Time Jump

We did it!! 

Frosty finally made another time jump. He shaved a 1/2 a second off his normal time...and did it with ease. He's been running about 2.3 seconds off of the fast time, today he ran 1.8 seconds off of the fast time. 

Yayyyy Forest!! No, that is not a typo. I lovingly refer to Frosty as my Forest Gump of horses. And I DO say it with affection. Frosty cannot help the fact that he is 'not a smart horse'. In spite of all of his wonderful physical attributes...He lacks mental quickness....and he struggles to absorb the things that comes so easily to my other horses. Frosty has another Forest Gump trait that I find tremendously endearing...He is supremely honest. 

Believe me...after spending these last few years dealing with a horse that was 2 thoughts (and 2 moves) ahead of me most of the time...I find Frosty's steadfast approach soooo refreshing. 

Although, the unfortunate thing is, Frosty seems to be a 'cracker horse'. You know...one of those horses that seems to fall in the time crack that pays ZERO $$. LOL!! He went from not placing in the 4D to not placing in the 3D. 

We did have a little help though. ;-).

Frosty's hocks are freshly injected, so the hoppy turns are gone, 

and....

I finally splurged on a new barrel saddle. A new Sharon Camarillo by Courts. The whole time I ran Moon, I struggled with finding a saddle that fit him through the shoulders and helped put me in the correct position....AND was something I could afford. I'm sorry...I never could make myself spend $3,500-5,000 for one of those Double J's that I wanted. I kept looking for used ones and the right one just never popped up. 

Did it cost me in the long run?...Yea...probably! (Live and learn) 

I had been running Frosty in the little saddle that I was using on Moon, but I saw pictures of my run from last weekend and said...'Oh hell no!! I am not doing this anymore!'...I was sitting flat on my butt and my feet were way out in front of me coming around a barrel. That just does not work. After trying to talk myself out of it all week, I went to the tack store where I have had my eye on this saddle for a year now and bought it. 

If this saddle had fit Moon, I would have bought it long ago, but it was just a wee bit tight on him, so I never splurged. Frosty is a much bigger horse than Moon, however, Moon had those ungodly laid-out shoulders and nothing less than an 8" gullet would fit him. This has a 7 1/2" gullet and fits Frosty and all of my other geldings nicely. 

I got it home, tried it on all of my geldings and then got on and rode it around. Then I started freaking out. It seemed to hit me funny on the back of my butt and I kept thinking, the cantle is not high enough, I'm going to get slung out the back when a horse leaves the barrel. I waffled and waffled, the whole day. Texting several people and driving them crazy with my indecisiveness. I came soooo close to taking this saddle back the same day I bought it. But finally, I took a deep breath and reminded myself...I have been wanting this saddle for a whole year...If I hadn't stopped wanting it in all of that time, I was probably just having buyer's remorse.

Well, thank goodness I kept it and made a run in it. It was wonderful!! I mean, Frosty set into that first barrel and I was like, 'Holy cow, I'm right over the top of him'. And when he came out of that turn, there was absolutely no backlash when he took off. I just stayed balanced right over the top of him. It was game on then. Frosty made a smokin' 2nd turn. I mean, he wrapped that barrel!! 3rd was just as good and he galloped for home. 

There is no sense looking back and getting mad because I didn't buy a better saddle earlier...But I know one thing...I will never make that mistake again. And now it's time to clean out the tack room. I had already told Cindy D. I had 2, maybe 3 saddles for her to sell for me, but now I have 4 that are going buh-bye. I'm keeping Moon's old saddle, because it's not worth anything on the open market...and it IS comfortable to ride in out in the desert and light...so it would be a good colt saddle. But I'm selling everything else and investing that money into another new barrel saddle...The other one I have been wanting is a Charmayne James...

The same saddle shop I bought the SC Courts from had one of these and I sat in it and really liked it. Unfortunately, they only had a 14" and that was too big for me. I could fit 3 fingers between my knee and the swell. I'll need a 13 1/2", possibly a 13" in this brand. And it comes in a regular or a wide tree and I am not entirely sure which one I want (need)...So what I will have to do is wait until I go somewhere where I can try both tree widths on a horse and compare the fit. 

But at least for now I am set. I plan on riding the heck out of the Camarillo and competing in it every weekend for the next 30 days. I am very hopeful that there won't be any issue with the tree (a slight problem with some Camarillo's in the past), but if there is, there is a 30 day factory warranty on it.