2 saddles and still nothing to ride in

 Mia is taking rehab quite well. Fingers crossed because so far she has stayed sound and is slowly building some fitness back. One of the bigger challenges is that she is outside in a frozen pasture that is full of ruts, making it impossible to do more than a slow walk. As a result, all mobility and fitness are coming from our spins in the indoor arena. Not ideal, but at least she is staying sound. 2-4 short rides per week are helping her take it one step at a time. If the weather would cooperate, maybe we could get up to 4+ rides a week again? Hahahahaha.... JK, I live in the northeast in January. It has been super cold with quite poor weather lately. 

I know you like it mom, but it don't fit

My entire plan of using Jan/Feb as a way to really increase my fitness has been only moderately successful. I have been riding bareback pretty much exclusively since I started riding again. The plan was to start working on 2 point and such while trotting, engaging my core and getting MY fitness back. That hasn't happened as neither of my saddles are fitting her right now. Both saddles were fit/flocked back in Feb/March of last year and fit perfectly before she broke with Lyme in April. Now after spending an entire year out of work, neither fit and both saddles are bridging. 

Last night I tried some slight padding adjustments with the stuff I had at the barn without success. She certainly did not like the padding adjustments and really didn't want to go forward even after taking the extra padding off. However when I took the saddle off and hopped on bareback, she about bounced me off as she happily bounced herself into the trot. *sigh*

I guess I am now going to spend the next 2 weeks doing some real dressage work bareback as we finish the last of her trial period and then we start cantering on the 16th. I am hopeful that after getting back to work for a month, by mid March the saddles should fit again due to her developing some muscles. Right now she has virtually none. The next step will be getting someone out to reflock my saddles again, something that will need to happen anyway but I would rather do it with some muscling vs no muscling. Rehab is not quick process that is for sure!