Thursday, July 11, 2013

Break In

This weekend may result in sore body parts.  In theory the CWD should be back in my hot little hands tomorrow (friday).  In theory it will arrive early enough that I can use it tomorrow when I hack.  Which means I will be trying to break in a new saddle and new boots at the same time.

FWP, right?

I'm not really whining, but I am a little apprehensive about relying on so much new gear for a show next week.  I take a certain amount of comfort in knowing my equipment inside and out and feeling comfortable/confident with it all.  There are enough variables at shows that not having to worry about basic tack is a nice thing to check off the list.

I will say I am...... underwhelmed with the customer service from CWD.  I will back that up by saying that our local rep is fabulous, lovely, courteous and responded very professionally to my saddle-crazed-texts that I bombarded her with on a regular basis.

That being said, when I'm told that my saddle will be gone for 10-12 days and it turns into 30, I get cranky.  I get especially cranky when the explanation is "we have lots of saddles to repair right now."

Yes.  I'm sure you do. It's show season. and I'm sure everyone is certain their saddle is more important and more needed back at the barn, but OMG, if you have a two week backlog, don't have people ship their saddles down immediately.  I am pretty high on the tack-princess spectrum, but I don't actually have a stack of well fitting, perfectly usable saddles to just use in the interim. 

Things I'm not doing:
  • Putting a poor fitting saddle on my sensitive backed mare.  Nope.
  • Schooling bareback.  I'm starting to trust the mare, but she still spins/scoots and I don't want to play that game.
  • Jumping in my dressage saddle.  The Hastilow does (mercifully) fit well.  But it has 18" knee blocks that make getting out of the tack near impossible.  Not schooling 3' in that.
So. we sit.  and we wait for our saddle to come home. I have managed a couple of jump schools in S's Mom's Saddle, but I know that I wouldn't love sharing a near new CWD with other people, so I'm very careful not to overuse that generosity, plus I'm pretty sure she's not thrilled with the loaning situation (which I get). Plus I'm terrified I'm going to hurt it somehow.

Frankly, 30 days in Dressage tack is a good prescription for us under most circumstances, but not necessarily when we're getting ready to leave for another A show in five days.

I am grateful for my horse's health, my health, and the fact that we (knock on wood) are having a relatively uninterrupted show season thus far.  Given those larger blessings, I'm still cranky that our saddle will (still) not be broken in by the time I have to get in the show ring with it.  Not the best time/resource management there, but oh well.

New boots. New saddle. New blisters.

5 comments:

  1. Ugh... at least all the pain will be out of the way in one shot? Hope you get your saddle soon- after spending that much money, they should be treating your like royalty and 2 weeks into 4 would make me MAD.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That's really frustrating. Those aren't cheap. The service needs to be TOP notch.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I agree! I think that it's one thing if it takes them 4 weeks to repair your saddle, but another thing if they told you 2 weeks to begin with. They much know that a saddle is, after all, kind of one of the most important pieces of tack we use!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yeah that is really poor customer service. Like you said, if they had a backlog, they shouldn't have had you ship it in to them! I don't know anyone who can go without a saddle for a whole month, show or not.

    ReplyDelete
  5. So frustrating. Good customer service makes me a customer for life... poor customer service and I probably won't be back.

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts with Thumbnails