The Astride

Meet my new exercise rider Mr. Johnny Q. Astride by clicking on the link below:

http://www.eponaire.com/id2.html

The Astride is a riderless saddle that you may place on your horse at up to 110 lbs. You place weights in the side pouches. Without weights the saddle weighs about 20 lbs. I am still evaluating the Astride. The lady who runs the website has a good idea with this, but imo it may need some work. I'm unable to understand why she would use this tough leather instead of softer conforming leather. The part of the saddle that rests on both sides of the withers is very hard material almost metalic feel and threatens imo to bruise the withers. Unkown why you would fail to provide padding in this area as do normal saddles. I'm expecting this combo to be a little awkard for the horse--but, read on. These are initial impressions only. Stay tune on our experience with the Astride.

Sat. 12/2/06: The Astride(without weights) was placed on Y while he was in the pasture with his running companion grazing nearby. Today was the first day I release Y wearing the Astride, and i expected some bucking. Not to be. On release he just trotted over to his buddy. The youngster seems thus broken to a girth and to weight on his back.

My good luck today is that the older horse was game. After a short warm up in which they trotted galloped to one end of the 20 acres, the older horse then took off at about a 2m clip pace with Y carrying his Astride in hot pursuit. They ran at this speed clear to the other end, a distance of about three furlings. I then chased them back and they galloped at a snappy pace back to the barn--2f distance. I then chased them out of the barn and the older horse took off this time at about 85% speed--I estimate about 13.3 sec/f--with Y again right behind the whole way. This lasted about 2.5f followed by a couple m rest and i trotted-loped them back to the barn.

This was Y's fastest farthest effort to date, and it was for the first time carrying the 20lbs Astride. This work was quite a bit faster and farther than what has been previously done, and faster and farther than the development warranted, particularly with the 2m clip gallop yesterday. I'll injury check him tonight. But, the saving grace injury wise was there was a perfect lead change right in the middle of the last heat, and thus only one half that last spurt on each lead. Y with his 20 lbs kept up with the other horse and looked decent. The Astride worked beautifully. It did not slip at all. From the distance it looked as if the horse was under tack--he had that sort of appearance and stride. At the distance I failed to notice the awkwardness and imbalance with the Astride that I expected. So, today would qualify as Y's first breeze under tack. We're catching up, Preston Burch. Today's weather--miserable.