The saddler was booked for the afternoon and I was slightly concerned that the weather was so bad, the wind was really howling and when it rained it was absolutely torrential, not great weather for riding a fresh horse that's not been sat on for months!
I dashed to the farm from work to drag Jack in from the field and typically he was filthy having had a good old roll in the wet mud! So I quickly scrapped as much of the mud off him so he was slightly respectable looking and then set about cleaning up my saddle that's not had its cover taken off in about 4 months! I was so annoyed to discover that while my saddle has sat covered and unused for months the cats have decided to start using it as a scratching post and it was covered in claw marks !!! There were several swear works said and much ranting! Once I'd given it a good clean it looked much better and luckily most of the claw marks were not deep into the leather but I could still kill the furry beasts!
I then got a call from the saddler that she was running a bit late so I set about cleaning up Jacks stable and filling haynets etc. while I waited.
When she arrived the heavens had well and truly opened, it was awful, so we are very fortunate to have a covered yard for this sort of thing. We started by having a chat about what Jacks had done and where we are in his recovery and then she took his measurements. Unsurprisingly there is a significant difference between his last measurements and the current ones, he is slimmer (hurrah!) and there is more of a dip behind his withers. I explained that I would like to keep my saddle if possible as it is so comfortable but would change if needed. She very gently placed it on his back and I watched carefully for signs of him being painful or uncomfortable but he didn't seem to notice anything had happened! She had a good look at it on his back and felt that with a little adjustment we would be able to keep our current saddle, although she did recommend using a half pad for a while until he builds the muscle up a bit more which will happen as his work increases. After making some adjustments and in a brief gap in the downpours we dashed out and lunged so she could see it on in motion and make sure it was still a good fit and again Jack didn't seem to notice he had a saddle on for the first time in months. Still happy with the fit it was then the moment of truth, time to get on board at last! This would be a big test in seeing whether the surgery has really worked and I really felt the pressure! I lead him to the mounting block fully padded out with my body protector was please that he didn't swing his quarters away like he was doing before the surgery, I gingerly leaned over him and nothing - no reaction at all he just stood there ! So I swung my leg over and sat up and she checked that the saddle was still sitting correctly before we had a little walk around the ménage. Would this be the moment he exploded? No we walked round on both reins doing a few circles and walk - halt -walk transitions. Jack was perfect he walked calmly and smoothly round the ménage listening and soft and relaxed - phew!!
That was enough and I was on cloud nine so I hopped off gave him a few mints and un tacked him. The saddler checked his back to make sure the was no sign of anything rubbing and then she left happy that it was fine for now but would need checking again in a few weeks.
I will gradually increase his work over the coming weeks and keep everything firmly crossed that he continues to do so well :)
It is a huge relief to get that first ride done and find that he doesn't appear to have any issues/pain at the moment. There is still plenty of potential for the wheels to come off as his work increases and he finds things harder, to be honest I can't believe its been this easy and I'm convinced it will all go horribly wrong at some point. I'm hoping to keep his work easy and fun so that doesn't happen but we can't stay in walk forever if we want to get back out eventing can we!!
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