Thanks, rain, for ruining my plans.

I planned to ride today, but it rained off and on pretty consistent. I thought I caught a break, and I was going to just walk/trot her, but soon as I got her in the barn...thunder and rain. So I groomed her, checked her feet, gave her some cookies and put her out. She was not amused that I was putting her out with no sheet, but it was on the warm side, and she was still a little damp from the previous rain, and I'm not looking to need to treat rain rot here...

So I'll be riding tomorrow, weather permitting.

I'm still tickled pink about how much happier she is with her turnout. When she was stalled for so many hours of the day, it was like she was so mentally bogged down that she couldn't even think straight. It was like the littlest things would just set her off. She was still obedient, never really misbehaved badly, but she just had no interest in doing anything.

And now it's like she looks forward to seeing someone coming out to catch her. Because she's had plenty of time to just be a horse, and she WANTS to go do something different. A bit lazy though she may be right now, you can tell she enjoys being handled and ridden again.

I still think the Wintec was the culprit. And it escalated into the back issue, and compensating created the hock issue. The problems started right after I started riding her. Right after I started using the Wintec. And it wasn't long before she would be anxious during saddling. The Wintec was weird with her. It was never just right, but not extremely off. Depending on what her body was like, it was too narrow, or too wide. Her anxiety during saddling is totally gone with the new saddle, which is a huge indicator that the Wintec may have started this whole mess. Not to mention, it sat so weird on her. She is slightly, very slightly, downhill. The Wintec sat me so tipped forward, mixed with the slight downhill build...totally putting her off-balance. The new close contact fits her like a glove, and it puts me in a perfect position. I feel so much more secure in it. Jumping felt so much different the other day. I didn't feel out of balance for a second, even though I'm not at all an experienced jumper, and I haven't jumped in months.

I feel really stupid for not realizing the saddle could/did create so many issues. I questioned the fit several times, some people said it fit, some said it didn't, others said it wasn't perfect but it wouldn't cause us a problem. Having learned to listen to my own common sense and trust my own experience (without dismissing information from those wiser and more experienced, of course), I'm pretty freaking sure the saddle is the culprit. And the other seemingly unrelated problems are resulting from a "trickle down" effect.