![]() ![]() Everything one could want in a beginner saddle. For a 12 year old saddle, the leather was in good condition, the billets looked pretty intact and the thigh and knee-rolls were pretty minimal. I kept my eye out for a lesson saddle but nothing looked appealing until a perusal through Gallop's, where an old Tad Coffin piqued my interest. I started my own business a few years later and cringed as riders would borrow my saddle and (gasp) leave sweaty girths on the seat. I felt like I was always hovering above the horse instead of down and around where one can really feel the horse move. ![]() With all this excess padding, I lamented a feeling of disconnection between myself and the horse. The saddle didn't end up fitting a lot of the horses the way I would like, I ended up spending thousands of dollars on every kind of half-pad in order to accommodate the barn full of withers, shoulders and spines. I worked a lot without stirrups and eventually got more solid but I always felt like I was forcing myself to sit forcing and stiffening my spine and thus stiffening against the horse. ![]() I could barely sit the canter, it always felt jarring, like I was constantly fighting to keep my seat-bones underneath me. I have always been a bit of an under-rider, more comfortable in the soft half-seat so I thought my inability to sit in the tack was simply my bad habits resurfacing. My saddle was beautiful and the leather was so delectably soft. The rep came out, had me ride in a few saddles and a few months later I had beautiful new saddle that supposedly had panels to fit a variety of horses. Everyone in my barn rode in (insert expensive French saddle here) and my boss was quick to suggest that I do the same. I rode in that Butet up until my move to Portland, where the desire to ride professionally inspired me to spend the money on necessary tools. When I started riding competitively, my very first trainer, Bobby Vanous took pity on my little body perpetually propelled out of the tack, and gave me one of her old Butets. But it was light and little pig-tailed, standing on her tippie-toes Ashley was able to hoist it over the side of a horse, so I was elated. Not exactly the most comfortable and barely had space for my knee much less a knee roll. My first saddle was a thoroughbred exercise saddle. ![]()
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