Bits and Pieces, Here and There

Wow!  It's been awhile since I've posted anything.  Work is so super busy and by the time I get home, I'm just drained.  It doesn't help that I stayed up until almost 4am Sunday night (well, Monday morning, really) finishing The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  But I digress . . .

I have been doing something with the horses, honest!  But not much of anything that seems to warrant a blog post.

I rode Bleu the other day, finally getting around to shimming my saddle.  This is new territory for me.  I view shimming with slightly less distaste than I used to view trimming.  I paid what I paid for my saddle so I had tack that fit my horse.  I swore, up and down, that when I got a second horse, the first requirement would be that my current saddle would fit.  I guess, like every other "new horse" requirement, that went out the window when I laid eyes on Bleu.

It's not that bad, really.  It fits the spring of her ribs but it's too wide at the shoulder.  Partly because Bleu has some forward rotation of her shoulder and partly because Cricket has shoulders a pro-football linebacker would envy.  The Skito pad I have helps fill in some of the "too wide" but I need to lift the stirrup bar to free room for her shoulder to come back.

Rather than invest a lot of money, I rigged something up with materials we had lying around.  It wasn't perfect but I did feel that Bleu was more free and forward than before.  I need to sit down and cut out some shims to fit in the Skito so I can come up with a more custom, long-term solution.

Tonight I rode Cricket.  Just for fun around the paddock.  Bleu was out grazing and I managed to side-pass Cricket up to her and lift the rope off her back.  I started teaching Cricket to pony Bleu and Bleu to be ponied by Cricket.  Bleu totally missed the idea of "synchronize with the herd" but Cricket totally loved the "I have a job to do."  I had some ugly ears from Cricket but I tried to 'splain to her that next to Bleu was where the grazing happened.  I'm pretty proud of my Principessa.  Every time I had to wiggle the rope to get Bleu back, Cricket stood like a rock.  The few times I moved Cricket around with a little energy, Bleu seemed not to mind.  So this scenario looks promising!