Saddle goes POP!

In my last lesson, my coach was saying she'd like to replace the saddle I've been using this season. These were apparently magic words, because, the very next ride, in about the last ten minutes of the ride I noticed this weird, occasional popping feeling under my right hip, coming from somewhere inside the saddle. The horse didn't seem to react to it at all, and it wasn't a BIG pop, but it was there.

The next ride, it was more frequent. Drat. Especially going to the right. Again, though, the horse didn't seem to notice it and it wasn't BIG.

I didn't, however, rule it out as somehow coming from the right stirrup, so today I lunged and then did a quick ride. Well, the popping was more frequent and I could feel it in BOTH sides, and it seemed to now be happening further back in the seat. And the horse DID notice it today, as her ears were flicking back when it was happening. Not in an "OW!" way. More in a "What IS that?!" way. But it's obviously getting worse quickly.

So, alas, I think that saddle is toast.

As far as the riding itself goes... I felt pretty sticky today. She WAS a bit pokey, I think because I lunged first, but also, because I was pretty sticky that had the side effect, I think, of her seeming to go more slowly. Her initial canters were nice and soft and slow and round. I did, however, get a few "fuck you" trots when I tried to pick up the canter, especially to the right. Once the saddle situation is sorted out, I'll be more confidently able to get after her for that. As it was this ride and the previous one, I was feeling nervous about the popping potentially spooking her so I was kind of lax.

My previous ride, I did manage a lead change each way across the diagonal, without breaking and without completely cutting off the corner. She did come onto her forehand kind of dive into them, but that might be unavoidable at this point in her age/soundness.

Over all, things have been feeling good, with a few exceptions. Perhaps because of the busted saddle problem, I've noticed that the saddle has been shifting left, and an unfortunate side effect of that is that my right side, which is prone to shorten up on me, shortens up even MORE because my weight wants to sink to the left.

Major improvements lately, though: my canter is so much better. I'm moving my back properly now. I'm actually surprised by how high up my back the motion has to start; it's actually right at the base of the rib cage. My sitting trot is steadily improving. My hands are more still, generally, though they could stand to come down a bit more. I'm able to isolate parts of my body better and better.

When I feel like I'm not improving as much as I'd like, I just have to look back to how difficult certain things were a year or a year and a half ago. Sitting the trot without stirrups is now relatively easy, and rising trot without stirrups isn't too bad either -- just a bit tiring and hard on my "bits" because of friction. But I do feel pretty solid at both. Not like I'm constantly losing and correcting my balance, or like I might slide off the horse at any time, like before. I haven't been doing canter without stirrups but mainly because the canter has been pretty not-perfect lately, and that's a lot to do with the horse's limited capabilities at this point, so it is what it is. All in all, this winter has done a LOTTTT for my riding, and I'm very grateful for how it's all been going!!