Total Saddle Fit Shoulder Relief Girth

Mikey had last Wednesday off, then we road walked on Thanksgiving, and then worked Friday in the arena. We had several discussions about moving off my leg into half pass. We also had a discussion about simply going straight in canter on centerline. No changes, no half pass, nothing. Straight and then track the direction we were bending. It was difficult for him. So difficult we will have to repeat in our warm ups every ride. A handful of the tests call for cantering up centerline, trot, halt at G or wherever, and in the past he's always been "What now, what now?!?!?" and made it difficult to get a good final centerline. Nothing ground breaking about the ride. Just a good, solid ride.

Sleeping in the sun Saturday morning instead of eating the hay I put out for his skinny ass.

Saturday I borrowed my barn owner's Total Saddle Fit Shoulder Relief girth. I mentioned it in a previous post. I had mentioned it to her when she said her horse got very funny about shoulder and back restrictions, and she went out and ordered one a few weeks ago. Her horse loves it.

All tightened up.

Maybe I should have cleaned my saddle and used a fresh saddle pad.

He loved it. Absolutely loved it. From the moment I sat down on him, he was more forward and less pokey. No pushing for more unless I wanted extended gaits. His shoulder was freer for sure. He had much more swing in the shoulder when I looked at him in the mirrors. His trot became hard to sit, and not because he wasn't through and so I didn't have somewhere to sit. No, he was very through and connected. He had so much swing to his step and lift that he created a much bigger motion to sit. His canters were forward from the walk, no shuffles and immediately off into a nice canter. I worked with my curb rein hooked through my saddle pad's velcro straps (see the above pic for the gray velcro), but that wouldn't have made that big a difference in his quality of work. We worked centerlines again, and I mixed in one flying change on centerline, and it worked! We worked 10m circles at the start of the long side in canter, then trot half passes and canter half passes from the centerline to wall. We did a couple flying changes on the diagonals to an extended trot to finish. He was absolutely stunning. I'll be ordering a girth for myself. He was so much freer in his movements, and so happy to go to work.

Total Saddle Fit Shoulder Relief Girth: A+ rating. Try it! The leather is super soft and supple, and it feels like memory foam when you squeeze it. At $134 or so after shipping, it's an incredible value. If you have a horse that is just not as free moving as he could be, give it a try. The company does 110% money back and a 30 day test period. You can't lose!

Simply stunning horses get to stop working early and go for a road walk!