Nexus

I know, I’m not writing much right now…well, that is because the new normal has been very quiet. Quiet when it comes to the horses anyway. In some ways I can’t believe I have been working from home since March 17th…and in other ways this has really dragged on!

Sully has been recovering and letting his back heal from the prior saddle tribulations. He had a massage to release all the muscle tension and then we headed to meet a Balance Saddle Fit Consultant, Mary Bashtarz, for a 2 day private workshop. I brought along a hopeful saddle, a Franco-C Kalahari, and then she had her arsenal of styles and trees for us to work with too. The trip there was uneventful; nice to not have traffic to deal with heading around DC and Baltimore, so we made good time getting there. We took a bit of a break after arriving to have lunch and let him stretch his legs, and then started in on our ‘work’. I’ve known about Balance saddles for a while now, as it was something considered for Prophecy, but hadn’t really considered it for Sully until we started to have problems with the Synergist and I was not having much luck finding saddles that fit the requirements of his back.

First thing we did was a wither tracing and back length measurement. My own measurements were not off by much (1/2″) and probably due the difference in our hand sizes when finding the correct place behind his shoulder to measure from. Fortunately, his actual tracing did not show as much asymmetry as a picture I sent her did. Of course I’m not 100% sure the picture I sent that he was standing square, so it could have been that, or it could have been his ability to heal since he had minimal riding between taking the pictures and when we got to her.

The first saddle up was the Franco-C. We found it had too much rock for his back, and once adjusted for that with the base & JB pads, I was perched a bit and just didn’t feel right for me at that point. Additionally, it was still little long for him, so we moved on to the Balance Saddles. We made our way through a Zenith, Felix, Nexus and Matrix tree. Sully moved well and softer in those saddles, the best being the Nexus (dressage) and his least favorite the Matrix where he trotted once and then refused, displaying his dislike for that tree. It also became apparent that the curb & shank of the current bit were not his favorite either. We ended day 1 after 3 hrs and 5 saddles, succeeding in finding his preferred one, and then put him back into a paddock with dinner. Moving into a dressage saddle is different for me…it is totally “not me,” but I’m going for it as it is what is best for Sully; it will just take some getting used to.

Day 2 we started out early with a lesson. It started with ground work and then onto ridden lesson in the Nexus, including changing to a Full Cheek bit. I learned I need to work on how to swap diagonals on the trail more, but I do find the correct one in an arena, and that Sully needed time to process on occasion as we were changing a lot at once – saddle, bit, my riding, and signals. We had about a 2 hour lesson and fortunately found that I can use my Christ sheepskin endurance pad under the Balance pad set up, so one less thing to buy! Another thing of note is that Sully does not typically pee under saddle. While we were at Mary’s, he peed under saddle both days while being ridden in a Balance saddle. I can only surmise that maybe the previous saddle made this more uncomfortable for him than it already is per say to do under saddle (even with getting off his back), and the Balance was not causing that same pain so he was no longer “shy” about peeing!
Of course, his tree size is not quite as common to find, but by sheer dumb luck I found a saddle on consignment in a tack store in Jacksonville, FL!

Next up is to get back out there riding and learning the new setup! We will be attending another clinic with Emily Kemp later this month, then re-start conditioning for what rides may be able to be held later in the year, if any. There are some cool virtual challenges going on right now for conditioning, I think we’ll join in for fun 🙂

The rest of life is going on…Both of us are mainly working from home and the kids have just a few more weeks of online school, then another month (at least) after that until a summer camp. We took a few days of what was supposed to be “spring break” off in April to enjoy with the kids; we went hiking and watched a bunch of movies. We’ve started to take the dogs on walks, but Obi is not mentally capable of going as far as Bella, so it is more often just her. Skyler has had more practice on her “big kid” bike and is still taking riding lessons. Asher has gotten into riding more “off road” at home, creating his own path through our front field. All the animals seem to be enjoying themselves and we are happy spring is here, if the weather would settle! (notice the winter jacket on Asher one morning).