Birker2020
Well-Known Member
Well the saddle fit went very well and I managed to get a super Ideal Apex saddle for Lari on Friday afternoon. I used Nigel Bexon from Balmoral Equestrian in Worcestershire.
Nigel was amazingly thorough and asked about Lari's history as well as what I wanted to do with him in the future. I explained all about the issues we'd had with the saddle that hurt him previously and the accident he had when he made his already damaged SI joint worse. He looked at his musculature (my physio had already spoken to him about Lari and explained about all the rehab I'd done with him) and after trying on a number of saddles found the Ideal was the best fit.
So he padded it taking into account the trapezius muscle atrophy at the side of his shoulder blade. I think it was called a drop panel?? So it had extra depth and shape to fill in the gap. This atrophy may have been caused by previous poor saddle fit long before I owned him. So he flocked the saddle in a special way to take into account the atrophy and provided me with a 'Acavallo fish eye gel pad' to help compensate for the lack of trapezius muscle.
So with the aid of a lovely pro rider on our yard we lunged him with the saddle and he was very fresh. The saddle never budged an inch which was really good to see. So after 20 mins and no sign of him calming down it was decided to get on him on the yard rather than the school. So the rider leant over him and then slowly put her leg over him and walked him a little bit. He looked a bit anxious to start with, no doubt remembering the old saddle and the pain it had caused him but soon relaxed. So that was a rider on board after 3 months on not having been ridden and just doing ground work. So we were very pleased with him. I long reined him around the yard on Saturday afternoon with the saddle on and he was very good, seemed very happy with it, so its a huge relief.
The plan is that the lady will ride him twice a week in the school and once a week on a hack in company to get him started. She will do this for a minimum of a month before the saddle fitter comes back out at which point I will sit on him and he can then see the fit of the saddle. Delighted with him. Huge thank you to rider *** and to Nigel Bexon at Balmoral for his incredible knowledge and patience in getting a great fit for my lovely horse.
Nigel was amazingly thorough and asked about Lari's history as well as what I wanted to do with him in the future. I explained all about the issues we'd had with the saddle that hurt him previously and the accident he had when he made his already damaged SI joint worse. He looked at his musculature (my physio had already spoken to him about Lari and explained about all the rehab I'd done with him) and after trying on a number of saddles found the Ideal was the best fit.
So he padded it taking into account the trapezius muscle atrophy at the side of his shoulder blade. I think it was called a drop panel?? So it had extra depth and shape to fill in the gap. This atrophy may have been caused by previous poor saddle fit long before I owned him. So he flocked the saddle in a special way to take into account the atrophy and provided me with a 'Acavallo fish eye gel pad' to help compensate for the lack of trapezius muscle.
So with the aid of a lovely pro rider on our yard we lunged him with the saddle and he was very fresh. The saddle never budged an inch which was really good to see. So after 20 mins and no sign of him calming down it was decided to get on him on the yard rather than the school. So the rider leant over him and then slowly put her leg over him and walked him a little bit. He looked a bit anxious to start with, no doubt remembering the old saddle and the pain it had caused him but soon relaxed. So that was a rider on board after 3 months on not having been ridden and just doing ground work. So we were very pleased with him. I long reined him around the yard on Saturday afternoon with the saddle on and he was very good, seemed very happy with it, so its a huge relief.
The plan is that the lady will ride him twice a week in the school and once a week on a hack in company to get him started. She will do this for a minimum of a month before the saddle fitter comes back out at which point I will sit on him and he can then see the fit of the saddle. Delighted with him. Huge thank you to rider *** and to Nigel Bexon at Balmoral for his incredible knowledge and patience in getting a great fit for my lovely horse.
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