Special requirements for down-hill built horses?

[bcurrier]

A downhill built horse is a polite term for a comformation defect.

The deal is, all horses have conformation defects, so it really is more a matter of how the aspects of a given horse's conformation play against each other. Nothing particularly bad about a horse downhill a bit as long as there are other factors in play, like heavy bone, for example.

The only way to keep a saddle from slidding forward on a horse like this is a crupper or a britching.

Depends on the ribs, but you're right for most cases. You don't see them as much as you should, though.

Bill

[mulefool]

Thanks for your thoughts and clarification David. As to the x shaped packer cinch. I know they are popular for this purpose and I sell alot of them for pack saddles. I started out using one of those and found that on my mule it actually made things worse as I had TWO cinches pulling things forward. Running the back cinch behind the belly made a huge difference in keeping the saddle from funneling forward.

[shadow44]

Hi David,

Just for you're information, I know from personal experiences that a down hill horse could be change buy regular training, lack of training just like human exercises might result in down hill problems, if you take a look at human abdominal specially on mens you will find that if we let things go the billy will come out and the back will arc, same thing will happened with horses back.The best exercises for that is the trot for a period of 15 to 20 minutes head down with a good and fast stride that will push up the back of the horse, you have to strengthened the back muscles, this takes time and patience but the results will come. I bought a QH mare in 2005 she was 4 years hold she had that problem even the owner thought nothing could be done 6 months after she looked gorgeous, she still looks good today.

Regards

Johnny.

If you take your hands on both sides of the neck and stroke down you will find spot that widens out and that is area we are looking for.

Would you ever do anything different to the ground seat to level out the feel for the rider? You have two ways you can compensate. One the ground work which will allow you to get a level base for the pelvis but will not address the forces being applied to the horses body. Two you increase the spread of the rear of the saddle or narropw the spread inteh front so the back of the saddle will drop to create the level paltform for the pelvis. In short you are orienting the saddle exactly opposite the horses orientation which adds up to a level seat which will releave the pressure on the horse and put the rider is a balanced position. One caution here though is that some horses are so down hill that you would go past the bottom limit of the bar ( which is where the ribs appear from the body).

What about using a slightly built up pad in the front to level the tree? If done correctly and correctly would depend on where the tree was designed to sit. In any case you would want to gradually taper the the pad so you don't create an edge or hollow spot. I make a shim for this purpose and we have used it on thousands of horses very effectively.

Down hill is a reality that is not going away. For twenty years I have worked with a leading expert on conformation, I live with multi licensed judge and some one that is internationaly repected for her work with conformation as it pertains to gait. If you ask either of these two how to buy horse you will be told to look the horse in the eye and if you fall in love with it buy it. Should you consider the conformation as it pertains to your goals? Sure you should but in end it is about learning to support whatever conformation you may come across.

Mules have a problamatic shape for cinching. If you cut them in half and look at the cross section their ribs they are onion shaped. If you look at them from the top they look like a pear. Their underline curves up quickly toward the front. As rule their top lines are fairly strait so the top is pretty easy to fit. The problem is that the cinches want to move that is why the packers used X shaped cinches. Try it you'll like it. You can take two mohair cinches and just cross them if you would like to give it a go with out needing to buy anything.

David Genadek

[David Genadek]

Hi David,

Just for you're information, I know from personal experiences that a down hill horse could be change buy regular training, lack of training just like human exercises might result in down hill problems, if you take a look at human abdominal specially on mens you will find that if we let things go the billy will come out and the back will arc, same thing will happened with horses back.The best exercises for that is the trot for a period of 15 to 20 minutes head down with a good and fast stride that will push up the back of the horse, you have to strengthened the back muscles, this takes time and patience but the results will come. I bought a QH mare in 2005 she was 4 years hold she had that problem even the owner thought nothing could be done 6 months after she looked gorgeous, she still looks good today.

Regards

Johnny.

Johnny,

You bring up an excellent point but there is a difference between the horses’ actual conformation and a pathology created by poor riding. If a horse has been improperly ridden it will drop the base of its’ neck. A tie down is an automatic way of producing this sort of pathology. This to me is what makes the difference between being a saddle maker or an upholsterer. A saddle maker will know the difference between the actual conformation and pathology. You can’t actually change how downhill the horse is any more than you could change how tall someone actually is, but, as your experience has taught you, you certainly can correct poor posture which will then give an accurate measure of how tall someone is. I understand what you mean when you say strengthen the top line but what is actually happening is that you are releasing the top line a strengthening the under line.

David Genadek