The Princess has Spoken

The princess referring to the one and only Prisoner.

Why yes he must have fluffy straw to prevent hock rubs.

Pretty sure he hates his pink blanket and is trying to tell me by slowly making it go away.  Anyways, back to my original point.  He has a rather bouncy sitting trot.  Most likely caused by his extravagant movement and short back.

Working that booty on a slope

I always ride him in my Ogilvy pad.  I have ever since it arrived last spring (thank you forever mother dearest).  Before that I always rode him in my old standby fleece halfpads or the Sprinklerbandit's Ogilvy.

From our first summer together

Well, I thought I would try riding him in a fleece with my dressage saddle instead of the Ogilvy on the off chance that it would be less bouncy.  Yes, I know, wishful thinking.  I was forgetting all the reasons I was in love with Ogilvy pads.  "What if I was just caught up in the trend?"  So I climbed aboard with the fleece and we warmed up.  I didn't notice all that much difference at the walk, we worked on lateral suppleness, stretching, etc.  After our usual length warmup at the walk we picked up the trot.  

This is how he warms up in the trot on the regular

He dropped his back and kept his head in the air and was not rideable.  Seriously, nothing I did would make him relax.  I really didn't think that the halfpad change could be that dramatic. So we went back to the walk, we made several laps around the arena each way on the buckle, I picked up the reins, and did all sorts of small circles and leg yields.   We trotted again.  It was terrible again.  Instead of getting in a fight I listened to him and got off to swap pads out.

He says this pad only please and thank you

I got back on and walked a lap. I immediately felt like my saddle was extra comfortable, not even kidding.  Then we picked up the trot and he stretched down and lengthened around the arena.

Just like this

And there we have it, my unscientific reasons for continuing to love my Ogilvy halfpad.  I know they might not be right for every single horse or situation, but for me and my horses currently, that is what we will be using.