Teaching in Boulder

Today I made another trip to Lafayette/Boulder area to teach and do some saddle fitting.  This was partially a follow-up appointment to bring some new saddle options out for Spirit the black and white paint gelding, and then I also took measurements for Juno, a palomino quarter horse.  I also did training rides for Spirit and Shambhu to assess saddle fit while riding.  I used the impression pad to get a precise idea of how the tack fit each horse, and gained some really good information with those rides.  For example, Shambhu was somewhat tense through his ride but once he was done with a long warm-up he relaxed and rounded out quite nicely, raising his back and trotting and cantering in a nice round frame.  His impression was great and showed that his new saddle is working out for him well.  Spirit was an absolute pleasure to ride.  In the new saddle he had long swinging strides and spring in his step making him feel like a totally different horse.  His owner rode him briefly as well to get a feel for the saddle, and she was floored at how differently he moved, saying she might need some additional riding instruction to make sure she can sit this new creature's trot!   Despite not having a photographer with us, we managed to round out the day with some hysterical photographs taken on a smartphone of me modeling horse movement.  Just to prove I'm not too proud to laugh at myself I'll share them with the blog.  I'm pretty sure even Spirit is chuckling at me in these.