Fit the Saddle to the Horse and the Rider

Parts of a Saddle

If you want a horse to be manageable and pain-free, attention to saddle fit for the horse will give you huge dividends as a riding partner. It's a fact that horses with proper-fitting saddles are less prone to behavior and riding problems under saddle.

Many owners become engaged in what Greg Roskies, inventor of the Port Lewis Saddle Fit System at The Port Lewis Workshop, Chateaugay, N.Y., called "the great saddle hunt," and Roskies said he was once engaged in the hunt. "I knew that horses would illustrate saddle fit problems in subtle and progressive ways – flinching or laying back their ears while being groomed along the back, reluctance to pick up hind feet for shoeing, refusing to stand while the saddle is placed on his back or while being mounted, inability to bend, wringing and carrying their tails off to one side," said Roskies.

"The horse will exhibit shortened gaits that become choppy and disjointed and higher than normal head carriage. Telltale sweat marks and white hairs arrive long after the irritation begins. Changes to the horse's whole attitude can progress to refusals, bucking and unruliness as they become more intolerant to the pain. Too often it can reach a level where a sore-backed horse is incapable of performing or is dangerous to ride."

Horse owners who know these signs usually will try different saddles, shims or other devices to help fit the horse. And frequently they may try some saddle-fitting aid to buy a saddle or adapt and existing one into a more comfortable saddle. Finding the right saddle is a two-fold challenge that has to also include the comfort of the rider, according to Sabine Schleese of Schleese Saddlery Service Ltd., Holland Landing, Ontario, Canada.

Cashel Trail Blazer Saddle

Finding a saddle that fits the rider is equally as important as fitting the horse. "If the rider is not completely comfortable and fights the saddle to assume the proper position, I guarantee you that – no matter how well the saddle fits the horse – the horse will never work to the best of its ability," said Schleese.

"The rider's discomfort translates directly down to the horse. "The points of saddle fit are infinitely greater when determining the correct saddle for a person than the points of reference to the horse, and at any given time there are numerous extraneous influences which will determine saddle fit – even from one day to the next. For example, you have your saddle fitted and the next day you have your horse shod – wham, the saddle probably will not fit as well anymore."

Horse owners now can try to figure out how to fit the saddle to the horse with everything from wire and solder to special fitting trees. The array of devices is increasing in sophistication – from dough in a special blanket that measures pressure to molds of the horse's back using an oven-heated thermoplastic to computer-fitted orthotic devices.

Editor’s Note: More on saddles in future blogs.

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Neal McChristy is a freelance writer with over 25 years journalism experience in magazine, newspaper and Web-based work. He has been contributing editor for a magazine column in the wide-format industry for seven years. He also has over 16 years’ experience as reporter and editor in the printing and imaging area. He and his wife have three horses.

They were "green," knowing little about horses when they began to acquire them in 1998. They learned about them through training lessons by Pat Parelli, John Lyons and others in the field of "gentle training" and "natural horsemanship". Neal lives in Pittsburg, Kansas, and currently writes action-adventure novels, which he has done for over 10 years. You are welcome to contact him at freelance9@cox.net You can find a variety of saddles and pads, both Western and English style, at Jeffers Equine.