Back Under the Gray & a New Saddle Pad~

The Huge Alders are dropping their leaves~

Once home from my visit, I saddled up Farah.  With today being only two forecast without rain for the week & the arrival of my new saddle pad - it was time to get out & give it a try.

New pad out of the box~

I'd done a lot of research to see what the latest & greatest in performance pads seems to be.  A few weeks ago, I found five bug bites along the left side of Farah's spine.  Probably a spider & in almost a row.   These bites have not gone away & using the Supracore didn't see to be helping.  These pads, on back order from most suppliers really seem like a workable combination.  With state-of-the-art & very thin padding on the top, combined with merino wool on the underside.

Merino Wool

The Ultra Thinline pad has contoured relief for the spine & nice quality quilting on top.   Farah noticed the difference the minute I put it on her back.  Then the saddle went on top & after some adjustment, we hit the trail.  The first thing I noticed - was that I felt more comfortable?!   I've always liked the Supracore, for the cushioning effect, but not the thickness of the Western style Cool Grip pad.  These pads are so easy to keep clean too!  I just hose it off, soak it in the cooler with vinegar water & let it drip dry.)  But, I don't get the close contact that I like with just a Woolback pad.  This pad seems to be a nice combination of the wool with the breathable qualities of the Supracore.

Farah seemed to like it :-)

Farah moved freely & once we returned home, Butch was there to lift the saddle off the pad & we both looked under it at Farah's back - which looked Super!  Now - it will be interesting to see if the bumps resolve?

Leaving the woods~

My Garmin decided to act-up this day, not logging my miles until just past the half-way mark on our loop.  It locked up too - but I finally got it re-booted & it did log our miles back home :-)  (I purchased it from Best Buy - March of 2011 - but now they tell me they no longer carry the 310XT & had the nerve to add that Garmin no longer had them!?  A poor attempt to sell us a 210!  Not!)  It was such a gray & ugly afternoon...  I wished I'd taken Jentry's advice & taken Farah up to Darrington with me, for a ride there - at least I would have been in the sun!

Down the final hill toward home~

Just to show me what the day might have looked like, the sun appeared at our backs as we headed down the last hill for home!

Side note- When I got home from Darrington & opened the gate, the next thing I saw was Farah running at the Bronco!  She'd managed to get out of her hot-wire (soon to be fence) run & before I could react, went right along the passenger side of the Bronco & OUT the gate onto the ROAD!  If you have horses, you know all the feelings that race through your mind any time there's a "loose horse"!  I pulled the Bronco forward out of the way of the gate, got out & walked back toward the entry.  Farah had stopped in the middle of our single lane road -  turned back & just taken a bite of of grass from the strip along the edge of the drive entrance.  She turned again, looked down the hill toward the pasture of horses there, up hill...  THEN  - calmly walked BACK INTO our yard!  OH YEAH!!!  ONE IN A MILLION!!!  Carrots anyone?!~