Test driving a new saddle

So it seems Oscar's saddle is no good for him now - seemed to be good when we first started out but now he needs a wider one and I can't get my current one repacked so I've had a CTD jumping saddle on trial for the past few days. The rain has held things up a bit, every chance I've had to ride lately, it's been raining. But not today! There was even some blue sky so we went down to the arena and had a play.

Very pleased with how he went, especially since I've hardly ridden him in almost 3 weeks and also he's not been ridden on his own at the arena for a good few months now. He was perfectly behaved and quite keen which was good.

So here's a wee video, shows some trot work, lengthening the trot which he does so easily, and our first real leg yield (albeit for only 2-3 strides, but still!) and popping over a couple of wee jumps at the end. Oh and some canter which just shows how much I flap my arms around when we canter, awful... arghh

Anyway upshot of it all is I think this saddle is pretty good for both of us really. Would like to have at least one more decent ride in it, weather permitting....

We have some new cattle as well, we had 5 weaners delivered yesterday and 17 last weekend, bringing our cattle herd to 30 all up. Eight will go in Aug/Sep, they are looking good right now, big beefy girls. The new lot are black and white faced heifers, plus a few murray grey heifers.