Saddle fit

I just read a rather hysterical article on saddle fit. The upshot of it was that nobody's saddle fits their horse and we're all driving our horses into an early grave through our extreme ignorance. The only way to get a properly fitting saddle is to pay a learned professional lots of money to fit one for you, perhaps even custom build it to your horse. The author then went on to list "symptoms" of an ill fitting saddle as well as reasons people give when they say their saddle fits.

I don't really know what to think about all this. Do many people ride in poorly fitting saddles? Yes. Will my horse drop dead under me if I do so? Probably not. This author was a professional saddle fitter (of course), and I suspect, like all those married to their work, she's a bit on the fanatical side. Her field is the ONLY field, and EVERYTHING is somehow related to what she does.

Well, everyone feels like that. I know I do. Speak to an animal geneticist and he'll say that the genes are the most important thing for growing good beef. Speak to a nutritionist (me!) and they'll say the genes are all well and good, but you have to feed the thing properly and that makes all the difference. So here we have a saddle fitter who has taken the extreme view that all saddles except the ones she has fitted are harmful to horses. Oh well, on to the main points.

The article claimed that one should have one's saddle reflocked twice a year. What?! O_o Who has that kind of money? Apparently the saddle should be reflocked to accommodate the horse's changing back. Okay, I can get behind the premise if not the practice. Horse's backs do change, and if they change substantially, a saddle that formerly was fine will no longer fit. However, I don't know about this twice a year business. A good saddle tree (a good one, mind you) in a properly flocked saddle should fit a variety of similar horses and continue to fit through minor back changes.

The point was raised that a well made saddle is nearly always better than a cheap one. I agree with this. A saddle is no place to scrimp on quality, especially since it has a big effect on your horse and your riding. A girl I know got a cheap saddle online, and it's a piece of crap. It doesn't fit the horse at all (it looks like it was made for a skinny elephant), and it doesn't fit her either. The back end popps up and slaps down on her horse's back with every stride. Not a pleasant ride for anybody involved.

The author claims that a poorly fitting saddle is the cause of nearly all problems with the horse, both in the saddle and on the ground. Weeeell, I don't think it goes quite that far. Of course a painful saddle will cause riding problems. That seems fairly obvious. Likely the worse the fit, the greater the problems. But I'm not so sure that ground manners are so intricately tied to saddle fit. I think that's stepping over the line into seeing everything with your own tinted glasses.

The next part of the article was quite interesting. The author claimed that horses who are in pain due to poorly fitting tack will clench their jaw when they are ridden. Clenching the jaw leads to pronounced musculature in the temple and forehead, and also to what we call a tention headache. The muscles tend to be painful to the touch. You know what, I don't think she's too far off there. I've always wondered why some horses had big, lumpy forehead muscles, and this would explain it. The pain might be coming from any number of things, not just the saddle, but the lumpy forehead always seems to be accompanied by a worried expression. I saw a picture the other day of an otherwise beautiful horse who had a knotted forehead and an anxious look in his eye. It just seemed like all was not right with him, and after reading about the jaw clenching response, it makes sense to me. For the record, I felt Cherry's forehead, and the muscles were neither pronounced nor senstitive, so I think we're doing pretty well there.

Then the author listed what she called lame excuses that folks use to say their saddle fits. Most of them I could get behind, such as: my trainer said so, the tack store guy said so, it looks like it fits, and someone on the internet told me so. That makes sense to me. The other reason did not. "My horse's back doesn't hurt."

Um, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that the POINT? I mean, a well fitting saddle will not cause your horse pain and soreness, so wouldn't the absense of pain and soreness be an indication of fit? The author did not elaborate, so I don't know if she meant that the horse doesn't look like he's in pain or we actually evaluated him and determined that he is not in pain. Obviously, just looking at him isn't good enough, a thorough inspection of the back is necessary. But if you have inspected and found no back pain, I would take that to mean your saddle fits.

As for my own tack, my dressage saddle fits my horse well. It has never made her sore and her back muscles only improved through hours of riding in it (as opposed to atrophy). Add to that a complete lack of jaw clenching muscles, I'd say we're doing pretty well. As for my Aussie saddle, I don't know for sure. Visually, it's a tad wide, so I use a thick felt pad with it. Other than that, it does not appear to cause my horse pain, and she moves just fine with it. I haven't had a chance to do an extended ride with it and REALLY find out. That's the only way to tell, in my opinion. Ride in it for a few hours a couple days in a row. Any fit problems will pop right up if you're paying attention.

Do we all need profressional saddle fitting? I don't think so. For a hard to fit horse, they can be wonderful, but for the average-backed horse using good quality, appropriate, well made tack, I don't think it's a necessity. The more we fuss and fret over our horses, the more problems we find. I think that saddle fit is very important, but we can go overboard and freak out over it quite easily.