Sully’s & my “first ride” at the barn. Short and sweet.

Snapshot off my video cam.  Not perfect, but saddle time!

So now that Sully has blown an abscess he is sound, but still landing toe first.  We are still working to get the right boot fit – the Easy Boot Trails didn’t survive in pasture turnout either (also too wide), though I didn’t find them in the mud but two random spots in the pasture the next day!  So I gave up on using anything for turnout right now, and have the size 2 slims coming from Scoot Boot to see if they fit well to use for riding comfort.

I spent most of the week dealing with rain/storms and just checking on them all with feeding, and doing some hoof treatments when I had him in.  I’m also trying to get him worked in to the schedule with Sandy for an adjustment and Sarah for a good body-work session!  Lots to work around trying to do all that, get some riding in, and hoof trims…

Last week I questioned whether he was a pig (loves mud and had himself caked), a giraffe (eating leaves), or a horse?! I guess I’ve been spoiled by my previous geldings who didn’t like to roll in the mud!

muddy rump (it was also all over his legs and neck)

Ali has now “claimed” him as hers, being in season and running herself sweaty one night while I had him up at the barn… Cheyenne calls for him too when I take him out, but not with the same gusto per say.

love birds

Saturday I had a plan – do his first ride in the ring and then work on the trailer unloading, and be home around lunch…

And of course things go to plan right?!

The riding part went well – literally a 5min walk around the ring but I still need to tweak the saddle so didn’t do much there.  He was good. Stood stock still for mounting and walked off when asked.  Gosh I have forgotten how big his walk is! I did use the snap on bridle with the French-link snaffle, eventually we will go back to an S-Hack.

Spent a long time like this!

After that we dropped off his tack and went out to work on the trailer.  My plan: to work him like a difficult loader – front feet only, back off, then just a back foot, then back, etc… He is so ‘eager’ and used to jumping on trailers I didn’t catch the back feet coming on when I wanted to back him and then our ~3hr trailer stalemate ensued!   He would back when asked, but just couldn’t take that leap of faith there was ground down there when his back foot would come off and would jump forward.  He was really trying, and never mean, several times just putting his head down into my chest and resting. Unfortunately I didn’t not find that “thing” that would make coming forward more difficult than continuing backward… I did let him try to turn around and walk off like before, but he was not able to make the turn tight enough and would get in a sticky situation and right himself, and resolve back to standing as he would be traveling.

So I got this idea to remove the divider, but couldn’t do it alone without risking dropping it and creating a bit of a ruckus in there so I rang Amanda for help!  We ended up using her husband’s help to essentially push him back when he’d try to come forward and finally got him out of the trailer and onto his feet (he was quite perplexed on how to get his fronts under him once the back feet were off).  Then we removed the divider for next time so he has enough room to turn around.  Not my ideal situation, as the divider provides something rigid to lean on if needed, so we will go to a local trainer with obstacles to help him with the backing with a step down to get this sorted long term. Other than some pawing, I do know he will stand in a trailer for hours fairly calm!!

Monday eve met with up with Amanda again, this time to do some back mapping and saddle fitting. It was a bit too hot to ride (temp + humidity), the horses were drenched just standing so we brought them all in for some time under the fans while we played with Sully’s back.

The saddle Prophecy used is definitely a bit wide, especially on the right… but Sully is also very under-developed comparatively on the right (Track races to the left!)

We tried on my Synergist, a Specialized, a Big Horn, a ghost, and Stonewall templates…   The angles of a ‘medium’ stonewall tree match BUT too tight on the left, a wide a bit too wide on the right. A SQHB Big Horn was too tight on the left. The Ghost did not sit well at all on him (bummer because I did love mine before!), and finally the Specialized would need some shimming to fit.  So…. now I’ve got emails into saddle makers and considering talking to Skito to see about just a custom shim pad for him to make the Synergist work (as it looks like with any saddle he will likely need shims until the right builds up).

Wish us luck! 🍀