(no subject)

Good ride last night. I kinda rode like miss fancypants again last night, and could have worn a WWMFPD? bracelet. Anytime I started feeling myself slouch, or collapse, or get stiff or bounce, I would be all "Miss fancypants would never slouch like that, she would be sitting up straight and proud" and start sitting up. "Miss fancypants would ride with her THUMBS UP." and I put my thumbs up. "Miss fancypants would never curl up and put her hands in her lap- she would use her legs and half halt with her core and give her hands forward." You get the idea. I sat up nice and tall, used my seat and core to cue/steady my pony, and kept reminding myself to give forward with my hands when I was balancing her, which helped keep a VERY steady connection in the bridle, and gave her room to move. It's not easy- I think I may have gone a bit too far at times and put her on the forehand a bit, but I felt the horse really taking the bit and felt how I could not lose the connection. This was awesome especially when she wanted to be silly in the usual corner (which was much much better last night). I would send her forward from my leg to my hand, but send my hands forward to give her room to move, while still keeping that strong connection. If she started to lose the bend I would turn to look at her hip to get it back and simultaneously send her forward into my hand. There was a moment where I pretty much felt her get tired and I realized I couldn't help her very well anymore, and so we quit shortly thereafter. The canter work could have been better - it wasn't terrible, just a little quick and not as collected or jumping as I would have liked, but I felt it was because the walk and trot were wonderful and tired us out. We trotted some poles and the first time through, Trudi was clean, which is unusual (but I think I finally had optimal spacing for her). She stopped and turned to me for sugar- she was like "I totally did that perfectly, we're done now, right?" It was pretty cute. I took her through a few more times and called it a night.

(no subject)

So I finally made a trip to the tack shop and sat in some saddles. I sat in a saddle like mine there just to see if it felt different on a rack, and it did. My leg seemed to fall a little better on the rack, so a rebalance may hold some hope.
Fortunately, the saddle fitter was there, and she plunked my butt down in many a saddle. I explained the problem with getting into my chair seat, and said that things seemed a bit better when I tried the Relevant. She studied me for a few minutes in a couple of saddles and gave off a vibe that very clearly said "tsk, tsk - administer knowing pat on the head".
She told me I have a very open hip and a pelvis kind of like a man's. When I sit my leg naturally comes down at a much more open angle that the average gal- it tends to hang partway off the back of the flap when I am comfortable. She was like "If most people tried to sit like that they would be in terrible pain."
It was kind of like being told you're double-jointed or something.
Anyway, onto the saddles- first one that seemed to line me up a bit better was a Trilogy- Amadeo model. It was a 17.5 and it felt like I was wedged into a stone crevasse. Deep is not the word for this saddle- infinite void is more like it. I could have jousted in this saddle riding a bucking bronco and not been unhorsed. However, it was a little uncomfortable in the crotch after sitting in it for a while and my seat bones felt like they weren't necessarily quite flat.
We didn't have much success after that for a few saddles- In Passier we tried a Relevant, which wasn't uncomfortable but didn't lock me into the position she wanted (intersting little test- lift the legs or the knees and let my seat bones creep forward/settle into position- on the "good" saddles I couldn't move a whole lot from there, and my legs couldn't move forward much beyond the knee rolls- as opposed to being able to waterski like I am prone to doing...)- a Hubertus Schmidt - meh, an Optimax, meh, an Hermes Corlandus (thank God this was a no- I don't want to fall in love with a $6,000 saddle). The Hermes looked cool as hell- like all black suede- but made my seatbones feel pointy.
Then we tried a Keith Bryan Santis. And that was the one. Suddenly my crotch and seatbones felt in balance- like I was sititng on a completely flat/level surface and I didn't want to tip any direction- I felt effortlessly stable. I'd never heard of this type of saddle before. Apparantly they're pretty expensive and made in England.
After that we tried a Kieffer Hamburg (Never heard of this model before, though I remember an old, hard, BROWN Kieffer I hated as a kid. It was rock-hard and my instructor's favorite). The Kieffer was pretty good too- the balance seemed to tip me just slightly forward, but not terribly. She told me I can ride in a wide twist which surprised me, but I often feel like my seat bones are sitting on the sides of the saddle (could explain part of why I push toward the cantle) so that may be why a wide twist would work.
Of course, who the heck knows how these actually feel on a moving horse, specifically MY moving horse...
On Trudi's saddle fit- she may have outgrown the current saddle- it does slip forward a couple of inches partway through the ride and that is some of what is throwing my balance off. Bah, saddles. So pretty, and nice smelling, yet so stupidly expensive and such a pain to have to keep futzing with.
One other thing I noticed- many dressage saddles don't seem to allow a person to sit with head, shoulder, hip, heel alignment- it seems like the leg would normally have to be more in front, unless the knee is really bent AND the calf/lower leg is much longer than I think it is. Maybe I just have very long thighs.