Specialized Saddle Fitting Findings... So Far..

Well it seems that this saddle fitting adjustment process for Maggie is proving no easier to fix than starting from the beginning of finding a saddle to fit in the first place.

This past week my local (3 hours distance drive)saddle rep  and I  have been exchanging lots of pictures and discussions via emails and texts to try to get this thing resolved. The issue is that Maggie is much thinner now and more fit than she was last summer/fall. My Specialized was set up at that time with just the ½ “ pads. During last year’s fitting process, we found that Maggie’s right shoulder is larger than her left and we attempted to shim things up for that but everything made it worse because of how wide she was, so the best fit we could come to was just leave the ½ “ pads with no shims. I rode her all last fall , this winter and now into spring with what seemed like no issues. My longer rides last week proved something was terribly wrong when she got very sore backed in the back part of the bars. They say hindsight is 20/20 and it seems now that I was missing the signs that Maggie was not getting a good fit. I will come back to that in a minute.



The spot on Maggie’s left side (where the back of the saddle bar would hit) had taken the worst of the issue. She had developed some scabby skin flaky funk stuff that is now coming off. It seems that it was created from a pressure point and too much heat. The hair did not come out, but I am wondering if she will develop a white spot there. I really hope not.

The saddle fit problem: (we think)

The Pads seems to be set too wide for Maggie ‘s back now that she had thinned up . In essence, the saddle is sinking down on her too much. So the saddle gullet needs to look more A shaped as opposed to an upside down wide U shape like it is now. Based on her soreness, the saddle is most likely bridging causing more pressure on the shoulders and seat areas of the bars. However, I can’t completely say this is a problem because the sweat patterns don’t indicate this. At this point, this is just an assumption based on where she is sore areas. Typically with high pressure spots, you most often see dry spots. Maggie has had uniform sweat patterns all along. No dry spots whatsoever. In addition, when you look down the gullet of the saddle, the saddle also appears to making good contact along the entire length of the bars. So, as you can see , there are some contradictions we are dealing with but we had a plan. You have to start somewhere, right?

This past Tuesday night, I gathered my phone (with pictures), my written instructions on how to place shims and pads, grabbed Maggie and went to work. I will try to break it out step by step and my observations of each.

The fix.

Step 1: Narrow up the saddle: this means bring the main ½ “ pads closer together , start with moving them toward the center or closer together by a ½” and check to see that they are making good contact along the bars the entire way.

What happened: The bars made very little contact. Tried moving pads only a ¼” closer together. This seemed a little better but now the center of the bars were not making what I would consider good contact.

Hoping that this would resolve itself with the shims, I continued with the instructions just to see where I would end up.Maybe something magical would come together...

Step 2:Place the larger wedge shims on each side in the back, halfway down the bar lengthwise.



Back wedge shims for placement view

 The result: I thought the purpose of this was going to be to help get the pressure off the back of the saddle and tip it more forward, however, once I got these on and placed the saddle on her back, it didn’t really make a lot of sense. From what I could see, it was making the pressure in the problem area more pronounced. I sat in the saddle at this point and while the saddle was sinking less, the pressure was still too much in the back of the saddle. She was reacting.

Step 3: Shim the left shoulder to help even out things for the right shoulder. (larger shoulder)


left shoulder shim for placement view


The result: seemed to help fill the gap on the space between the left shoulder and the pad but the right shoulder was still too tight when I sat in the saddle. Not really making much of a difference and the area behind her shoulders really didn't seem to be bothering her.

When all done, this is what my new padding/shim configuration looked like. For clarification, I wanted to show that the final product would not have the shims on top of the main pads  as pictured above, but will actually go underneath the main pads.

Final set up.

Sadly enough after all this, I still was not getting good results.  I reconfigured the shims and pads probably 10 different ways to Sunday after these first three steps to see if I could get a better fit. Here is what I ran into each time : (sorry no photos of the following)

-Move pads in to get saddle to sit higher on her back: Created lack of bar contact.

-If Pads moved to where good contact with bars was achieved, the saddle would sink and hit her in the sore spot again, which is too low. Back to original issue we are trying to fix.

-Shimmed the center of the bar to get pressure off the back of the saddle and get better bar contact throughout: This created to much rocker.

-Shimmed just the back of the saddle : Saddle still sinking too much and the pressure on the back was worse.

-Shimmed just the front,: same result of above but now with rocker added!!

After over an hour of velcroing, un-velcroing , shimming and unshimming, throwing the saddle on , pulling the saddle off… I finally realized that I was not going to fix this with what I had in place. The purpose of purchasing this saddle was to allow for easy adjustments as my horses back changed. It didn’t seem to be proving that way here.

Furstration ??? you could say so.
I emailed my saddle rep with my findings. At this point we have a new plan. She thinks I need to try the thicker pads, either ¾ inch or 1 inch. We will have to try both to see which is going to work better.

Only one problem. Since she lives over 3 hours away , arranging for a saddle consult isn’t easy or economical. She offered to come up this weekend, but it’s a bit of a charge by the time mileage is figured in. I am tempted to just spend the money and get it done because obviously what I am doing on my own isn’t getting it fixed and secondly, I am not really into delayed gratification. As it turns out, the husband is planning a trip to the town where the rep lives for one of the husbands archery competitions in June anyways, so I could coordinate to have it refitted at that time. I wasn’t initially planning to go or have Maggie hauled there, but I suppose it might be an option. The downside? It’s 3 weeks away. The upside? The fee would be considerably less and with a large hay purchase and travel plans to the City of Rocks ride in July, ( a 10-11 trailer ride) the budget doesn’t have much wiggle room for the summer.

…. And.. it’s not like I don’t have a back up saddle and have to stop riding Maggie for those three weeks. My Duett fits Maggie well and I completed her first 35 miler in that saddle 2 years ago with absolutely no issues. I have ridden Maggie in the Duett twice this week and she seems happy in it. I just prefer riding in my Specialized for endurance. I love my Duett for arena work but now that I have ridden in the Specialized, I really like the support of that saddle for the trail.

The only other option is to have the rep mail me the thicker pads and let me try to get the fit right on my own however, I am not feeling like confident enough to get it right at this point and I can’t afford to sore Maggie up again.

Looks like I will probably wait , ride the Duett to continue to prepare for the July ride and coordinate with the June trip to get this saddle fitting done.

BUH-BYE..Hasta La Vista

Unfortunately, I only had recently set things up for comments to appears in my gmail account..and since I deleted all those there are GONE... completely..can't even copy and paste...

I am over it , mostly, because frankly there isn't much I can do about it at this point. Lesson learned..Time to move on...

Hope you all keep coming back and checking in once in a while...

Getting ready for the next post, which will be about my REFITTING of the Specialized...I plan to tackle that little chore this evening..

I hate Google Blogger- SORRY EVERYONE!!

Sorry everyone, I jsut realized that I inadvertantly deleted all of the comments off all the posts somehow...

Not sure if I can recapture them somehow and put them back but it wasn't intentional!!

Please bear with me while I work out my technical difficulties!


Twenty minutes later....

*** Well, I found the answer....

"Once a comment has been deleted, it cannot be restored"..

 So there you have it folks.. I have lost all of your wonderful comments that I look so farwrard to reading.

I realize now what I did. I went in to delete them from the "list" of comment in my settings in an effort to clean things up. Little did I know that it was actually deleting them from the post themselves..

This is the dumbest technical goof I may have ever made ... I cannot believe I did this...!!

Please excuse me while I go get sick...

Another good ride.. but a new issue arises.

Yesterday,the horrible cold winds finally let up and the day was going to be in the 50's and sunny. I was still on my min-vacation from work so we hit the trails again. Maggie was using her time off to rest since her 14 miles two days earlier so a pre ride bit of beet pulp was served up to the princess so as not to disturb her nap. She gladly complied.

A spoiled horse?????

I decided we would try the electrolyte thing today so when she finished, I dosed her with a half dose of electrolytes. She didn't even get up for that. I was beginning to wonder if I should even go if she was that tired. I decided to get her up and just see how she behaved. I decided quickly that she was just fine , as she trotted back and forth horse playing with Brego across the fence. She was also in heat.. great...

I finished loading all the stuff into the horse trailer while she pranced around . I was hoping she would take a big gulp of water after her electrolytes before I had to load her up. Ever have those days where it takes FOREVER to get yourself organized?? I was having one of those mornings. I kept forgetting something  and had to keep back tracking or go back into the house. I finally got everything thrown into a bag , tossed it into the truck, grabbed Maggie and hit the road.



Ready to go..

I even hooked up the HRM for this ride to see how her recoveries were with hills. We ended up riding an uneventful 11.8 miles before making it back to the trailer. Maggie felt very really good still coming out. She recovered to 60 bpm within 4 minutes and I imagine it may have been quicker but I let her dive into her beet pulp when she was at 72 bpm. If it were race day that would have been the wrong move to make but I am trying to encourage her to eat and drink. If she is willing, I am going to let her at this point... we weren't in competition. And she wasn't overly tired...

She finished most of her sloppy beat pulp . She refused water... again.. I decided to give her another half dose of electrolyte and head back out for another 4-5 miles. 

This was the first time in quite a while I had her at the trailer and then took her back out again. She was NOT expecting that move and as we left the trailer, she kept trying to get us turned back around,

Surely mom had lost her marbles....

We made it a total of 17.5 miles by the time we finishe. Maggie felt strong the entire time but she was starting to stumble a little on the way back in so she was probably a little on the tired side. It's hard to tell with her sometimes.  She recovered with only a couple minutes back to 60 when we finished our ride.

I was pleased with our ride and how she felt and looked. Ofcourse, she still didn't want to drink at the end. She got a little more sloppy beet pulp and some green grass while I unsaddled and got everything packed up. Everything about the days' ride was perfect, exept one thing.

When I pulled the saddle off to brush her she reacted like she had a sore back. It was at the back of the bars, right under where I sit.  I could see that there was definitely more of an impression of the bars right there, clearly two round areas from pressure points. However, the sweat patterns were even  and looked really good. That is unusual if there are pressure points.

I got her home, prepared a bucket of warm linimented water and rubbed her down. She really reacted and did not want me even touching her there.  I felt horrible. Not once during the ride did she indicate any discomfort but she was pretty sore.

I checked my saddle and saddle pad and got my husbands second opinion. We both came to the conclusion that judging from the saddle pad , the saddle is bridging on her. It's the only explanation. 

I ride in a Specialized Eurolight saddle and have had no issues in it but to be fair, this is the hardest I have ridden Maggie in this saddle thus far since getting it last year. Maggie is thinner and more fit than she has ever been so obviously the fit needs to be changed.

The good news is that the Specialized is designed to give fitting options as the horses back changes with the padding system they come with. I hope we can get this one figured out..

Maggie will get some well deserved rest and pampering. She should have bucked me off for as sore as she was. That is the bad side of riding a horse that is tough. They never complain , and just keep going..

I hate saddle fitting issues....





Drink horse, drink...

Today's ride ended up looking alot different than what I was thinking it would. I had hoped to do a fast 10 miles , high tail it to the trailer for rest and reload, then head back out for another 5-10 miles and be done in 4-5 hours. Maggie spent the first 6 miles fighting me. She wanted to go.  I checked the GPS and we set a top speed of 12.5 mph, pulling two long hills. I had to walk  her in several areas after this point as the trail conditions get windy , narrow and technical. Maggie was feeling pretty strong so we trotted where we could and walked when we had to. She wanted to canter alot of the time, so I kept checking her back to keep her in the trot.

We made our way around various trails and  before I knew it, I hit the nine and a half mile mark. The only problem was that  we were still 2.5  miles from where the trail was that I needed in order to head back in the direction of the trailer.Once I got onto that trail it was approximately another mile to get to the trailer.

We came upon a nice area of fresh long green grass so we stopped so she could graze.  I dug a couple of carrots out of my packs and she gladly accepted them. It was warm today. This was the first ride in any temps above 60 degrees and she was pretty sweaty. After a few minutes, we headed back down the trail at a trot and  she was managing to give me a slower trot. The trail we were on would crosssect to another short cut trail which would get us headed back to the trailer.  Maggie stumbled a couple of times at a walk and generally started feeling on the tired side. I suspected that after the first 6 miles of her rushing caught up with her combined with the heat. She still has part of her winter coat!

As we trotted along,  I must have been daydreaming because before I realized it, we were on a totally different trail that would still get us out, but just the long way around. Shoot.. I did not want to prolong this ride  but by the time I realized were were off track,  I was too far to turn back. It would have been longer.  It was still another mile and half or so. Poor Maggie would have to pull one more hard long hill this way. We made our way slowly up the hill. I considered getting off but she seemed to be doing fine.  We hit the top, and the rest of the ride out was a long gavely two two track.. and she recognized it right away. There were two mountain bikers just ahead and she decided they needed to be caught. She got her second wind and we caught up to them right about the time they were turning off to another trail. We passed our earlier max speed and hit  13.3 mph. We kept going straight and finally made it back to the trailer.
The first thing I did was pull out water and dumped it into a bucket  before I offered her food, hoping that she might take a drink . She didn't.  I left just the water in front of her for several minutes while I loosened her girth and unlocked the truck. She just stood there. She looked pretty tired. She wasn't going to drink. I put together her beet pulp with a few carrots thrown in and added extra water to make it extra sloppy. If she wasn't going to drink, she would atleast get some water out of the beet pulp.  She picked at that  for what seemed like forever but did manage to finish most of it, although she left behind the carrots.

 She is so tempermental about eating when she is tired, which is not an ideal trait in a horse that competes in a distance sport!! I pulled out her hay bag and she half heartedly picked at that. I took her over to munch on some green grass which she was much happier about. I finished half of my apple and threw the rest of it into her water bucket, hoping it might entice her to take a gulp.. but she just mouthed it and went back to her hay bag , although she only nibbled at it. She had a big breakfast so I wasn't overly concerned about the food. I was more concerned about her electrolytes.  

I left her tied to the trailer for another 20 minutes with her hay bag trying to decide if I should take her back out and ride another 3-4 miles, come back and offer her water again or just call it a day. She had not passed manure since the beginning of the ride and she still hadn't peed. I had forgotten to take my HRM or my stethoscope but I suspect she was not recovering like she should have been and most likely dehydrated.

It was pretty obvious that heading back out again, even for a few more miles would have been the wrong decision. I am pretty sure she still would not have drank. Our ride for the day was over.

I was happy with our pace . It took us a little over 2 hrs to cover 14 miles,  taking into consideration several tough hills and about 10 minutes of stopped time to graze. Not setting the world on fire but a good challenging ride. We are still building our base condition. I have to remind myself of that from time to time.

As soon as we got home, she dove into the water tank and drank and drank. I think I am going to pull the water trough out of her paddock and replace it with 5 gallon buckets to teach her to drink out of them. Still trying to figure this mare and all of her quirks out. I might have to consider trying that Horse quencher but I don't want her getting into the habit  of that taste.

The Endurance Season Crosshairs

So here's the deal... my BIG ride of the season is going to be the ride called City of Rocks in Almo, Idaho, July 11-14th. It's a new ride with a great management team and it  should be incredible. Its 4 days of riding, which will make the 11 hour trailer ride worth the trip.  It comes not only with scenery but some historical treasure.Hundreds of years ago, emigrants traveled parts of the trail we will be riding along. It should be a great ride. I can hardly wait.  Tom is even thinking of bringing Brego and maybe , just maybe doing a 25 mile ride one day. We might actually do a ride together. That would super excellent! My plan is to ride two 25 miles, then maybe, just maybe a 50 at the end.. or just another 25.

There's only one teeny weeny little problem.

 Basecamp is at 5700 feet elevation. Riders ride on upward to over 7000 feet elevation. Yes, I live in the Rocky Mountains, however, we have snow at those levels. Usually until late June, even into July. I can't access trails over 4500 feet right now without hitting lots of snow... Snow on steep terrain can be ... well... down right dangerous.

Yet, I know riding at those altitudes will have a signifigant impact on recovery rates for Maggie. My only experience riding at those elevations has been hunting camp. I know this much. The horses struggle at a walk. I can't imagine what it would do at speeds.

Generally I ride at elevations in the 3000-4000. That's a far cry from where I need to be training.

So, the plan??

Do as many high elevation and hill climbing as possible between now and then. There is a trail known at Columbia Mountain,  not too far from my place It's a heck of a climb..and the trail condition isn't the best but it might just end up having to be my new training ground. It's elevation is about 6800-7000 and it's one of the few close by mountains that is snow free at that elevation right now..

In the meantime, we are still building mileage right now. I took the rest of the week off to catch up on a few things at home and get some solid riding time in.  Tomorrow will be one of the harder training days I have asked of Maggie thus far this season.

Here is the plan:
12 miles with some hills. Ride it for time. 2-3 hours. I wil be riding alone so this should be doable.
Go back to the trailer- give Maggie some beet pulp, hay, and a 30-45 minute rest.
Head back out for another 8-10  miles.

Beats the hell out of a day at the office anyways..

If anyone has any other suggestions on training for altitude, please , please pass the Grey Poupon..

Monday Maintenance

It’s Monday, and I woke up to frost, 25 degrees out. I had to scrape my car windows. Good thing I covered the herb garden last night because I transplanted all of my indoor starts yesterday. Would have been a waste of all the time and effort, only to lose them less than 12 hours later of them getting put in the ground. It’s May and its Montana and I know it stays cold up until July most years, but I am growing quite tired of it . I know there isn’t much I can do about it but it just confirms in my mind how ready I am to make a move to a warmer location. Can’t do it now, but it’s one of those long term 3-5 year plans looming out there.something to look forward to when I am riding in 4 layers in June, just to stay this side of freezing my ass off.

That said, I may as well focus on something I can control.

A few of you may have noticed that I have officially become a follower on some of your blogs. Crazy as it may sound, I was physically having to go onto each of your blogs in order to see any updates… I know.. how old school… right? It was just one of those things that I never got around to doing and quite honestly, I kind of enjoyed going onto each site individually to see updates . Unfortunately, time is a hard to come by commodity for me and I want to do a better job of staying current on the latest blog updates. So, in an effort to become more efficient with my blog addiction, it was time to do something about it. If I haven’t gotten to your blog yet, don’t worry, its just that I am making my way down the list, in no particular order , as I get a few extra minutes.

I also had to update my main page with a couple of additional photos of some of the other “kids” on the place and adjusted some different verbage in some of my other page elements and I added a follow by email option because I really like that on some of the others blogs out there. Makes it soooo much easier!

This week, I actually am taking a few days off from work. The weather I already have my days scheduled to the max with to-do’s. Riding is number one on the list, but I promised myself that at some point, I would do some concerted house cleaning/organizing instead of the quick cursory cleaning I do most weekends.

Two work days… I can do this..