He is my personal horse :D

Well, today was a mess. Our ride was awful. There is no other way to put it. It was terrible. But, now I know the reasoning. You see, before last week I'd always been riding in my jumping saddle. This past week I've ridden in my Wintec Bates dressage saddle pretty much everyday. I noticed our rides were worse, he wasn't moving out and would throw a fit and run sideways in transitions. I didn't think much of it until in my lesson yesterday (riding in my jump saddle) when he was extremely good, forward and fluid moving. Today I noticed where his wither runs into his back was really tender to the touch so I looked at the saddle fit. My Barnsby Milton jump saddle has a 5 inch gullet while my Wintec dressage saddle has a 6 inch gullet. Trying them on his back without pads on I saw that my dressage saddle sits way down on his withers, is to long and way to wide. I could barely fit 2 fingers from his wither to the lowest point of the gullet when you're supposed to be able to confortably fit 3. My jump saddle on the other hand was the perfect length, sat up nicely and I comfortably could fit 3 fingers from wither to gullet. So, in shorter terms I've been screwing my horses back up the past week making him sore and uncomfortable from the pressure of the saddle on his withers. I'm obviously not going to be using the saddle anymore at home or at the show. I will happily do dressage in my jump saddle if it means Baloo is comfortable. Lesson: always check the fit of your saddle. I feel so bad for putting him through that.

Oh that had to hurt I am glad you figured out what was bothering him!

I'll give a rundown of the show tomorrow but here's pictures!

Nice!

Dang he don't look like the same horse!!!! Great job what place did you get?

So, to say it briefly. Baloo was NOT good for the dressage portion of the show. He was awful. Literally AWFUL. Somehow our score wasn't terribly terrible but he was not good. He was also very bad at the trailer, setting back and pawing. (He's been hauled to events before). But, he was stellar in jumping. Literally an angel. As soon as we started jump warmup he was an angel! We had one rail in the jumping but we came 2nd in our division!

I also came to realize (not even because he was bad) that I don't think Eventing/dressage is our thing. I'm sure we'll do more CT just for fun but I think being strictly hunter/jumpers is the route for us.
He got 2 days off and we jump schooled today.
Baloo and I did 3 foot together for the first time today! He flew over it. It honestly felt like a crossrail lol. He has an incredible jump.
We have plans to show affiliated (stately and USEF) next year! I really really do love Baloo even though he has some pretty big flaws that may or my not be fixable. I've never even considered keeping a horse after things like that just because I never have a connection so I've always sold them on to get something different. With Baloo I kinda just rolled with it. Let him be silly and just sat there trying to calm him down. I didn't get nervous or frustrated which is very rare. So, I'm very much looking forward to the future with him.

Dang he's got a beautiful jump!

Went to a playday on Sunday :) Just had some fun and allowed for more experience for Baloo. He has built a habit of setting back at the trailer which has been a struggle but we have ordered "The Clip" by Safetie to prevent anymore stuck/broken leadropes lol.
I do believe Baloo and I will be starting a new program at a new barn sometime in the near future.

Also possibly heading to our first big H/J show later this month where we will do the 2'3 and 2'6"-2'9" classes (this is a possibility not set in stone lol)

https://www.racingpost.com/profile/horse/899449/big-blue-forever/form Okay I had a look at baloo race form out of interest and this is what I found...