Busy Week

It was a busy week for me so unfortunately I got out to the barn on Monday and then not again until Friday.  On Tuesday, I got my back done, and on Wednesday, Walker got his back done.  By Thursday, I was so exhausted and so far behind on everything I needed to do in the apartment that I ended up just taking the day off.

One of the books I got for my birthday
a couple weeks ago - fitting and
informative

Friday, I went out to the barn and tacked up the old beast.  He was a little lazier than usual, and I wasn't able to get that nice trot out of him that I had going on Monday.  Instead, I decided to do some lateral work - leg yields mostly - and I also worked on our breaks.  He's not too good at going from the trot or canter to a halt so I worked along one end of the arena.  I would canter/trot for several strides, stop, back up, and then go forward again for several strides, etc.  When I got to the end of the arena wall, I would do a turn on the forehand and repeat back in the other direction.

I know that some of our downward transition problems are my fault.  I just cannot seem to drive my seat into the saddle.  I always feel like I'm perched in the saddle instead of really using my seat.  I use it fine enough for upward transitions (although that could still use some work too), and I seem to be able to slow his trot to a jog with my seat, but everything else is a disaster.  This forces me to be harsher on his mouth than I probably should be.  I'm hoping that a new saddle will help with this as well because I just don't feel like I have as much contact in the Western saddle as I would like, although I'm sure that's just an excuse I'm using the justify my problems to myself!

Speaking of saddles, do any of you know of any good websites/tack shops where they sell good used saddles.  I contacted a couple retailers in Canada and have been perusing a few American websites.  I'm not overly worried about getting it over the border. We Canadians have our crafty little ways of getting stuff that American shops won't send to us!  But mainly I just want to peruse a bunch of different websites to help me find the best saddle for Walker.  Suggestions?