Saddle Fitting For The Young Horse

[Thor]

8 hours ago, Big Sioux Saddlery said:

... I even came across a website of a lady that's been building saddles for many more years than I have, and she claims we all saddle our horses with the saddle set too far back, and that the bar pads should be up OVER the shoulder blades and the rigging set further back to keep the saddle there.  She claims many of the sore backed horses are made sore by the bar pads sitting BEHIND the shoulder blades, and gullet widths need to be much wider, 8 inches or even more.  Her saddles are much in demand by the barrel racing crowd. I'd have to see the proof to be convinced, but she is very adamant on her theory.

Yet she will stand alone with it as not just one study has proven that to be more than wrong and can lead to serious injuries. I'd be interested in that link as well and have Joyce Harman, DVM comment on that.

16 hours ago, oltoot said:

... That makes the decision as to have a "colt" saddle or not one complicated by lots of things, dollars being big. ...

Thanks a million oldtoot, already forgot about that. Solves a problem for me. 

[HannahT]

Saddle fitting issues are the biggest motivator for me to build my own saddle on a tree I know will fit. Fit certainly is one of the most debated subjects! I think I may get one of those pads with the shims and experiment with it. I can move things around until I get a better fit. I really like that it's thick enough to use even without any shims.

[Big Sioux Saddlery]

19 minutes ago, HannahT said:

Saddle fitting issues are the biggest motivator for me to build my own saddle on a tree I know will fit. Fit certainly is one of the most debated subjects! I think I may get one of those pads with the shims and experiment with it. I can move things around until I get a better fit. I really like that it's thick enough to use even without any shims.

I think that may be a good compromise for your young horse at this stage of his life.  The better trainers that I know all have quite a few saddles, some of that being just so they can saddle half a dozen and let them stand or turn them out while they work another, but also so they can fit a wide range of horses.  That can get expensive, but then the "horse habit" has never been known to be cheap! 

[HannahT]

Just now, Big Sioux Saddlery said:

but then the "horse habit" has never been known to be cheap! 

You're right about that! It took me several years to realize that buying cheap tack and having to replace it all the time because it broke or didn't work was even more expensive than getting nice tack from the first.

[kseidel]

On 11/5/2016 at 2:23 PM, HannahT said:

So, providing my saddle is actually big enough for him, can I combat the pinched-withers-and-rising-in-back problem by removing the shoulder shims from a panel pad? I haven't had much experience with young horses' backs--the other horse I ride has to have padding to fill in around his withers. I've been looking through the pads that Diamond Wool offers.

Diamond Wool panel pad comes in either a 1" or a 1/2" pad, both have 1/2" removable panels.  If your saddle is wide enough in the front gullet, and rising up in the back, then it has too much rock and is making contact in the center behind the stirrup leathers.  Removing the center panel will relieve the rock by 1/2", allowing the saddle to sit more level with less pressure in the center.  Center pressure causes the horse to hollow the back to get away from the pressure.  This complicates any movements requiring collection. 

If your front gullet is too wide, then, like Big Sioux  commented, the front will drop too low, causing the back to rise.  Still, you would have too much pressure in the center, not in the front.  Removing the center panels will still help the fit.

[HannahT]

Thank you--you all have cleared up some confusion for me. My 3-year-old's back is changing a lot (and he's putting on some weight, which is changing it even more) and he's still getting used to having the saddle on his back. I'm going to go back out there armed with this information and take a closer look at exactly what's not sitting quite right on him. Last time I saddled him (he's only been saddled half a dozen times) he bucked as I tried to move him around on a short lunge line, but when he got past that (after I turned him loose in the round pen to sort it out) he moved with his head up in the air. He finally calmed down and carried his head lower. After being saddled awhile his back is only sweaty from about the middle of the saddle forward, and sometimes he has dry spots on his shoulders. I have a panel pad coming in the mail.

Edited November 7, 2016 by HannahT