Sunday, April 18, 2010

Ride Cut Short by Snail

An ominous cloud started to form just as I finished grooming and saddling Pippin. We headed down to the round pen to make sure Pippin was listening to me before I mounted. Let me assure you, he was not! 
He was happily cantering and trotting around, totally ignoring me. But, what's important....listening to Mrs. Owner or having a good time?! Just as he began to think about doing what I was asking of him, the rain drops began to fall. Nice, fat, wet rain drops. Falling on my nice, new to me, antique (as in over 25 years-old) saddle that I had just purchased at an auction yesterday. The saddle is the same exact model as the one I rode in while in college. It spoke to me at the auction. It implored me to buy it. It knew that no one, well almost no one, would know what it was. The auctioneers (cowboys, all three - uh, I didn't mean for that to sound like an insult. I love cowboys, they just don't understand a whole bunch about English saddles!) couldn't even pronounce it's name and announced that my Pariani was a German saddle - the affront! 

 
Here's one of my Senior pictures from college riding Marmalade in my original Pariani.
(That almost sounds like the old Maidenform Bra ads..."I dreamt I was riding in my Maidenform Bra Pariani saddle!")
Hey, and doesn't that look of mine look especially dreamy?! What was I thinking? Probably, "When will this photographer ever finish...I am bored and my horse is tired of pointing her ears and standing still"!

Here's my 'new' Pariani. Lovely, isn't it?! I spotted it across the room. There were saddles piled all over the place. There were well over 100 western saddles, 35 youth saddles, ten or so Aussie's, a handful of pack saddles and six English saddles. My eyes were drawn to this and it was love at first, well OK, since it is a replacement, second sight! Other than the girth, which is too large and has stretched-out elastic, the saddle is in incredibly good shape. It looks as good as new.

So, of course I wanted to try the saddle out at the first opportunity today. Sadly, our rain continued. The thunder began to rumble and Pippin and I made a hasty retreat. The rain began to change subtly and we experienced 'snail'. It wasn't snow. It wasn't hail. The stuff that came down was like tiny snowballs, that even broke apart when they hit hard surfaces!


Oh well. It's moisture and we can always use that. I'll have a chance to try the new saddle later on!

10 comments:

  1. Hurray! I'm glad you got the saddle. It looks beautiful. And great picture of you and Marmalade. Maiden Form...ha, ha! That "snail" ruined your ride. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

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  3. Hahahha at "snail" I read the title and said "what the heck?!?!" Love it !

    Oh and the saddle.. congrats !!!

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  4. Well, Once Upon, I hate to admit it, but I was a pig and bought two saddles!!!! Bad, bad woman!
    I just threw the Pariani back on Pippin and jumped up, well, kinda crawled up on top, while he was in the paddock. I just wanted to see how it felt. It was WONDERFUL!
    I'll write about the other saddle another time.

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  5. Fun saddle.

    Ahhah snail... They are HUGE balls of snow/ice/whateber What the heck!?

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  6. Sydney, one of my friends ruined all my fun by telling me the stuff has a real name. It's called grauple. I prefer snail!!
    I've only lived here for 2 1/2 years, but have learned not to be surprised by whatever the weather brings!
    JeniQ - I figured that title might catch someone's interest! Glad you got a kick out of it!

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  7. That looks like a very well-cared for saddle! Grats on your find!

    And I just had to comment about the photo...isn't it funny how common it used to be to ride without a big ole pad under the saddle? But now, if you see someone with no pad it's considered "weird?"

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  8. Jenn, you are so right. In my college days my best friend and I used to ride without any pad - oh how scandalous! And, you know what? Our horses never had a sore back. How'd that happen? Do you suppose our horses are becoming wimpier?!
    LOL

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  9. Don't you just love it when everything falls into place like that? (Not the snail, but the saddle.) You know exactly what you want and your eyes go right to it.

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  10. Pretty saddle. We want a photo of Pippin in his pretty new saddle!! After he gets over the ignomy of the grazing muzzle, of course! How embarrassing to an easy keeper!

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