to get his bridle out of the back of the car, turned around and thought he and his saddle looked a bit funny.

He wasn’t panicking as such but clearly wasn’t happy and his saddle looked a bit wonky. As I got closer, I realised he had somehow managed to catch his stirrup leather around the closing mechanism of the trailer ramp, he was pulling to get away and his saddle had slipped round to the side. I only left his side for about 5 seconds!

I managed to release it and took his saddle off and checked it over. It seemed ok so I put it back on, put his bridle on and off we went. It seemed fine and we had a lovely ride.

I rode him again this morning and the moment I got on I could feel a lump under my leg. I don’t know how I didn’t feel it on Thursday. I jumped off and had a much closer look and could see the stirrup bar is bent.

One phonecall to my saddler later, I’m taking it for him to look at tomorrow. He said if I’m lucky, the tree will be ok and he can just bend the bar back, but the tree could have been weakened or twisted and I might need a new one.

I’m fairly confident the tree is ok but I’m no expert so expecting the worst but hoping for the best. At the very least, it’s a two hour round trip on a Sunday, when I should be riding .

I doubt he’d be able to do it again if he tried!

On the plus side, he could have panicked rather than just carrying on to pull in the hope of getting free. It was also the first time Charlie went somewhere alone, met strange horses, rode with them and then left them happily after two hours to get back on the trailer. In fact, he was better behaved than the two 16 year olds he was with! Maybe he’s forgiven after all

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

You can send him here, if you like.

We use treeless saddles

 

[dixie]

You can always count on a horse to get itself into trouble!
Sounds like he has a sensible head on him tho and crisis averted despite damage to saddle.

 

[Annagain]

You can send him here, if you like.

We use treeless saddles

I’ll put him on the 8am train with a packed lunch and a clean hanky .

 

[PurBee]

Theyre like toddlers sometimes, turn away for a few seconds only to return to mayhem!

unfortunately theyre so strong they easily break stuff -i hope your saddle is an easy fix and tree is fine.

Sounds like you had a lovely ride despite the incident! Springtime is the best time to embrace being out again, im loving it!

 

[Bernster]

Ahem what purbee said! They really can get themselves into such trouble. Hope it’s easily fixable but sounds like he almost? ? redeemed himself on the ride.

 

[spotty_pony]

Oh no! At least he is ok! Horses do
know how to test our patience sometimes! ?

 

[ArklePig]

I feel like it's only fair you send him back to Ireland.... I'll have him! ?

He sounds a good boy all in all but I hope it doesn't cost you too much to fix!

 

[Annagain]

Good news, the tree was fine and the stirrup bar bent back into shape very easily. A 2 hour round trip for a 2 minute job! Charlie is off the transfer list .

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

I have an idiot like that he managed to get his headcollar caught on the tap and pulled the whole thing off the wall, I literally only turned around to pick the saddle up!