So, I get my big red dream horse home.  He’s fantastic.  Beautiful- in every way… big ol’ quarter horse butt, muscles just EVERYwhere.  Beautiful face… Like a painting.  Loads of personality.  AND he just loves my old appy.  LOVES  him. 

Now Davis (the new guy) will fight through the fence with the other horses… for a few days when he first arrived I worried that he’d take the fence out.  But not with Nez… Davis is definately in charge, but he moves Nez in small incriments, Nez moves just BARELY enough to called it moving, then turns around and comes back.  (”kids these days”) 

When we take Nez out of the pasture, Davis calls to him like a little girl.  :~)  Way too cute.  It does my heart good because that is one of the things I really wanted before Nez’ time came…  Up until now we’ve had to keep Nez separate from the other horses because when he went downhill in soundness, the other horses started trying to pick him off and help nature along.  Poor ol’ guy.

Now he gets the happiest last couple of months we could possibly get for him.  Dusty tears in my eyes as I watch them graze the grassy nubs in their pasture together.  Like old friends.

I digress- this is supposed to be a bout a saddle, right?!

Davis is home and (you all know the story) I can’t seem to find a saddle that fits.  His shoulder is massive.  He’s got a nice wither and a little bit of a dip to his back (NOT sway backed, just not built like a mule, lol).  And did I mention his shoulder?  It’s just this mass of muscle… 

I found that a 7″ gullet was wide enough, but semi bars was way to narrow, quarter horse bars were still too narrow.  And the bars were too long and caused the saddles to bridge.  (He has a lovely short back).  So I tried a gaited saddle.  Oh, almost perfect.  Perfect rock, nice flare, wide enough gullet, but alas, still the angle of the bars was too narrow for his shoulder.

Just to be sure I girthed it up and took him up to the arena & turned him loose.  He bucked for the first time (so far he’s been ultra mellow) and I couldn’t quite say for sure if it was the saddle or him just letting his inner-punk out to play.

I sat on the saddle for about 45 seconds.  Yep, just long enough to stick my hand under the pommel and realize I couldn’t.  So I promptly slid off before I made him help me get off, lol. 

(And yes, if he would have bucked me off it would have been my own fault.)

Back to the drawing board.  Dang it.  That saddle was only $350 and a name brand (which is important to me not because I’m a snob, but because eventually I’d like to save up for a custom saddle for him, and I’ll need good resale value).  AND it matched my bridle.  Now that is just because I’m a snob… but a redneck snob so that’s ok, right?

Dissappointment set in and a friend reminded me of the great things that God has in store for my big red horse and I.  Surely He knows what He is doing.  (Woops, how can I lose sight of that fact so quickly when I’m looking at this miracle horse?!)

I just don’t normally think of God providing my tack.  Usually I leave that up to Smith Brothers. 

I prayed.  Again I made my list of the things that I knew I needed, and the things I wanted.  I listed Davis’ measurements.  Then back to the drawing board to look/wait some more.

I did find that maybe an Arabian tree would work.  But since the gaited didn’t, I didn’t want to get my hopes up too much.  I scoured craigslist and ebay…  Found only one arab tree, and while it is a deal at $600, I just don’t have that kind of cash. 

Came up empty handed on the arab tree idea.  But I did find a couple of ads on craigslist that I inquired about, asking for pictures and measurements.  And I found one on ebay that I asked for measurements…

Now for the cool part (if you’re still reading, you get a gold star by the way!)  All of the saddles I inquired about happened to be the same one!  There was NO way for me to know that!!!  No pics on the craigslist ads.  Only the generic craigslist email address.  Double whammy:  I know the gal.  I’ve been to her place and we’ve traded tack before. 

So, yada yada yada… she is sure the saddle will fit, but if it doesn’t she’ll buy it right back.  Can’t lose with that deal.  I bid on ebay. 

I end up winning the bid at less than $150.  Brand name saddle (not uber ritzy brand, but it’s a Circle A by American Saddlery, good enough).  AND it matches my tack!!!  And after looking up the serial number, it’s an arab tree afterall.  LOL.

I go pick it up, we walk into her tack room and she stands at the door, hands on her hips and says “now where is that saddle?”.  And it slides off the rack.  Yep.  Perfect timing. 

Oh, and guess what?  It fits.  Really, really fits.

No bucking on the lunge.  Happy horse.  Out of the way of his shoulder.  Short tree fits his back nicely. 

I finally got to ride my dream boat yesterday.  Walk trot transitions, (nice western pleasure jog).  Turn on the haunches and forehand.  Great control with my legs.  Nice back up.  Awesome whoa.  Neck reins nicely.  My gosh I love this horse. 

He looked so handsome all tacked up in that dark oil and black tack.  And he even worked up a little sweat…  No swirlies under his pad, nothing budged.  I am so happy right now.  I guess God knows what he’s doing.  Now, the trick for me is to allow this to permiate the rest of my life.  If God is the provider of EVERY good and perfect thing that I have… if they are all gifts from above… this really impacts every moment of the rest of my life.

Sigh.  I am so happy.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 1st, 2010 at 6:54 am and is filed under Barn life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.