First world problems: I’m in saddle shopping hell. I feel like I’m probably complaining too early, calling down the wrath of the dressage saddle gods (You think it’s bad now? You haven’t SEEN bad…) — but this is HARD. There are so many variables, and it’s SO MUCH WORK to try saddles. All of them have to be hauled into the barn to be set on him, and then there’s the mystifying experience of trying to guess how they fit. There’s a lot of eyeballing and hmming and jiggling the saddle around. I’m very lucky that there’s often one or two dressage instructors floating around who are incredibly sweet and generous with their time (and probably really don’t want to have to watch Poe laboring under an ill-fitting saddle for the next however long), and have taken pity on me and given me some really helpful comments on how the saddles seem to sit.

Once the initial assessment is done, I have to scrounge up a dressage girth, since I don’t own one, then haul the million saddles and the pony down to the arena to give them all a test ride. The stirrups have to be wrestled on and off each one in turn, and adjusted, and BLAAAH. All of this while trying to keep the pony’s wet nose off of them, while he’s high as a kite from being on lock-up and bored with all of this standing around being saddled. He does not understand that we are shopping for exciting expensive new things for him, and it behooves him to cooperate.

Here’s the run-down of what we’ve tried so far:

• New County Competitor: Current best fit: 17.5″ medium tree. Medium wide fits well with sheepskin half pad. The new Countys have flat panels that sit well on his back. (I actually don’t have a clear memory of how these sat on his back; I had the County rep out and am relying on what she told me about it sitting correctly. So, grain of salt, knowing she’s the rep for just that brand.) I felt like I was swinging around a bit in the seat, and like I was really sitting on the tree — it seemed to hit me in a weird place inside my thighs. But that could also be lack of familiarity with dressage saddles in general. Maybe the saddle needs breaking in. Maybe I just need to find my seat in it and it would do a world of good for my riding.
• New County Perfection: Same fit as above. This has a different leather, deeper seat, and external thigh blocks. I felt more secure in this one and the canter in particular was awesome — I was just stuck right with him. Unfortunately this one also has the biggest price tag, and is way out of my range. I wonder also if I would end up not liking such a deep, holding seat?
• Old County Competitor: 17.5″ MW (#4). This is the older model with the unfortunate banana panels. It badly needs reflocking; I’m still waiting to hear how much that could help the fit, because it’s fantastic to ride in, and a fair price. It seems to sit on him well with the sheepskin half pad — but I’m not sure I want to spend that much money for something I need to pad that looks so atrocious just sitting on him. Still, so comfy!
• Stellar Calypso: 17.5″ wide tree. Never heard of this brand before. I expressed skepticism at the saddle shop about even trying a wide since he’s currently a medium, but she said it looked like a really narrow wide. It didn’t sit well on him at all, way too wide, so I didn’t even ride in it.
• Bates Classic Dressage: 17.5″ adjustable with medium gullet plate. From the group of four this one sat the best on him — flattest panels, and sat the best on him (didn’t shift around much when jostled). This one has the Cair, but I know it’s also available wool flocked. Wish I could’ve tried the wool. The ride on this one wasn’t bad, but I also felt the furthest away from him; I didn’t have a great feel. One of the dressage instructors who’d seen me riding in the old County said my leg was better in that: the Bates put me a little behind the motion.
• Thornhill Zurich: 17.5″ medium tree. In the initial fitting it swam around on him more than the Bates, and the billets were a little far back. This one has a deeper seat than the Bates. Riding: The instructor felt it sat better on him and that my position when walking was better (she left before I trotted in it), but I felt like it pinned me in a bit and I kept touching the pommel when posting. (Probably I post wrong. Probably everything about my dressage riding is wrong…) Didn’t like it.
• Passier Grand Gilbert 18″ medium wide. In the initial fitting it swam around more than the Bates, and came up at the back a little. When I girthed it up on him I felt like the flaps were almost going back vs sitting straight — maybe the tree was a bit too wide and coming down on his withers? Riding in it I felt like I couldn’t wrestle my leg underneath myself — my knees were stuck in the thigh block. The instructor didn’t see my ride in it but we spoke about it afterward, and she said it may give me the best position in the long run — that my hips flexors are probably too tight right now to allow my thigh to open and drape downward properly. I may give this one another try with the fleece pad; two dressage instructors at my barn like the Passiers and think they should fit Poe’s shape pretty well. I did sit two other Passier models on him — I wish I’d written down the specs on them! Neither fit him quite right and I didn’t ride in either one.

I left the barn last night feeling grumpy and defeated. It’s such an investment and so hard to know the right choice, and SO SO many other options out there to try…

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