Charlie Horse's 2018 Picture Thread

[Nanno]

Nah its not the saddle.  He is just too royal to be subjected to the trappings of the commoners.  He's the kind of goat you need to smack down once in a while because he occasionally gets uppity.  As for the aluminum saddles, all you have to do is take a cut-off wheel and its suddenly got no corners anymore.  And they do have the good pads from NWPG.  Bacchus doesn't usually have to carry much weight anyhow.  He's just a stinker.

I would still experiment with a different saddle. The right-angled edges  aren't the only reason the aluminum saddles can cause problems, and a poorly-fitting saddle can cause discomfort even if it's not loaded. If it were purely a training problem you should have seen some improvement by now. Sputnik was also quite averse to being saddled when he started out and I had to tie him very short to get near him with one, but since it was comfortable he got over it after a few sessions. 

I once switched to a different saddle which I thought fit ok, but about 3 hours into our hike with only a 20 lb. load, I had to adjust something on the saddle and Sputnik wouldn't let me touch it. He shot into the air and about knocked my teeth out with the crossbuck. Phil could barely hold him while I adjusted the thing. He wouldn't let me get into the panniers later on either.  It was like he had reverted to his original impossible-to-saddle self. The saddle must have been pinching somehow because when I switched him back to his old saddle for the next hike he was leery at first but then never gave me another problem. I've never used the "wrong" saddle again and he hasn't complained again either. I never did figure out exactly where it was hurting because there were no hot spots or rubs, but clearly something wasn't right. We use that same wooden saddle all the time on Finn with no trouble. Saddles are a lot like shoes. Some goats are pickier about the fit than others just like some people can wear any old pair of shoes and other people (like my dear husband) practically have to have something custom made. It never hurts to just try something different for a few weeks and see if he improves. It might even be something as simple as he doesn't like the material the rigging is made of.