Saddle fit (again)

Poptart has been doing well since his time-off, he seems to have gained weight and muscle and is in high spirits!  We have been returning to conditioning and he is tackling each challenge with relish, and when he spooks or is scared he now takes me with him.  This is a big change from several months ago where each spook necessitated him ridding himself of his rider.  I think we have had big gains in trust and comfort with each other, hopefully our partnership continues this way! For example during our last ride a branch (or monster) grabbed his leg and held on for a bit, instead of having a bucking/kicking fit, he just scooted forward rather quickly and listened very well to a 1-rein stop and after 3 circles he was good to go -- as if he said "it was just a little fright mom, we are all good to keep going".  Also, during our saddle fitting trials I came out onto the run-in overhang porch area with the saddle in hand.  He saw that I was carrying a new and improved horse eating monster :) I retreated a few steps and he was confident enough not to flee.  I then approached and he was comfortable with me then stroking his neck  while he checked out the saddle-monster.  He then sighed and licked/chewed and let me place it on his back while I checked out the fit of the most recent shimming (all loose at liberty without any restraint).  Progress is the little things!

Back to saddle fit... While I love my About the Horse Saddle by David Genadek, as-is it started to cause loin soreness on challenging mountain rides (see the orange outlined area in the picture).  The first soreness I found was in February after a particularly challenging ride in both distance and elevation (13.3 miles with 4900' elevation change in 4 1/2 hours).  David then helped me out and sent some shims.  I played with those and found that I could velcro them to the wool underside of the saddle using the rough side of velcro sticky strips which I adhered to the shims.  This seemed to be working well, but unfortunately after our last ride Poptart was very sore from mid-back almost to his hip (he is much better already!).  As I figure things out about saddle fit I noticed that the saddle seems to have a lot of diagonal rock, meaning when his shoulder movement lifts the left front of the saddle then it pushes it into the right loin (I think).  We will see what shimming may help this new challenge!

 In the mean time I am trying demo saddles from Trailwise saddles -- they make really interesting
lightweight endurance saddles with shimmable panels, adjustable seat shimming, and adjustable rigging position. I really like the idea of being able to easily tweak the saddle, but we still have to accomplish a good basic tree fit.  I tried the flat-bar tree and its seems to flat, it is tight in the shoulder and bridges a bit -- more than can easily be corrected with shims.  The other recommended tree style is being shipped for Poptart and I to try. The seat was comfortable and while the saddle is the stripped down lightweight model everything is of very nice quality.  In the meantime I fit my old standby treeless Torsion to Poptart today, adjusting the stirrups and breast collar, putting on the sheepskin seat instead of the OEM seat, etc.  We will try the Torsion out on our rides this weekend, it is not my favorite as far as riding position and stability. Hopefully it will work for him and see us through No Frills (or I will be able to shim our ATH saddle appropriately).