BRRRR!

 Whatever groundhog predicted 6 more weeks of winter should ask for a promotion. The warm start to this month was just a teaser! 

Yesterday we woke up to -21Celcius (-5.8 Farenheit). When I did chores Beamer was standing in the back of his stall and wouldn't come out for his hay. So I checked and sure enough he was shaking and shivering. Poor boy! He has been shedding for about a month, so didn't have enough hair to make that insulated layer. I pulled down his blanket and got out the barn blow dryer and warmed it up for him. Yeah, I know, the things we do....

Anyway, he was happy to get his blankie back on! But it took him a few minutes warming up before he ventured out to his hay. I am leaving it on him until we get a much warmer trend. It was -25C (-13F) this morning. Hopefully by the beginning of next week it will be more reasonable- especially since Shayla is on foal watch now !

Today's full moon was going down at daybreak- I wasn't about to brave -25 for another moon shot but thought it looked pretty through my kitchen window. Where I was nice and snug and warm. 

By the time I got outside the sun was coming up, but it packed no warmth at that hour. 

I feed earlier on those colder days.

The mares were all frosted up again and happy to bury their noses in the hay. 

The saddle story: I ended up consigning my saddle, with the possibility of trading it in on a lower end but new saddle. They are giving me a good trade in price, so it makes sense to go that route (it's more than I paid for the saddle). I am hoping they can get me a ranch cutter. 

I asked if they can bring this one in. And hope it's in my price range! The coat hanger map I made worked really well; they had a flexible ruler that got shaped to my pattern and we tried it on a lot of saddles. Turns out I was right, she does need full quarter horse bars, and of course all the used saddles I liked that fit me weren't wide enough for Ruby. A lot of the ranch cutters they had in stock were rough out seat and fenders, which I am not a fan of, even though they do help keep you in the saddle when the horse makes sudden moves. And it may well be what I end up with. 

Lamb

 

March 1st the cold abated and it started to get warmer although not quite above freezing, but today, March 2nd what a beauty of a day!

I'm calling it in like a lamb. 

We had the warm west wind we call the Chinook wind. Chinook is a native word meaning snow-eater. Very appropriate!

I'm headed to  a tack store tomorrow to either consign my ranch saddle or trade it in on something lighter with wider bars for Ruby. 

All cleaned up and ready! Ideally I will be able to trade it straight across for a more suitable saddle but we shall see. Hard to believe this saddle is 43 years old. It should last another 100 years with proper care, it is so well made. I do love hand built saddles. 

Since I can't haul Ruby there to fit her for a saddle, I made a template with coat hangers. (Supervised by Velvet!) The store has a way of transcribing that info for saddle fit. Sure hope they have what I need!

The saddle restoration.

 From an old moldy hunk of junk to a perfectly functional saddle, and all for the cost of elbow grease, 30 bucks worth of oil, and 200 to the repair shop. Here's the post with the before photos 

There are a few things left to do like get a set of stirrups and give these ones back to the saddle maker, and get a new off side billet (the strap the cinch attaches to on this side of the saddle) and get a couple of latigo keepers installed on those front conchos so I have a place to hang the cinch when not in use, and a place to put the excess latigo when I tighten the cinch. 

Front view, showing the leather which we chose instead of sheepskin. Those dark spots are where the saddle strings go through the tree to tie all the skirting down. 

Those angled swells should help keep me in the saddle when I'm working colts!

The leather underside, with a close up of the texture. I am sure this will help to keep the saddle from slipping around, it should have better grip on the saddle pad than sheepskin. 

I have saddle pads of 3 different thicknesses; 1 inch. 3/4 inch and a half inch. I tried this saddle on Sophie with the 1 inch 5 Star pad. 

You can see that the billet strap is too short in this photo

Plenty of wither clearance although I think I could go to the 3/4 inch pad as I think this sets the bars too high on her, but for colts who aren't as wide backed as this mare, this pad should be perfect. When I originally set the bare tree on her I thought there might not be enough wither clearance. This saddle has full quarter horse bars. 

Turned stirrups! 😁

You can see how much lower the cinch sits on this side as compared in the above photo; that's a 36 inch cinch; if it was centered it would probably be a good fit. 

Sophie sez, let's ride!

Saddle repairs

 I picked up 2 of my saddles that I had in for repairs. My newer riding saddle, I had asked for the hole where the latigo attaches to be enlarged so that I could more easily feed the latigo through, and to turn the stirrups so that they hang perpendicular  to the horse. 

Before

After

Much better, now I can reach through there.

No more groping with your foot to find the off side stirrup when I get on.. Yes I did finish doing up the keeper strap!

I also picked up my saddle with the broken tree. I tried to find the photo I took of the breaks at the back end of the bars, but it's no longer available on my blog and I didn't save it to my computer. The breaks were right where the conchos were screwed into the tree behind the cantle. My repair guy built a whole new tail piece out of fiberglass and attached it to the tree with pins. It's probably stronger than the original tree at that point!

Both sides

I gotta say, it feels good to have a couple of saddles back in use!

Now I need to buy a decent set of stirrups for my little saddle (on the top) . The good ones I used to have on it were on my Wade saddle when I sold it. I was looking at prices....😮 90 bucks for  a standard pair of wooden stirrups and over 400 for a name brand pair!

Today I will try the little saddle on Sophie, I think it will fit as far as the gullet and hand hold area goes but the bars may have too steep of an angle for her rather flat back. She does have a good wither so  clearance there will have to be considered too.  Fortunately my newer saddle fits her perfectly.

Sharp shod and saddle repairs

 I made a purchase a couple of weeks ago and I sure am happy I did! 

I got a set of ice spikes to slip on my barn boots. They work great! But I am looking forward to the day I won't need them. 

                                               They fit nicely over my el cheapo barn boots.

My catch and release program is working well with Sophie; the last couple of days she just stood and let me walk up and catch her.

I took my saddles to a local saddle maker/repair guy. He thinks my saddle with the broken tails on the ralide tree is fixable, and on my new saddle  he is going to make the hole where the latigo attaches to the cinch ring larger so I won't have to change out my cinch rings to a different style. 

I also had an old Saddle King of Texas saddle given to me last summer- it was in deplorable shape, having been left out in the weather. It was all dried, curled up leather and it was moldy. I stripped it all down and cleaned it up; the saddle tree is in good shape and the leather responded well to all the treatment I gave it. It needs a few things to make it complete; new sheepskin, new stirrup leathers and blevins buckles to replace the old method of lacing to adjust the stirrups; new saddle strings and conchos. I opted to have straight leather sewn onto the skirts instead of sheepskin. He showed me a couple of saddles he did that to that have seen a lot of use and it does just as good a job as sheepskin, given the quality of saddle pads that are available these days. Will also probably hold the saddle in place better than sheepskin. I will post pics of it when it's done, but here is what it looked like when I got it.

Rotted sheepskin

Rotted stitching

Moldy leather

Random bent over nails (and mold)

Mold on the bars of the tree

Saddle skirts removed so I could see that the tree was actually in good condition

Moldy saddle skirts

This was before I started tearing it apart. I didn't take a photo of it all dried up and curled up leather; what I was doing here was I had wetted down the jockeys and tied them down to take the curl out of them.

This is what everything looked like all torn apart, cleaned up and headed to the repair shop.

I'm pretty excited to see how it will look and ride once I get it back!  It's destined to be my colt starting saddle.

The lope

 Today was supposed to be dentist day, but he cancelled until Monday due to the inclement weather. BC is being inundated with rain again and it is so muddy! 

I did get a chance to take Sophie to the round pen the other day. My goal was to get her loping under saddle on the longe line to see if she is inclined to buck when speed is added. 

A note on my saddle- I see the need for a modification on it; the rigging rings where the latigo and off side billets are attached are not the best design. They don't have a lot of room to feed the latigo through as you can see in this next photo:

This type of plate rigging also has flat edges instead of rounded, guaranteed to wear out the leather  at least on the off side where it gets more pull. 

So the search is on for a saddle repair shop to change it out for me . Loooking for something more like this:

Any way, getting back to Sophie; I worked her on the long line saddled up and was quite pleased to see that she was nice and steady at the lope both ways. She seems to quite like being  worked, if one goes by her expression.

Yes Sophie, you are a good girl.

I think that most of her working life, she was not fussed over at all- just get her saddled up and go to work. I think this because she seems a little unsure of having a lot of attention paid to her, like me brushing the mud off her or rubbing her head, etc. I think working is her comfort zone- what she is accustomed to and expects.

She will adapt to my way of doing things over time!

Saddle

 Been a wet week here so didn't get a lot done. But I found a saddle to look at not too far from here. I had sold my Wade saddle a couple of weeks ago and was on the lookout for an affordable, good quality used saddle.

What I found was another custom built saddle, made by Mark Denny of Cariboo Saddlery at Williams Lake B.C.  It's very well built and good thick leather. A bit heavy but that is ok. It is the kind of saddle that will last a lifetime, probably out last me by many years! The lady who sold it no longer rides and has health issues. Kind of sad....

To get there we had to go over a mountain pass, and what was rain here was snow up there.

My first snow of the season! The roads weren't too bad, a little slippery going up the hill but ok going down. 

The saddle was pretty much what I expected (you know I love custom built saddles!) so I bought it, and she threw in a whole bunch of used tack, nothing much that I wanted or needed so I will sell it via Ted's Facebook. 

When we got home I checked it out more thoroughly; it needs the stirrups turned and a new latigo strap but other than that its good to go. I put it on Beamer for a trial fit. 

The bars are flatter than the Wade, which is better for the fit ; Sophie has a round back

There's some pretty nice floral carving on it; not too much.

Good wither clearance too

The leather where I have my hand is curved inward from the way she stored the saddle; I will wet and shape it back to where it should be. The bars of this saddle have a good amount of flare to keep from digging into the shoulders.

I am also going to change out the stirrups with the ones on my broken saddle, these have that galvanized wrap that I don't like.  It did come with a back cinch which I have to put back on.

Can't wait to get Sophie home and start riding again! And no, I didn't ride Beamer. 

Out on Gussie

A leisurely  ride on Gussie was just the thing yesterday. Short ride but long enough as Gussie has a thrushy foot that is troubling her.

Down the road to pick up the mail

 One must stop to smell the lilacs

At home we went down to check out the pond- it is quite high but not overflowing its banks yet.

I have decided to sell the saddle I bought a little while ago- nice comfy saddle, well made but the wither clearance just isn't enough for her.

I got Moondance's registration application sent off today so I have been taking photos to email in- I like this one taken this evening.

However, it isn't quite perfect for AQHA as they need to see all 4 legs clearly on the 3/4 front photo, which is the one that they put on the papers.
Tomorrow I will do his 3 week old photo shoot.

Riding day 21