New Saddle!!!!

It's so pretty!!!!

So.... just before I realized Fleck was hurting... I had him fitted for a new dressage saddle. While my current one fit him great... it didn't help me much with my position. So... we got him fitted and of course, he prefered the most expensive one. Sigh... Although I did too...

So... we ordered it... and then realized Fleck had arthritis... I almost cancelled it, but I chose to be optimistic instead and hope that Fleck would make a comeback. And figured I"d wait and see... Well... it is perfect timing!! Fleck finished his treatments and is ready to go back to work... right as the saddle arrives. And quite frankly, I'm way too impatient... I'm not sure I could have handled the wait had Fleck been going. Of course now I'm not sure that Fleck is going to make a full comeback and it seems sorta silly to have a custom dressage saddle when he may just be a "fun" horse and not a "show" horse. But... oh well. Hopefully it'll fit the other horses I ride too.. or Dan. Or... even better.. Fleck will still make a comeback, even if it's just dressage!

But it's so pretty!! And Fleck likes it too!!!

And speaking of.... Our current plan is to put Fleck back to work for a good two weeks! He's not 100% yet. He's not lame... and happy to work, but still a bit short strided and maybe a bit funky behind (probably either compensatory or just lack of fitness). So.. the plan is to put him back to work for 2 weeks, while hitting him with everything I have (legends, adequan, etc) and see if fitness helps. If it does... awesome... we take it day by day. If it's still not enough.. then we either officially "retire" him to fun play horse. OR... keep fighting and try another round of IRAP, injections, or even consider Tildren.

And some of you may wonder... Why?! Why not just let him retire happily and find another horse in the meantime. And you might be right... but it's just not that simple. He isn't ready to retire... not even as a fun horse. Well, maybe as a fun horse, but only if he's still my main squeeze! He's a very jealous horse.. he likes to show off, he likes to be the center of attention... So I owe it to him to keep him the center of my world. And it would be hard to do that while also having another horse to show. So... I'll just keep trying to keep him happy and do what he can do...