Ouch...
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♥Jun. 28th, 2012 // 02:40 pm♥
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Today, we had a visit from the saddler.
GB had been a bit unhappy with his saddle for a while now, somewhat compensated for by putting a big foam pad under it, but it took a while for me and the saddler to synchronise our diaries.
The saddler was very confused: GB hadn't changed shape particularly since the last visit (when I was surprised that the saddle got the all clear, as it had been bashed around rather at the riding school), so it should have all been fine, but it obviously wasn't. After a bit of delving around inside, he concluded that my air bags had leaked....
(Saddles used to be stuffed, to shape them to the horse's back and provide padding, but some of the newer ones, including mine, have replaced that with airbags, which have the advantage of moulding themselves to the horse better.)
Whilst it would be possible to replace them, it would cost more than the saddle is worth, and nearly half the cost of the latest model of that saddle (which I like anyway), so. Still, as I said, it wasn't terribly unexpected. And the new saddle is lovely and squishy and well padded, so we should both enjoy it. (And the airbags have a five year guarantee on them!)
I've been very crap at updating, lately. Here are some things I have done recently:
- been to a lovely wedding reception, and seen lots of people I hadn't seen in a decade, which was both nice and nerve-wracking;
- done a dressage competition in the side saddle. Didn't win anything, but my scores were pretty consistent: sixes and fives, with a couple of sevens, in Intro B (59.56%), and fives and sixes, with one four, in Prelim 7 (54%). The arena for the latter had an enormous, tiger-filled pile of bits of jumps next to it, which GB naturally had to a) keep an eye on and b) keep as far as possible away from as possible, so this wasn't that surprising. The arena for the former had a cross country fence near one end, but other than giving it a stern look and having a little buck to make the point that he wasn't doing cross country in the side saddle it was safely ignored. Pics/pics, all terribly small so that I can't tell if there's one where I'm not pulling a silly face / don't have my eyes closed, which I might actually want to buy. Someone forgot his camera;
- been to see Democracy, at the Old Vic, which was very interesting if rather long and, in places, slightly wobbilily acted;
- been to a lovely sunny-day party-in-a-garden, at which I got to catch up with various people I don't see often enough;
- been for a ludicrous long (Mike came and collected me from the pub on his way home from work, and ended up having dinner with us) and fancy lunch at L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon for Erik's birthday, which featured lovely food but slightly bizarre service: they weren't all that busy, but they kept throwing the food at us, with about two minutes between courses. Then, when they offered coffee and I said "could we have five minutes?" they went away and ignored us for twenty minutes. Most odd. Just to balance the scales, we had pudding (spag bol, because you have to really) at Cafe Ciao, which Erik had never heard of.
Tonight, we're off to see One Man Two Guvnors. Phew.
Here are some pictures that someone else took at the Big Show, later in the day when my hat had melted and my horse become a ravening beast due to cold and boredom. I love the way that it's raining so heavily that it looks like it's snowing.... |
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