Heading out to the barn tonight. It's been almost 4 weeks since I've seen my horse - much too long. We've been painting at home, and have been out of town, I've also been studying for the GRE. Life can calm down a bit now so I can head out without feeling like I should be doing something else.
I know, it's totally classless - what proper horse owner/rider spends so much time away from her horse? Well, to be honest I've been a bit discouraged. She's been visited by the chiropractor twice (two different ones) and the last time I was up there I could feel those back problems flaring up again. So I notified one of the guys there that I have to be on the list for when the chiro comes back up again - sure sure, no problem. 4 weeks later and I haven't heard anything. There's really no way for us to move forward if she can't!
I'm going up tonight and we'll get reacquainted. I"m also going to do a proper saddle fitting (which, hello, I should have done the minute I tacked her up but it looked like it fit just fine and the sweat marks were consistent) - I've been following this blog (http://saddlefitter.blogspot.com/) and now have a couple more things to look for. Part of me really wants to find problems with the saddle so I can say that the saddle is what's causing problems. She does snap at me and try to bite when I tack up but that's pretty consistent with how she behaved with the western saddle I used. So A) My english saddle doesn't fit her, B)both saddles don't fit her, C) she just has attitude or D) the back problems are exasperated when I ride so she recalls that pain when I tack up, regardless of whether the pain is actually there, or E) a combo of the above (not an answer you would find on the GRE). I sound like such a beginner with my excuses and "I didn't (do this/that)." At least I'm working this through though, at least I'm responsible (even if said responsibility is tardy).
Ok.
Peace out yos.
