Blog Hop : 5 things that didn’t work for me

May As Well Event wrote a post earlier this and it gave me some motivation to finally write something up that wasn’t just pictures!

1.) Total Saddle Fit Dressage Girths

The Shoulder Relief Girth™ actually changes the position and angle of the billets to prevent the saddle from interfering with the shoulder

Their website makes a lot of claims about changing the billing angle, girth grooves, forward girth grooves, improving saddle fit etc. etc.

While the thought behind this girth is great – yes let’s improve the billet angle and give the horse more freedom through their shoulders – the actual execution is not quite there. The leather is pretty meh. The forwardness of the front of the girth is a bit too extreme. If you read past the bold words – it’s actually only to enhance the already fitting saddle.

I did use the long version for my jump saddle. And that did work for a time on Luna. The leather got gross and old-looking quickly and it compressed like crazy. I did try the short version. My horse tried to kill me and was EXTREMELY obvious in her dislike of this girth.

2) Ego7 boots

When these boots first came out, I was like semi-excited, but not super excited, for them. They had neat features – like the multiple spur rests for instance. So when the boss ordered them in for the store I was excited to try them out. So I did.

I didn’t like them. At all.

The biggest reason was the fact that after handling them for all of 5 seconds to get them on, my hands were BLACK from the dye coming off of them. That was a huge turn off for me. None of my other boots have ever bled like that from handle them – after time there is some transfer onto saddle pads but not much.

after putting them on one customer

But then, in came the pair that pretty much disintegrated with only a few months of use. The zippers broke, the spur rests came out, the snaps broke. And this wasn’t the only pair that was like this.  I am glad the ended up not fitting me very well !

3) Ogilvy Half Pads. 

If you have seen my saddle pad collection, or noticed my social media posts, you may have noticed 99% of my saddle pads are Ogilvy. LOVE THEM. They are awesome. But you couldn’t get me to ever use an other half pad from them again. The only time I did try one, I borrowed it from a friend.

The quality isn’t an issue at all. Like all of the other Ogilvy products, they are very well made (in Canada !). I just hated they way that they felt under my saddle. I felt like I was on some weird cloud/plush couch thing that bounced and that I was 10 feet above my horse. Not fun. Plus it killed my back.

Back to its owner it went.

4) Lornzini Stirrup Irons

When these first came out, they were all the rage. Everyone was asking for them in the store, people were writing about them on their blogs – they were just kind of everywhere. But like most “popular” things, they now seem to be shoved to the back burner. So I was super curious to try them. Good thing I know people who have a lot of tack !

I popped them on my saddle and got on and instantly hated them. I don’t even think I finished my ride with stirrups I hated them that much. They felt tippy, like they are when they are on a flat surface. I was so unbalanced with my feet in them. Plus the paint is notorious for chipping.  Off my saddle they went!

5) Certain Saddle Fitters.

This isn’t a piece of equipment, but it does have to do with equipment so it counts right?

If you’ve seen my posts about my saddle fitting saga, you would see that it mostly did not work out. Until very recently.

I’ve found that people want to try to distract you with gossip, what courses they took a million years ago, or mumbo jumbo. Maybe they don’t do that with all their clients, or maybe they do and it just goes over people’s heads, I don’t know, but it didn’t work with me.

The lumps left on my horses back, or her bucking, or her just overall angriness putting on a different saddle were clear signs that the saddles didn’t fit. Not to mention how terrible she felt under saddle. Just because you are a professional, doesn’t mean you know best. Brushing my concerns to the side like they are nothing royally pisses me off. Buh-bye !

Kudos to my current saddle fitter who is legit the best and is extremely knowledgeable on not just saddle fitting ! You are truly one in a million !

 

This post was actually tougher to write then I thought it would be. Working at a tack store I either hear all the reviews or try things myself, which means I try a literal boat load of stuff. I can’t say that I have actually tried much that I hate  really disliked. Not much sticks out in my mind, and I am a very picky person! I suppose this is almost a mini-review of things I didn’t really want to spend the time writing about.

Most of these things weren’t quality issues, just things I didn’t dislike. Everyone doesn’t have to like everything! Or like something because someone else said they should – so don’t forget that !