Saddle Testing Again! & A Close Call

Hello everybodies! How are you? I am fabulous, except for one problem. I am hunting for the perfect saddle for me. This is my current experiment that we are trialing:

Excuse my pink pad, it isn't permanent

This is a Podium, the Champion XT kind. I'm pretty sure I'm a champion, and it's my perfect colour, so it should be perfect for me right? Maybe XT is for Extra Tall like I seem to be getting? (It's entirely possible that Cyd is shrinking...) We have done two rides in it so far, a short ambly kind, and a bit more zoomy 9.5 miles with big hills.

The first ambly ride, we used a big black pad called Matrix from Aunt-E. The pad is a bit too big for me:

More like a blanket

Sorry for ditching you

It wasn't much of a test for me, but enough for Cyd to like it enough to ride longer in it. I mostly did patiently waiting for the cutting of trees on this ride. One bit Cyd tied me to a tree, but I freed myself like I like to do, and I started to leave. Cyd was in the middle of trying to toss a branch twice her size into the bushes out the way, which spooked me into going the other direction. I barged through the rest of the trees waiting to be cut, and took myself down the trail. Cyd is so lazy she didn't even chase me. Turns out I was heading the long way home, and there was at least one tree down about half a mile away that would almost certainly be big enough to stop me, so she wasn't too worried about me being gone for long. Pretty quickly I realised I was alone and came back to find Cyd finishing clearing the trail while she waited for me. Do you like my "Sorry I left you in the woods" face? I was quite sproingy this day, but mostly well behaved.

Today newer Aunt-E, who is Waylonpony's person, came to collect me and Cyd to go teach them a new loopy in Jackson State Forest. I had been hiding in my shed all morning cos for it being rainy, which is good cos it meant I was dry to get my trial saddle on. We brushed off my fur and got my saddle on me, and then the rain came back so we ran to my shed, and hid in there watching through one of the holes in the wall to see when the pony trailer arrived. We got me loaded up with no problems, Cyd closed the door, the peoples got in the truck, and we were on our way. It's a short way down my road, past my friend's house, and onto highway 1 to go to our trails. You know what is super really lucky? Aunt-T was in the yard at my friends' house, and she spotted something really important. Her and Aunty V did yelling and running and waving, and lucky we spotted them and pulled over on the side of the road. Aunt-E and Cyd jumped out for all the commotions and you know what they found? THE PONY TRAILER DOOR WAS OPEN!! So many bad things could have happened. My ranch peoples did their yelling and jumping, and another ranch person was even jumping in their truck to chase us down to make us ponies safe. THANK YOU FOR SAVING US! Now Cyd will thoroughly check and be paranoid over doors forever. I was a bit confused as to why we stopped so soon and why I could see out the back. It's lucky I was tied in (a rare occurrence for me), and that we were driving down hill which kept the door mostly closed kinda. Heart attacks all around, but me and Waylonpony are safe! Our day can just get better from here.

A bit high necked, and saddle a bit forward

I was feeling a bit stubborn for some bits of our pony ride today, not wanting to stand by the fence for mounting, not wanting to go around the gate, or on this particular trail. I'm a pain in the butt sometimes. Other times I was really good, and I was actually mostly nice to Waylon, even when he got really close to me, and even when I did emergency stop (shark infested puddle) and he crashed right into my butt. We did some good trottings practice, and good canterings, I did right side kind and left side kind. I even went next to Waylon, and in front, and behind, and a little bit of passing. Go me for forgetting to be mean most of the time. It was quite rainy for the first bit of our ride, but we were under trees a lot, and it wasn't freezing cold. Cyd got to test her new waterproofs in actual rain, and stayed dry - yippee. I looked bedraggled, but it turns out I'm waterproof under my fur.

Eww I'm wet

I moved out really good in my trial saddle, and Cyd was hoping for a sweat pattern to check. Troubles is I was all dry under there. Tonight she's going to wash my pad so we can look for a dirt pattern instead. My back felt pretty good, but when Cyd came to give me my hay tonight she touched me and I was a bit sensitive and tensed up on one side. She touched me again and I was fine, so maybe it was just me being sensitive (I do do that sometimes) or maybe I was a bit sore? More careful testing required.

 On the way home I was being a leaderpony, I wanted to walk in the front and do my big walk, leaving Waylon behind, but then I would get scared of something and have to wait for him to go first. That way, he can be eaten to distract the monters while I flee. Thanks, buddy, 'preciate it!

When we got back to the pony trailer, you know what we remembered to do? Have me do a polite trot out like I was at an enduring ride. I did it super awesome, then Cyd thought she saw me take an off step, so I did it again. I must have stepped on a stone cos I was just fine, but I was a little more sassy on the trot back the second time. We went home uneventfully, and Aunt-E double checked the doors at the top of the dirt road before going back on the highway, just in cases. Thanks for taking us pony riding Aunt-E and Waylonpony, and thanks for being patient when I was being a bit of a brat.

This is my grumpy face, I ran out of goodness on the way home