--- In treelesssaddles@yahoogroups.com, "jenniferevansstewart"
<jenniferevansstewart@...> wrote:
> If your horse cannot compete comfortably or safely in that tack, then choose
something else fun to do where the culture and tradition isn't so rigid....
There are a thousand options of cool and competitive things to do with your
horse where no one cares what kind of saddle you use! Do those and have fun!

-------------Yep, there really are! When I got away from showing and trying to
adhere to "tradition", only then did I really start moving forward in my
horsemanship. I know that sounds odd, but I found NOT having the time &
"tradition" constraints required for showing allowed me to really focus on my
horse and what her needs really were. Boy-oh-boy was it ever an eye opener for
me! I started riding treeless, with bits that weren't "traditional", and even
started riding bitless. My mount improved by leaps and bounds to become my
dream horse in other ways, and I found a whole bunch of fun things to do that
I'd never had time to do before. As a matter of fact, my beastie became such a
wonderful, well trained horse that she and I gave lessons to others.

To bring it back to treeless.... Sometimes our horses just aren't cut out to do
what we want, whether that's showing at the top levels in breed shows, endurance
riding, running barrels or whatever. That's perfectly ok! It just gives us
permission to seek out other fun stuff to do with them. Not all horses adhere
to breed standards, some have had past injuries or past training issues that
prevent them from using "traditional saddles". And sometimes "traditional
saddles" are just plain ol' poorly made/poorly designed for horses' backs! And
maybe they're better at being a rock solid trail mount, or CTR's. Or they'd be
really good at teaching others how to ride. The key to unlocking your horse's
true potential and letting him/her shine is by keeping them healthy,
*comfortable*, and the communication between horse & rider clear. If you take
the comfortable part of the equation out because you want to pursue things that
you can't make your horse comfortable in (because you have to use certain types
of tack), you're killing any level of confidence your horse has in you. That
confidence takes a looooooong time to build again - ask me how I know ;-)....

I'd love nothing more than to turn my sweet little Peruvian Paso into more of an
endurance horse. I dream of doing the Michigan Shore-To-Shore ride on him,
which would require us to ride 18-26 miles per day for about 2 weeks straight.
But the reality is that he's just not built to do that. So instead, I'm going
to pursue my dream in a different way - I'm going to do parts of the
Shore-To-Shore at my own slower pace this summer. Bottom line is that I want my
sweet horse to remain strong, healthy and sound for as long as possible, and I'm
putting my own needs and wants behind his. If one dream won't work, figure out
others that will!

Dawn Bruin-Slot
Fuzzy Logic Equine, Inc.
www.fuzzylogicequine.com