Many, many decades ago Piero Santini wrote in one of his books that one reason to wear the knee high boots was that when the leather of the boot was against the leather of the saddle flap the rider’s grip was stronger.  It has been decades since I rode in the high leather boots, but I do look back at them with fondness, and every once in a while I consider getting high boots again but they look so HOT.  With my MS anything that makes me hotter makes my MS symptoms worse so I have settled for half chaps.  The past few years I have been looking at the full seat breeches but I was not too sure about them since most of them seem to use suede or clarino.  Since I never noticed my grip being much better with suede, clarino or other synthetic materials I did not see how they could help me much. 

As I have been getting physically weaker over the years I decided to ask Donna the owner of the nearest good tack store around here if there was anything that could work for me.  She started gushing about the breeches she uses, the FITS doeskin paneled full seat breeches which use smooth but perforated doeskin for the full seat.  Remembering what Santini said about the efficacy of smooth leather against smooth leather in increasing grip I decided to save up for some.  I have never before in my life spent $250.00 USD on a pair of riding pants but I get so tired in the saddle right now I thought they might be worth it.  So I saved up my spending money and got myself a pair of the FITS full seat breeches and after three rides I think they are worth every penny since I am not sliding around in the saddle much any more.  I also got a pair of mesh half-chaps thinking they might be better for me in the heat of the summer when I have to quit wearing my suede half-chaps because they just get too hot.  The mesh half-chaps do seem to be cooler but I am not too happy with them right now since the zipper on one broke this morning, the fourth time I put them on.  Now I have to take them back and wait for replacements to be ordered.  When I got the half-chaps I had to settle for the bright pink pair (oh horrors!)  since they were the only ones that fit me.   Now I can get me some of a more conservative color so it isn’t too bad, though Debbie, my riding teacher, liked the pink ones since she could see my lower leg so easily!

I got my lesson on Wednesday on Mick as usual, still using my new EZ-Fit treeless saddle.  I had moved the panels (the part that rests on the horse’s back) so that they were more even and I had struggled with trying to adjust the stirrup harness by moving the center to one side so that I could have both stirrup leathers on the same hole.  That did not work out too well, the stirrup leathers were still on different holes.  So I basically decided that I would have to put up with that minor irritation.  Debbie was a little late so I went ahead and started grooming Mick and I was already tired when I got into the saddle.  Mick was still showing his improved, more impulsive trot and he was reacting to the Mullen mouth snaffle fine, like Mia he seems to prefer me using a gentle snaffle over any of the bitless bridles I‘ve tried on him so far.  The true joy of my ride was that, because of my new full seat breeches, I was not sliding back in the saddle toward the cantle, and I did not have to use any extra energy to keep my seat in one place.  It has been around 35 to 40 years ago since I wore out my last old-fashioned cavalry twill cotton breeches and had to switch to the new synthetic knit fabrics, and this was the first time in decades that I felt I had the same amount of frictional grip as I had with the old type breeches (which had cloth knee patches, not suede.)  Debbie was really pleased with my seat and lower legs though she had to remind me to straighten up several times--I am still getting used to the higher pommel on my treeless saddle and I tend to collapse over it when my belly runs into it.

Friday the stable was deserted since almost everyone had left to go to a horse show.  My son got Mia and I rasped her hooves, let Joe groom her and got her tacked up.  Last week, when I could not ride and had my son lead Mia up and down the barn aisle, really paid off, Mia has decided that my new saddle is a non-event.  She is also happy I changed back to the Mullen mouth snaffle.  I had fun puttering around the ring and getting tired.  I don’t know if Mia had fun but at least she did not seem to mind anything I did during my ride, except once, when at a halt, I accidentally got her with the spur, then she pointedly looked back at the offending leg.  I apologized to her and made really sure to keep track of my leg from then on and we had no more problems.  It was so nice and peaceful riding, the heron has come back to the neighboring pond, the cows were out in the pasture, the birds were singing, there was a nice gentle breeze and Mia decided to ignore her new friend Quizzy when Quizzy had a snitty fit because Mia was not in the pasture with her.  Good Mia!

Today is a wonderful spring day down here in NC, nice and sunny with a cooling breeze.  Handfuls of horse hair were drifting in the air around the horses being groomed, sometime soon they will look nice and sleek.  I had Shannon check where I put the panels on the EZ-Fit saddle and she thought that I got them put on right.  Since Cider had been so hard mouthed with the Mullen mouth Kimberwick last week I changed the bit to my favorite bit of all, the JP D-ring Dr. Bristol snaffle.  Today I worked some more on halting and standing still.  At the beginning I had to use just as much hand as I had last week, but I worked on giving her the alternating twitches of my little fingers before I gave her the two-handed resistance of the hands, and after a few times she started responding to the twitches of my fingers--when she felt like it.  Standing at the halt on loose reins did not happen at first, she would move to one side and when I blocked her she would move to the other side, when I blocked that she started backing up.  Getting tired of it I finally gave her a little lecture telling her that I wanted her to STAY STILL for as long as it took me to breathe in and out.  I guess she understood because she started letting me have my in-and-out breathe before starting to move.  I finally got her to wait for my leg aid after I exhaled, and then I praised her greatly.  Cider was SO MUCH happier with the Dr. Bristol bit than she had been with the Mullen mouth Kimberwick, she was happily playing with the bit in her mouth and, according to Shannon, looking a lot less sour.  This was in spite of me having to take a really good hold on the bit to get her to stop and stay still a few times when we started out.  I guess Cider prefers some mobility to her bit even though the mobility makes the bit slightly stronger.

But the best part of today was that I think my EZ-Fit saddle is starting to break in, I did not feel like I was having to wrap my thigh bone around the end of a shelf.  I have ridden 4 ½ hours in this saddle so I have 3 ½ more hours to go before it is completely broken in.  As for my treed saddles, I took my 43 year old Stubben Siegfried to the tack store so they could get it to the saddle repair guy they work with to replace the front two billet straps.  In a few weeks I will get my old saddle back and I will be able to use it again on the Arabs I ride at Debbie’s.  It works out perfectly, by then my EZ-Fit saddle will be almost broken in so I can use it just on Shannon’s horses, and I can get back to riding hunt seat in a proper hunt seat saddle at Debbie‘s stable.  Then I can see if my new full seat breeches work as well with a hunt seat saddle as they do with my treeless saddle.  With my new breeches and my RS-tor security aid I might even start feeling as secure in the saddle as I did decades ago before my MS started affecting my riding badly.  I am looking forward to that.

Have a great ride!

Jackie Cochran