In the past few days, the temperature, weather, and my free time have finally coincided again and I’ve had a few good schooling rides. I did not ride with a saddle from December through the first week of January, and I’m pretty pleased with myself for sticking to that. This week, the saddle went back on.

I immediately noticed some good things and some bad things about the transition back to a saddle.

Pros

After a month of riding bareback, my hips were much looser, and I had a more instinctive following flexibility than I’d possessed before. It was immediately clear how much more supple my lower back was in following him at the walk, and how much smoother my posting was because I was more attentive to the thrust of his hind legs.

My legs were much stronger and steadier as well, particularly in the canter. I was able to really hold him with my outside leg – and yes, ideally he would not NEED me to hold him through my outside leg, but that is a longer term project!

I was more effective and efficient with my aids in the saddle, which I’d always known. The added security meant I could push a little harder in the lateral work, get him a little stronger and deeper in the trot, and generally take more risks. The difference between a true schooling ride and a conditioning/loosening ride, which is all I was capable of while bareback.

He’s definitely more fit. The interval work for him while I concentrated on my seat paid off.

Cons

SO COLD. So fricking cold. Whereas before, as we worked and he warmed up, he communicated that warmth right through to my legs and core, now I had a big piece of leather and wood and saddle pad and half pad between me and his warm, warm back. I lost all feeling in the surface of my legs almost immediately, and shivered under my coat until well into the warmup.

It’s more boring, in a way. The 15 minute walk warmup that I do during the winter wasn’t nearly as interesting under saddle, when I couldn’t feel every minute move of his back and hid end. Some people are way more sensitive than I and don’t have that problem, but I’ve never been an intuitive rider in that way.

The girth! Some of this, ok, was the harder level of work + the warmer temps (into the 20s, you guys! HEAT WAVE!), but he was damp around the girth area. Going forward, we’ll see if he sweats when he gets fitter or if I need to extend his clip a bit. I’m actually leaning toward clipping a bit more.

God damn it is a lot of extra steps to put a saddle on. Yes, I’m that lazy sometimes. Up and down the tack room stairs, up and down the barn aisle, all the buckles, the progressive tightening of the girth, on and on. With bareback, I grabbed a bridle and a quarter sheet and we were off.

My record for riding in December has been pretty abysmal, so I was pleased to get out for another ride last night. Bareback again, with a wool quarter sheet underneath. We’re still on the loosening/fitness plan, if only because I can’t string together enough rides to work harder on that.

So: 15 minutes walk, 5 minutes trot, 10 minutes walk, 5 minutes trot, 10 minutes walk last night. All bareback. I felt pretty good about most of it; he had a couple of zoomy moments but nothing he didn’t half-halt out of. He relaxed pretty good over his topline about 2/3 of the way through, and though I never got really true long & low work out of him I feel good about what we did.

Unusually for my barn during the winter, last night there were four of us working in the ring! One adult on a lovely tall hunter, and two kids on ponies going zooooooom. Since the trainer takes ~20 horses south for the winter, we’re usually less than half full during the winter, and it’s the quietest time of the year by far. Not this winter! The adult on the hunter is a local trainer who has brought about six of her clients and horses to the barn for the winter.

She was VERY nice and her horse was just lovely, verrrrrrry hunter type-y (a lot of you guys would’ve loved her). The kids were nice and pretty darn good at ring etiquette, but wow, did I fall out of the habit of riding with other people! Especially since there were jumps set up and it’s not a huge indoor to begin with. Eep.

We made it through just fine, though, and my schedule is starting to open up, so here’s to more bareback December rides!