This saddle hunt is making me insane and that’s putting it mildly. My girl is hard to fit which is making this process harder. I’m not made of money which is making it doubley as frustrating. Of course everything over a few grand fits her and fits her well, everything under.. nope. The boyfriend took a day off of work so we could drive to VA ( cuz VA is for saddles not lovers) to pick up a saddle from good ole Dover. After sitting on the barrel in a few different makes and models the best i came up with was a Henry De Rivel all purpose. This HDR was also on super sale, which is to say it was not over a thousand bucks. It was my best bet in there that day and i took it home with me after a drive back to MD though Friday rush hour traffic.. yeah i miscalculated that, doh!
I was excited and hopeful that this HDR would fit my girl or that it could be made to fit her with some re-flocking. The next day I went to the barn and enlisted the most experienced hose trainer there to give it a look with me and give me her thoughts. Her basic attitude was “well it didn’t suck” okay so this one didn’t fit ether. why I expected or hope for it to I dunno. It wasn’t terrible but it bridged slightly and the angle to the withers was slightly narrow. the question i sent off to my saddle fitter along with pictures, video if the saddle girthed unpadded, video of the saddle padded and girthed with my girl on the lunge line at a walk and a trot was… can you make it fit!?! I only had a few days to make the decision on this saddle before i had to return it or buy it… so yeah I’m still waiting to hear back from my saddle fitter and today I’m about to drive my happy ass back up to nowhere VA to give this saddle back. Another disappointment for sure.
While I was at Dover the women helping me who btw was pretty awesome and helpful. She wanted me to get the right saddle not just any saddle told me that Dover will come out to me with 5/6 saddles and do a free fitting and they do it with you in motion on the horse. Oh and its a FREE service they offer. This was the first I heard of this and when I go back there today to return what i hoped would be my saddle for years, I’m going to take them up on it and get the wheels working. I totally liked my saddle fitter he was nice, seemed to know what he was doing and came very highly recommended but this process isn’t working for me and I need to find another one. I’m going to try to over lady and get as good a fitting saddle as I can then see about getting it flocked to perfection for my girl. Even if I have to spend a little more to do it on a saddle in the end. This back and forth and hurry up and wait is not a process I flourish in and its already frustrating to me because its very slow going and I’m way out of my element.
So i drive back to nowhere VA today … wish me luck.