ShadowFlame
Well-Known Member
Right. My apologies for all the questions lately, but I'm after some advice. I'll keep it short!
Bottom line question: If your horse starts bucking in a new saddle, but is riding better overall, would you be concerned, or would you put it down to other factors?
Back story: Coblet was fitted up for a Thorowgood T4 cob saddle in April. Looking back, I'm not convinced it was fitted correctly as we ended up widening it from a M to an XW around 4mths later. It was still unbalanced, he has slight muscle wastage behind his shoulders and I'm aware it doesn't fit right now. I've full on slapped myself on the wrist for it, but just goes to show you shouldn't always trust a saddler's judgement. You live and learn, I guess.
Anyway, this week we had a Solution Saddle rep come out to us, and we've taken a Smart Native GP on trial. It's shimmed at the front due to pone being slightly downhill, but it's a beautiful saddle and I'll admit I've fallen in love with it. However, my issue is how my boy rides in it. He's fine in walk, but once we get to trot or canter he keeps bunny hopping, tanking off, or missing out trot completely and hooneying round in extended canter - a couple of nights ago we had full on bucking along with being out of control. This is out of character for him riddenwise, however he has had a big routine change this week having changed to his winter field with plenty of grass, along with being stabled overnight for the first time.
Now, the behaviour change sounds bad, but when you consider the fact that our trot has gone from this:
to this (low head in trot is unheard of for him!):
And our canter has gone from this:
to this:
I'm a little confused? Would you put it down to routine, or objecting to the saddle? Is he maybe reacting to the freedom a treeless gives him or the fact he's starting to stretch down and use muscles he doesn't usually? Opinions?
Bottom line question: If your horse starts bucking in a new saddle, but is riding better overall, would you be concerned, or would you put it down to other factors?
Back story: Coblet was fitted up for a Thorowgood T4 cob saddle in April. Looking back, I'm not convinced it was fitted correctly as we ended up widening it from a M to an XW around 4mths later. It was still unbalanced, he has slight muscle wastage behind his shoulders and I'm aware it doesn't fit right now. I've full on slapped myself on the wrist for it, but just goes to show you shouldn't always trust a saddler's judgement. You live and learn, I guess.
Anyway, this week we had a Solution Saddle rep come out to us, and we've taken a Smart Native GP on trial. It's shimmed at the front due to pone being slightly downhill, but it's a beautiful saddle and I'll admit I've fallen in love with it. However, my issue is how my boy rides in it. He's fine in walk, but once we get to trot or canter he keeps bunny hopping, tanking off, or missing out trot completely and hooneying round in extended canter - a couple of nights ago we had full on bucking along with being out of control. This is out of character for him riddenwise, however he has had a big routine change this week having changed to his winter field with plenty of grass, along with being stabled overnight for the first time.
Now, the behaviour change sounds bad, but when you consider the fact that our trot has gone from this:
to this (low head in trot is unheard of for him!):
And our canter has gone from this:
to this:
I'm a little confused? Would you put it down to routine, or objecting to the saddle? Is he maybe reacting to the freedom a treeless gives him or the fact he's starting to stretch down and use muscles he doesn't usually? Opinions?
