Downhill backs

["Sharon Saare" <sharonsaare@dellnet.com>]

To Bonnie Snodgrass:

The four major problems we have with saddle fit are: no wither, bunchy shoulders, wide..REALLY WIDE, backs, and downhill

backs.  When any of those conditions exist a horse can still be fitted with a saddle, but l00 percent satisfaction is unlikely...whether its with one of our saddles or any other make.  There are some conditions that can be improved upon...but again l00 percent may just not be possible.   

I bought my first horse in l949 in Santa Rosa, California.  At that time, the largest horse slaughter house in Northern California was located a few miles from me.  Lots of horses were going in and out of that place...many of them perfectlyfine horses...just needed a home.  Many were purchased by individuals by the pound.  If you were selling...3 cents a pound was average price...buying was 5 cents.

Kids had more time in those days and I often rode my horse over to the "yard" just to see the horses.

In that era of the l950's, I saw thousands of horses...and never saw a downhill back!!!

Sway backs, yes...old horses...but not what I'm seeing today.

This is a relatively new phenomonon...brought about by bad horse judging and equally bad breeding practices.

European horses for the most part are high front end, and they don't have anywhere near the saddle problems we do...at least of that nature.

When horses are downhill, they can't go downhill very well because they already are which makes them go double downhill.  If they are high in the loin, they scrub...that is rub the hair off.  The saddle has no choice but to slide forward.

If you park a car on a hill, kick it out of gear...it rolls forward until it hits a tree or the ditch...same thing with the saddle on the horse...its going to slide forward until it hits that low point or the shoulders.

A mini pocket pad can help a little bit...but the bar of a tree is a board.  Think of it as a teeter totter.  Raise the front and the back must go down.  So, then our horse high in the loin is really going to catch it.

I always have compassion for the downhill horses I see as they just don't have a very good time of it. 

Sharon Saare