Nov 18, grateful for nice riding weather this am

I was almost too warm in a windbreaker over a LS tee, but had a nice ride with L on Lady and me on Sadie.

The company sent me an english girth but I got special 2-point western rigging on the saddle, we did have an old string cinch short enough to work so I'm grateful for having old tack around.

Sadie stood fairly still for me to mount and I didn't need to be uphill from her so I think the mounting bugaboo that started in Meeker will soon be a thing of the past.

I am grateful that L is interested in riding Lady almost year round. She wants to maybe do some odd jobs (mentioned trailer or pickup cleanup ) as she feels a bit cash poor. That could work for me if I give it some thought.

I'm grateful for my job. Sometimes it is a groaner being surrounded by liberals but most of my co-workers are good people, just misguided about how social/political incentives will affect behavior and the fact that there is not a pool of rich people who just aren't paying enough towards government. And I do love the flexible hours and good amount of PTO.

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Now for the not all rose colored glasses part.

I have to decide what to do for a cinch for my new saddle. I may keep the english girth they sent if it fits on Shade's saddle, but I will need to get a short western cinch for Sadie. I might go for a neoprene one for winter, not sure. Have to *decide* now and I am feeling mentally tired and don't want to make any extra decisions.

I cannot use my supracor pad with this new saddle. Or I guess I can't use it on Sadie, she doesn't have a huge amount of withers. I'll find out soon if just using a wool fleece pad will work or if I'll need a crupper, well if I need a crupper than I could use the supracor pad. More decision, but I need to play with pads and decide if I need the crupper and if I need one, I'll have to decide what kind to get, it might be best to just use a crupper with this saddle and Sadie's conformation, but the trainer's saddles that I tried before ordering mine didn't seem to go too far forward so maybe I won't have to mess with it.

I think I'll have to cut down my new stirrup fenders if I don't just swap out for english leathers; I am quite bummed about where the blevins buckle hits with the stirrups lengthened to where I want them and it totally turns my stirrups 90 degrees from where I want them, I think turning the stirrups by soaking and broom handle treatment will only do so much if I leave the fenders as they are. Sigh, crystal ball failure again, I should have just ordered 2 inch leathers with no extra fender width or something but I can fix it, I'll just have to cowboy up and take a blade to the nice leather fenders or pay someone to cut them down for me.