Australian Saddles

I finally got my new saddle. It's an Australian Saddle with the horn, kind of a cross between a western saddle and an English saddle. When it arrived I took it out of the box and was a little confused... where do you attach the stirrups? I went online and looked it up, There are two metal hooks on the top of the saddle, the stirrups just hang on the hooks. If you fall off the horse and you get your foot caught the stirrups are made to fall off, which I think is a very good safety feature. The next day it was time to try it on the horse, well let me tell you, lol How hard is it to attach a girth to a saddle. We get the saddle to the barn and the horse is all set for the saddle, but between the 4 of us we couldn't figure out how to attach the girth. We finally gave up and used the English for my lesson, half way through my lesson my husband comes back in and says he figured it out, the extra piece of leather I had was an over girth that sat on top of the saddle and attached to the girth. We had a good laugh about that. We put the saddle on the horse and up I got, it is so different from the other saddles, it had a deep seat that seems to sit high at the back and the hooks that held the stirrups where jabbing me in the legs.. every time I went to post it would hurt like @$!$#. I don't think your suppose to post in these saddles, but I figured out how to sit in it and after awhile I didn't feel the hooks. After riding in it awhile and getting used to it, I really started to like it. I think once it is broke in more it will feel a lot better. If anyone has any experience riding in one of these saddles, let me know

Colic

Well we had an interesting day,,, Joey had a bad case of Colic. He was is so much pain it was hard to watch. He was fine in the morning, so I thought. He ate his breakfast then went out and was eating his hay when we left. We were gone about an hour and when we came back he was laying in the overhang near the barn, when I went up to him he got up but was acting a little funny, he started doing circles trying to go down again, he got half way down and I saw his back legs shaking, then he got up and kicked his belly I knew right away something was wrong ,, my husband started to walk him around and wouldn't let him go down, meanwhile I got on the phone to the vet, all the vets that were close to us where out of town at least an hour away, So I called my regular vet who's office is at least an hour away from us, I thought maybe she may be in our area,, Thankful she got to us in about a half an hour. She arrived and right away took vitals,, they were okay, she gave him two needles and some anti-gas,, she said he had a lot of gas on the right side and she was afraid with so much gas that he could tie up ( which is really bad) after he got the needles he started to perk up with more life in his eyes, She stuck around and Don (my husband) walked him, the vet took his vitals again and said he was doing better we fed him a handful of hay and he ate it, for the rest of the day we had to give him anti gas 3 more times and walk him for 10 minutes every hour till 8 that evening. He also got a feed of warm bran mash with mineral oil. The next morning he was doing okay, he had his breakfast and then went right to the hay. Joey still isn't 100 % but he is doing better. I am still worried about him, he's my baby.
Two factors that may have played a role in this.... 1- change in weather- warm to cold and last week I found mold in the hay. We got all our hay for the winter from the same person, we will have check the hay more carefully when we give it the horses. Well I guess that's all for now.

Long time

Wow,,it's been a long time since I posted anything. So much has happened. Last time I posted I was having problems with Joey, well not anymore. I am not sure what changed but he is being an angel. We don't fight anymore I think I have gained his respect. He listens so well now and is not pushy anymore (well he does have his moments but who doesn't) We have finally finished the riding ring. This winter we will put the horses in to get them use to the traffic and big trucks and next spring Joey will start his training. I have ridden him a few times and I have figured out what our problem is I am scared of him and he knows it and doesn't want to have anything to do with me when I'm on him. I am taking lesson lessons again on another horse with a great trainer this is building up my confidence so that I can ride Joe. We found out that Dakota my little mare is never going to be able to be broke, Her little feet have not gotten any better and the strain of breaking her will be too much for her. So right now we just do some ground work with her so she keeps her manners and that's about it, she is a very expensive lawn mover that we love to death.