sweating, dry spots & saddle fit

["Glenda R. Snodgrass" <grs@theneteffect.com>]

Question:  when damaged spots appear on a horse's withers from an 
ill-fitting saddle, do those areas stop sweating normally?  Forever, or 
just for awhile, or not at all?

Just beginning to appear on Lakota's back are a couple of spots on the 
withers with white hairs and thick, whitish, callous-y looking skin, 
which I am assuming are damage marks from the saddle I was using this past 
winter, which I quit using in March when I realized it didn't fit him 
well enough for the longer distances we were beginning to ride.  

I bought a used Stonewall in May, which I really like, and which I thought
fit Lakota fairly well (for interim use, at least), once I shimmed the
front with some rubber padding.  However, I have noticed recently that 
when I ride him only lightly, there are dry-ish spots on the withers, 
whereas when I ride him to a really good sweat, there are no dry spots at 
all.  I was trying to figure out whether this meant that this saddle was 
causing only slight pressure on those spots, not enough to prevent 
sweating entirely, or whether a heavy sweat would simply run into the dry 
spots and get them wet too.  Then these damage marks began to appear a 
few days ago, in the same spot the dry-ish spots appear under the new 
saddle, and it made me wonder whether the sweat glands in those spots are 
damaged so that they won't sweat now regardless of saddle pressure.  Is 
that possible?  Will he have dry marks on that area forever?  There is 
visibly less sweat in that area even riding with just a bareback pad.

I do plan to get him another saddle, one that does fit him well, but they 
don't appear overnight, and I'd like to know whether I need to just lay 
off riding him until I can get the perfect-fit saddle.  I don't want to 
do even more damage than I have already -- but I don't want him to get 
bored and lose conditioning just standing around in the pasture.

Glenda & Lakota
Mobile, AL
AERC # M18819 & H27310
SE Region