My Saddle Fitting Adventure – Part 3

Part 1

Part 2

Jochen Schleese had brought 2 other saddle fitters with him as well as the local tack store owner. That meant that a lot of learning was going on, which was great to listen to. As part of any Schleese saddle fitting the fitter will take down all sorts of information such as rider height and weight, which as I mentioned before I was not happy with how they get that information on the website. I vocalized my concerns to Jochen Schleese and the other saddle fitter who was doing my paperwork and Jochen Schleese promised to correct the websites only going up to 180lbs. Talk about customer service skills! He also thanked me for saying something. He wondered out loud how many other riders may have been put off by that in the past and started telling me about other riders who are very good and who are in the top weight bracket like myself. Even if he was just smoozing, it still made me happy. Fat peoples money is just as green as our skinny counterparts!

Never before in a fitting have Phoenix and I ever been measured so much. They had all sorts of cool contraptions that they used on Phoenix’s back and even I had to sit in my saddle and get my waist and legs measured. It was really cool. I especially loved this one tool which looks very midevil, but measure horses back contours so the fitter can fit a saddle even if the horse walks away. After they had enough measurements to replicate us out of clay if they wanted to, my saddle was put on with no saddle pad and it was time to show Jochen Schleese how my saddle was bouncing up and down Phoenix’s back when I was riding.

Phoenix is cold backed, he has been for as long as I have been riding him (which was one year and one week to be exact on the day of the fitting). What that means is that he carrys tension in his back when you first get on. It has become very normal for me to get on in the cold weather and have Phoenix kick out behind right away. Knowing how nervous Phoenix was at this new barn I got on expecting a nice buck. Usually after 2 minutes of walking Phoenix starts to relax his back so I was expecting the normal things to happen as I hopped up.

Phoenix did not buck though. He did throw his head in the air like a giraff, and I could feel the tension in his back, but I was just hoping that with a little walking it would all go away. Jochen Schleese called out to me to relax. I explained that I was trying, but that Phoenix is cold backed. We just need to walk for a few minutes. I was trying really hard not to let Phoenix’s tension push me into being nervous myself. I kept reminding myself to take deep breaths. I kept trying to give Phoenix a longer rein. I was even trying to use my seat to get Phoenix to talk bigger steps at the walk. I figured that as long as he was focused on me we would be fine. The problem was that Phoenix was decidedly not focued on me. He was being a full on 5 year old and looking at EVERYTHING even though we had already been in the ring for almost an hour walking around. I don’t know what happened to Phoenix but the horse I was riding was not my normal Fat Spotted Pony!

As we were walking on a long rein it happened. Phoenix TOOK OFF with me. As these things do, it felt like it was happening in slow motion. I was walking around with a looser rein and then all of a sudden I was going very fast. Before I had even realized that he was bolting we were up in the air. Phoenix had lept into the air so all 4 feet were well off the ground and then kicked out with his hind end. I was momentarily in shock and knocked off balance. Phoenix has only taken off with me once before in the entire year that I had been riding him. He bucks pretty much every time I ride him in the winter so I am used to that, and sometimes spooks, but Phoenix does not do aires above the ground. Lucky for me, Gennryal did lots of them, so it was with muscle memory that I started to shorten my reins and sit forward to go with the motion. Phoenix started to fly forward as soon as we landed and the second he hit rein pressure he launched back up into the air and kicked out again.

I had no control of my horse. He was not stopping. His thought was to fly forward or leap up. My only thought was “I am NOT coming off”. I tried to pully rein and he would just not listen so we were running closer and closer to the whole saddle fitting set up with a tuck, trailer and 3 tables filled with very expensive saddle fitting equipment. As Phoenix went to go up for another gravity defying leap (who knew a horse so fat could fly so high?) I took myself off balance by leaning forward and grabbing the inside rein only inches from his mouth. I yanked on that one rein as hard as I could to try and get Phoenix off balance so he would stop, or at least not run through all the equipment and get us both in trouble…

To Be Continued…