Sewing Project

Over the years, I have owned dozens of saddles, dozens. None of which, really worked for Daatje. She was always tight and defensive in her back and when the demands increased (foxhunting, long hours in the saddle) her back, and her attitude, showed signs of soreness.

I've been riding her dressage in a treeless saddle for a few years now. I have an Ansur Carlton that she goes fabulously in, never an issue with her back under this saddle. My problems have been with my jumping saddles. They are the ones that she spends the most time under and they are the ones that don't fit her unusual carriage horse shape!

I had looked into buying an Ansur Konklusion, but man are they pricey! So I shopped around and settled on the Sensation G4 Jump made by Nickers Saddlery in Canada. I chose the Sensation for it's nice shape, comfortable construction, hard use leathers (better weight distribution) and competitive price. (I paid $1,300 for it brand spanky new)

For those of you less familiar with the pros and cons of treeless saddles, the absence of a tree is both a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing for horses built like Daatje, where off the rack tree shapes and widths pinch and bridge and just don't wrap around her big, robust shoulders very well. It's a curse because now you've taken away the weight distributing properties of the tree.

Enter the special companion pad. Skito makes them, Grandeur makes them......Haf makes them....all for a very pretty penny and not quite configured how I wanted it.....

....so I made one.....well, another one.... :)

I had made one for my Ansur, and silly me thought it would work for the Sensation too. Yeah, not quite. :) Size and shape differ greatly between the Carlton and the G4 Jump!

I gathered the materials to make inter pad #2 and went to work. I used my Mom's antique treddle sewing machine (I love that thing!), nylon thread, 1680 Cordura Nylon, Lexan inserts (contoured and shaped), open cell polyurethane slow recovery memory foam and a bit of velcro to create my own weight distributing treeless interpad with spinal clearance.

Pieces cut out



Keeper straps sewn on. I use thick shoe laces to tie the pad to the D-rings on the saddle, front and back. This keeps the pad from shifting out from under the saddle.


Pockets for the Lexan inserts


Closer view of the Lexan pocket


Two halves pinned and ready to stitch


Stitched, clipped corners, turned right side out and put foam in to test fit.




Finished front edge


Next I stitched around the edges


Two halves connected


Finally, 8 hours later, the pad is complete.


Folded in half


Nicely fits under the Sensation G4 Jump.


Top view

Back view.


Now, I can finally begin to break in the Sensation. I've only ridden in it once, because I didn't have the proper pad to put under it. Of course, tomorrow is Monday and I'll be at work.....and the forecast for May isn't looking so good....here's hoping for good weather so I can ride!!!

Hoof Trimming

Not much going on lately. I've been riding a bit after work, which is nice. I forgot how much fun she was to ride out in the field. My new jumping saddle came in, I can't wait to try it out! It's a Sensation G4 Jump and simply the coolest saddle ever. Once I finish the custom pad that will support underneath it, I'll be back in business for gallop work and work over fences. :) Just in time for the first hunter pace on the 15th of May! But for now, all I have to share are photos I took from trimming the girl's hooves this morning. I've been trying to keep our guys on a 6-7 week schedule marked on my calendar so I don't forget and today was the day. :) I did the minis first and then it was Daatje's turn. Here are some before and after photos:

Here are her fronts from the side, heel and bottom. You can still see the nail holes from the shoes she wore last fall, that were pulled the end of Nov, 2010.



I knew she toed out a little, but wow, it really shows in this photo! (she paddles too...)


Right front pre-trim

Left front pre-trim

Left hind pre-trim

Right hind pre-trim

Not much to trim really, after 7 weeks. Some ratty frog and longish bars, but that's about it. Here are shots of her after trimming:
Right front

Left front


Left hind



Right hind


And a morning of trmming hooves wouldnl't be complete unless Puppy was under hoof, looking for tidbits. :)

Taming the hairy beast.

Today has to have been the most beautiful weekend day we've had so far this year. The sun was shining, warm, there was a light breeze....the daffodils are flowering. What a great day to be outside with the horses! Time to dust off the clippers and remove some surplus hair! I decided to start with the big girl first. Here she is, pre-clip, looking very dirty.

Look at all the hair on her legs! Ugh, yuck. I am not a fan of the Friesian hair! A little off the fetlock is cute; makes her look like a little black unicorn. Too much is sloppy, coarse and harbors all kinds of icky skin conditions.

And voila! 2 1/2 hours later, I have a much more comfortable mare.

Can't say the same for me though! I was *covered* in prickly hairs!

That is much better. Just a little off the back to cover the chunky Friesian fetlocks. I tried shaving them all off once. Friesians don't have the most refined legs. :) She looks much better with just a little bit of feather. Her skin is much happier too, and that's very important to me. I used to have a book about unicorns when I was a girl. The way her feathers look here, reminds me of the fetlock hair portrayed on the unicorns in the artwork of that book.

So when I was finally done grooming post-clip, I brought her out back and turned her out. I totally expected her to drop and roll, but she didn't. She just followed me around for a minute, and then wandered off to stand in the sun and yawn. The clip must have been relaxing!

Then it was on to the little one. Rainbow is going to start up driving again soon, now that the snow is gone and the ground is getting firmer, but we've been waiting to drive until we had a good day to clip because her harness doesn't really fit well over her winter coat! Here she is, pre-clip in all her furry wonder. :)

It took a little over an hour to remove all of that winter hair. By this time, my clippers were starting to revolt over clipping the long dirty winter hair, but I managed to pull it off before they quit.

I walked away from the trailer for a minute, briefly forgetting that Rainbow is not Daatje and hates to be left alone! I hear a commotion and return to this:

That girl's got talent. If only she were 16 hands! This little mini is so athletic that she can easily jump a 3' vertical.....and she's only 35" tall! She loves to jump....loves to gallop....but yes, she does have a couple of quirks. Standing tied alone is one of them. Don't worry, I promtly rescued her after snapping a couple of quick shots. Back at the mini barn, safe with her friend Spoo.

Silly Rainbow, you'd never know she was turning 18 this year, would you?!? I didn't get to ride today, sacrificed it to get the clipping done. Perhaps tomorrow.