About half of my book, "Choosing a saddle for endurance and long distance
riding," is a history of riding and saddles around the world because, as
someone said, "if we don't understand history, we are destined to relive
it." (or something pretty close to that!) Don't believe the romantic
fantasy that old time (whatever time you like) riders treated their horses
better than we do now. Horses were useful in that most human of activities
- war, and as such were cannon fodder (along with the footsoldiers) and were
very expendable. Here's a thought: the invention of the car changed for the
better the life of the horse. Can you figure out how and why saddles are
more likely to fit well today than before the car came along?
Laney