Re: fitting a saddle to a young horse

[K S Swigart <katswig@deltanet.com>]

On Tue, 5 Jan 1999, Laney Humphrey wrote:

> 	I'm having a discussion with a friend who has a 4 yo, just started
mare
> that he wants to get a saddle for.  He says he wants to wait until he has
> been able to put some miles on her and till she finishes growing before
> getting a saddle because he thinks her back shape will change considerably
> between now and then.  I contend that the shape of a horse's back is
> fundamentally determined by its conformation and muscle type (i.e.thin &
> flat vs. thick & bunchy) and that any saddle maker worth their salt could
> build a saddle now that would take growth and development into
> consideration.  We both agree that a horse changes shape a lot over the
> course of conditioning and doing rides and that a good saddle should be
> able to accomodate a certain amount of that kind of change.

> 	Anybody want to take sides or comment?  Does anyone use more than one
> saddle on a horse over the course of a ride year to accomodate changes in
> the horse's back?

I will use more than one saddle, sometime during the course of a single
ride...admittedly, this usually happens at multi-day rides.  A few years
ago, the first two days of the Outlaw Trail I used one saddle, the last
two days, one with a slightly narrower tree.

I have found that the shapes of my horse's backs change dramatically as
their condition changes, and I will usually tell people not to go out and
spend loads of money for a perfect fit on a horse that is not currently in
the conditing you expect the horse to spend most of its life in.

One horse that I am working with is a "rescue" horse.  Prominent spine,
swayed back, muscle atrophy over and behind the shoulder.  None of the
saddles that the owner has fits the horse, but just over the last month as
work lays muscle over the entire top line the shape of the horse's back
has changed dramatically...and I hope will continue to do so, until he has
the muscles through the loins, along the underline, to properly round his
back.  Then maybe the saddles the woman owns will fit her horse.  If not,
THEN she can go saddle shopping.  In the mean time, she is borrowing one
of mine that is "adequate" (not a perfect fit, but something that he can
work comfortably in).

Horse's backs also change as they mature.  My TB mare used to be (when I
got her as a 4 year old) a bit mutton withered.  She now is (to quote my
feed dealer) "high withered sucker isn't she?"  The saddle that fits her
today is quite different from the one that I used on her when she was 4 (I
still own both of them).  And yes, she is also about 1 1/2 inches taller
at the whithers than she was when she was 4--almost all of that is
whither.

If fitted saddles are like tailored clothes, then of course they fit
differently as you age, mature, change your musculature, etc.  I am MUCH
broader through the shoulders than I used to be (back before I spent time
training stallions :)).

kat
Orange County, Calif.