Perfection in my white and black obsession

Remember this?

It's the online saddle pad configurator by Mattes, and even though I won't spend 308E on a pad, I had to try it out. So lovely, even though not customized to fit my saddle. This is the Cadillac of lambswool pads in Germany. Klaus Balkenhol's pad.



Well today, finally, my custom made pad arrived from the much more affordable company Engel Reitsport. The Chevrolet of lambswool pads (fully wool, with leather backing). I had sent them a drawing of my saddle and got the colors customized too.

As you know the first custom pad came back totally wrong, so last month we tried again with them.

This time we gave them an entire typed, single-spaced page of customization instructions in a bulleted list. With accompanying telephone calls by my wonderful husband who really cares that I get what I want. 

They paid attention this time to every bullet point.




I got exactly what I wanted. I'm so happy, and look how it is nearly the equivalent of the fancy Mattes version above - white with black lambswool, and black trim. Mine is Eurolight shaped though, and has a practical black tab at the girth, the part that gets most dirty and worn.

As you can see it's not a precise match to the shape of my saddle in the pommel area, but after so much trial and error, I wanted to make it easy on Engel so I said "Make your treeless model, that I already have and works just fine, and cut away a little bit at the bottom to make a V shape, leaving the default wool area above." This, to me, is so close enough, I'm delighted. (If you look closely you can see that the wool does not extend all the way down, I don't need padding under my lower leg.)


Perfection. I love Skito  (and they customize the Specialized Eurolight) but I don't think they do the actual lambskin thing, and although I love to give them my dollars, I'm so happy to give Engel less. Honestly this is the first thing I've bought for horses in Germany that cost less than in America besides carrots and apples.


I took this photo when it first arrived, and had no idea how much more luxurious it would feel the moment removed from Mara's back with her body heat infused. Warmth and such an exquisite softness I've never experienced in a saddle pad. My first thought was, "If I were a horse, I would want nothing else on my back!"



First saddling with the new pad. You can see our paddock area is finally snow free, but the front yard, no. I love having a brown horse. I haven't thoroughly groomed her since last Summer, and haven't even touched her tail since then. Still training her mane though. All 4 legs are in fact stocked up in this photo, from standing around not willing to go to pasture due to snow and ice. She looks like a Morgan, am I right?



You look sharp, do you know it? Wait, is your tail too long? I think so. I love this "What?" expression on her face.


I took Mara for a walk in her new fancy gear because I couldn't stand to see it only on a chair and not the horse. Funny to dress her up like for a rehearsal.

It's so white it makes my bridle look yellow.

Did I mention I only paid 119E, and they paid the return postage for the one they also customized for me, but wrong? This makes 2 I've returned and 2 I've kept. At 119E I think I'll buy a fleet of them: )

My obsession with white has to be a throwback to my dressage days in the 90s. And I have to admit, this color combination would look even better on a black or grey horse. (But I'm loving having a dirt colored horse!)

Hm. Now I need new clothes. I'm thinking a white Liberty helmet.



At our destination, a weird sort of lounge chair sunning place with view of the watershed, there is some huge sign about...well, ask Mara, she read it.


It's exhausting to read so much German. Can we go?




Moving past the Christmas tree farm, I love her relaxed expression and neck angle. This is relaxed as my horse gets in the cruel world. I was thinking, the only time her expression is similar to Achieve's Chrome is when she's actually sleeping.



This is her submissive face, a little worried but compliant. You notice there is much less snow here by the watershed than where we live. I had no idea there was such an elevation change.

I am so proud of her - during our 1.5 hour walk, she never spooked, she let busses and large trucks fly by her only 2 meters away and she didn't flinch. She was concerned about a child with a backpack, and a lady with a stroller. I had taken Mara into the street to give the lady space, and pointed at her stroller and said, "Stroller." The lady said, "Yesterday my stroller made a horse run away!" I wonder if that is true. We walked a route we rarely do, and Mara was calm the entire time.



Some construction people suddenly appeared carrying large plastic sheets around a building mere meters from us, and I said Guten Tag to them, and Mara didn't care.

We stopped at the Christmas tree farm to admire an old chestnut horse who has lived there alone since I've lived here. It took Mara a while to notice him, cuz he was so far off. To our right, men used machinery to slice and stack firewood. That old horse stared at us motionless and when he finally moved, Mara saw him and stared and stared. Then she was bored and rather rudely nudged my arm with her forehead. I said, "That doesn't work, that's not nice. Give me the polite request and we will move on." She bumped me gently but I said, "No, what is that?" After another few moments standing there, finally, she touched my hand with one nostril and I said, "That's it, we can go." She was happy. This is communication on Baasha's level, it's wonderful to see it with her.