sweat patterns - long question

[Marlene Moss <Marlene.Moss@wcom.Com>]

Hi,
I am currently testing 2 saddles, one for each of my horses.  Yesterday I
played hooky from work since the weather was finally good to get some riding
time in.

Horse 1 - wide mare, right now overweight and very picky about saddles.
Saddle 1 - Marciante, fits her like a glove when I'm checking from the
ground.
Pad 1a - supracor - thin, but comfy little honeycomb stuff, wicks away sweat
Pad 1b - closed cell foam, comes with the saddle
Cinch 1a - comes with saddle, horrible hard nylon and leather thing
Cinch 1b - woolback

First we rode in the arena and the mare pinned her ears the whole time.
Now, this is not completely unusual for her, she hates the arena and really
hates when I post.  I was using the Supracor and the original cinch.  So I
thought she might dislike the cinch.  She is also out of shape and has
gained quite a bit of weight.  I had to work a lot with her to move rounded
last spring and she is moving more hollowed out after so much time off.

Then I went on about a 4.5 mile ride with lots of trot and canter.  Used the
woolback cinch.  Much less ear pinning, but still some as we went from a
walk to trot.  Definitely moving hollowed, but occasionally she'd lower her
head and round up and be much happier - ears forward.  She does this more on
request when I have a bit in her mouth, but we were going bitless at the
time, so I couldn't work on that as much.

Sweat pattern:  she was completely dry from the spine to about 4 inches
below and then an even sweat pattern that kind of curved downward in the
middle.  I might be able to make a case for slight bridging based on that
curve, but I expect that was because of her traveling so hollowed out.

Is it bad for her to be dry that far down the side of the spine?  Since the
saddle seemed to fit very well when she's not hollowed out, should it be ok
for her as long as we spend some time working on her way of going before
long miles?  That would be the case anyhow since she's out of shape and
needs to work on this.

I will ride again tonight with the saddle pad that came with the saddle -
it's a little thicker.  Any thoughts on anything else I should check for?

Horse 2 - 4 yr old gelding, narrower, in better shape
Saddle 2 - Stonewall
Pad 2 - 2x woolback

This horse was just recently started and I've only ridden him with a
dressage saddle (previous endurance saddle did NOT fit) and the supracor
pad.  Never got any sweat - wasn't sure if that was the pad or the horse.
He shouldn't be in that great of condition, but he hasn't even sweated
between his legs on rides where the other horses fairly wet.  (He is
sweating, just not as much).

So we trotted and cantered for 4 miles - had to go off trail to go up every
steep hill I could find to really get a good sweat, but by the time we were
done, his shoulders were very wet and he was sweating behind his ears.  I
thought that would be enough.

Nope, took off the saddle and completely cool and dry except under the back
half of the saddle where he was slightly damp.  Under a woolback no less!
So does it sound like there's something wrong with this horse?  Do I just
need to get some more miles on to get a better sweat pattern or does this
sound like it may not fit.

The person I got these saddles from knows a LOT about saddle fit and we both
checked these saddles on the respective horses, sans pads and they both
looked like very good fits.  And we picked the best pad to use with each
saddle.  I am comfortable in them, although both somewhat longer and wider
than I'm used to (their 15" seats and I'm used to 14.5")

One other thing about the gelding, just as a side note in case someone has a
thought.  You know how young horses will run around with their noses up in
the air?  He does this when I'm riding.  It kind of looked like he was doing
this as I moved my weight onto the front of the saddle (2 point vs posting)
but it wasn't 100% consistent.  And he did this in the dressage saddle too
(it probably wasn't a good fit for him, but very different saddle).  And
he's not doing this to evade the bit because I use a bitless bridle on him
about half the time.  He's not being snotty or fighting anything, just acts
happy going down the trail and he brings his nose back down if I ask.  Any
thoughts - especially if it might relate to the saddle?

Thanks,
Marlene