Panic Attack / Saddling Problem

[KYielding@aol.com]

I've had a problem like this - almost - with two different horses.  The difference was that both gelding pinned their ears when I came at them with the saddle.  The solution was a new saddle that fit.  The second gelding came to me that way and he was really bad.  Tried to bite.  After a few saddlings with my saddle instead of his previous owners', he stopped snapping and pinning his ears.  He never does it now.

Right now I'm riding a new mare and my saddle does not fit her so a new one is on order.  In the meantime she is starting to pin her ears when she sees me coming with the old Circle Y.  In a few more days the new saddle will be here and then she can be happy again.

All three of these horses have to be cinched slowly.  The first one, a quarter horse, could blow up about 12 inches.  But over the course of getting ready to ride we could slowly cinch him up.

Something I learned about saddle trees that surprised me is that the Arab tree is the widest tree.  Arabs have flat, wider backs than quarter horses.  

Kathleen