Though man has ridden horses for thousands of years, and will no doubt continue to do so, deep down we know that nature did not intend the equine back to be weight-bearing. Good saddle fitting boils down to success at outwitting Mother Nature.
This is the first of the two true great rules that apply universally in saddle fitting: thirty million years of evolution did not factor weight-bearing into the design of the equine back. The second great rule is that this is the only rule that applies in every instance to every horse. None of the other traditional rules of saddle fitting is universally applicable, and neither saddle fitting nor saddle design is a matter of following a blueprint to a produce a solution. It’s more like working a three-dimensional puzzle that is unique to each horse, with movement thrown in as the fourth dimension.
There are no universal answers, but there are some great questions. For example, how tolerant will the fit of this saddle be as this horse’s back changes shape in motion? How effective will it be in helping to protect this particular horse from spikes in kinetic force at the “worst moments” of impact during the ride – in sitting trot, for example, or on the landing side of a jump – when the dynamic impact of the rider’s weight in motion is the most extreme?
How do we figure out what is a good enough fit solution for a particular horse? How much do the parts of the saddle that we can’t see on the outside affect the suitability of the fit? (Hint: a lot.) How true are the marketing claims companies make about their saddles and how solid is the science behind these claims? (Hint: not very.) Why do some horses seem better able to endure the rigors of riding than others, and how is that affected by their saddle? What does it really mean for a saddle to put you, the rider, in perfect balance? Is it true that somewhere out there, if you look hard enough, there is a perfect saddle for every horse and rider? (Hint: is that really plausible?) Still, shouldn’t the industry as a whole be able to do a better job of helping consumers obtain a good enough solution, not just for the rider but for the horse?
Our goal here is to help the thinking rider gain enough understanding of saddle design and saddle fitting to be able to ask hard questions about the saddles that they are considering for themselves, and most especially for their horses. This has been broken into parts, including the basics of rider and equine movement, saddle panels and the saddle fitting process, and saddle trees and construction. We also discuss the idea of the custom fit saddle as a solution for saddle fit concerns. We hope you will enjoy the opportunity to drill down to a deeper level of understanding why particular solutions may or may not help provide solutions to common saddle fit challenges.
If you would like to explore saddle fit options for your horse, we invite you to complete our Saddle Fitting Inquiry form.
