Is your horse trying to tell you something?
Here are some clues to back soreness:
1. Hard to catch.
2. White hairs on withers.
3. Hair loss under saddle.
4. Cinchy, fusses when saddle appears.
5. Won't stand for mounting.
6. "Cold-backed", back sinks when mounted.
7. Head tossing.
8. Bucking, running away.
9. Always speeding up, won't go calmly.
10. Gait may be short and choppy in front. Stumbles when ridden.
POINTS OF SADDLE FIT
1. Stand your horse squarely on level ground. Place the saddle on your
horse without a pad or rider and look for:
BALANCE: The center of the saddle (the deepest part of the seat)
should be parallel to the ground. If the saddle appears to slope back,
even slightly, it is too narrow.
STRAIGHTNESS: Looking from behind, the saddle should sit evenly on
both sides, not tilting or twisting to one or the other side.
CORRECT GULLET WIDTH: The space between the bars of the tree, or
panels, which run roughly parallel to the spine should be wide enough so
that the bars don't interfere with the spine. Additionally, you should
be able to fit 2 and 1/2 to 3 fingers between the pommel and withers. If
not your saddle is too wide.
FULL PANEL CONTACT:Feel under the length of the panels. They should
contact the horse evenly. Push and pull alternately on the pommel and
cantle. An English saddle should not rock. The back of the western
saddle should not lift more than 1 inch.
The bars of the Western saddle tree are often too long and too
straight. If the bars are not curved to fit your horse's back they
contact your horse in only 2 spots: at the withers and under the cantle.
This causes excessive pressure at these points instead of distributing
the rider's weight all along the length of the saddle. The result is dry
spots, white hairs and PAIN.
The panels of English saddles can be relatively straight as is often
suitable for warmbloods, or have a slight banana shape which fits a
horse whose back dips slightly after the withers and slopes back up to
the croup like that of many thoroughbreds. Look at the shape of your
horse's back. If you put a flat paneled saddle on a curved-backed horse
it will contact him in only two places like a western saddle whose bars
are too long as described above.
FREEDOM OF SHOULDER MOVEMENT: The saddle should not interfere with
the shoulders. The bars of the tree on a western saddle begin just under
the front conchas. Put your fingers under this point and have someone
walk your horse a few strides. If your fingers feel pinched, the saddle
is too narrow.
2. When mounted with girth cinched look for:
GULLET WIDTH: You should fit 2 fingers between the pommel and
withers. If the space is less than 2 fingers, your saddle is too wide.
3. After riding look for:
SWEAT MARKS: There should be even, symmetrical sweat marks on both
sides of your horse & saddle pad - no dry spots.
ADDING PADS TO A TOO NARROW SADDLE MAKES IT MORE NARROW. ADDING PADS TO
A TOO WIDE SADDLE WILL NOT RELIEVE THE PRESSURE ON THE WITHERS AND
SPINE. English saddles can, however, often be re-stuffed by a good
saddler to better fit your horse.
Mark T. Meddleton, D.V.M.
Saddle Fitting Video:
A poorly fitting saddle can cause your horse a great deal of discomfort and,
in the worst cases, extreme pain. How can you tell if your saddle truly
fits?
Finally there is help available to unlock the mystery of saddle fitting!
About The Horse, Inc. presents "About Saddle Fit", a videotape which will
give you a clear, common-sense explanation of saddle fit. Twenty years of
saddle making experience, along with the help of some of our country's
leading
horseman and horsewomen has given master saddle maker David Genadek a
perspective that will help all horses and their owners.
This videotape will teach you:
- About the horse and how his body works
- What proper saddle fit is, and why
- What makes a saddle tree fit
- What the rigging does, and how
- What makes a seat comfortable
- Why saddles have skirts
- How to tell if your saddle fits
- The truth about padding
- How to stop a poorly designed saddle from hurting your horse.
Please e-mail your saddle fitting questions to Dave Genadek at
abohorse@means.net or call toll free 800-449-7409
"Saddle fit is one of my interests
and although it's been discussed by the list before, perhaps someone may have
had some recent breakthrough to report. The problem I've had is that many
of the backs are sloped down on the sides therefore most of the
saddles don't make good contact. All of the saddles I have bridge on their backs. In other words when I take the saddle
pad off after a ride and look at the sweat marks, I see that they show mostly
in the back and front and very little in the middle. That shows that the
horses are feeling my weight only on those spots instead of on the whole
saddle area, and that can make for sore backs. In my experience, my horses
have never been sore to the touch, but in some cases their reluctance to go
forward some days without riding with a whip is probably the result of saddles
that are not too comfortable for them.
