Saddle Fit as it affects the

Equine Biomechanics

by Chrisann Ware, Equine Myofunctional Therapist & Saddle fitter.

 Pressure -  the enemy of good saddle fit.

The horse’s back is much more than a comfortable place for us to perch upon.  You are resting on layers of living tissue, surrounded by individually by fascia, each cell nourished by circulation and innervated with electrical impulses from nerves passing out of the spinal column.  All of the above can be damaged by pressure.  Pressure is your enemy in achieving good saddle fit. 

Pressure drives circulation out of living tissue and without access to a continuous plentiful supply of oxygen and nutrients carried by the circulation, cells quickly damage, bruise and die.  If the damage is continuous then large areas of muscle are replaced by inelastic scar tissue.  If nerves are damaged  then large areas of the back may atrophy (waste away) and the horse will loose its healthy top line and develop deep holes behind the scapular near the withers and a hollow look.  Loss of topline and muscle damage causes discomfort in the early stages and pain in the latter stages .

The equine back comprises layers of long muscles all attached to the bony spinous processes that rise up from each spinal vertebrae deep below in the horse’s body. What we feel and call his spine are just the very tips of these bony processes.  Most riders are not aware that a healthy equine spine is slightly arched upwards because when well covered with muscles this is not obvious.  The long back muscles are strung layer upon layer, like horizontal sails of a ship. Attached to various skeletal bony structures they contract in unison to create movement in the back and  in many parts of the horse often far removed from the spine itself.  When you palpate the back you are not just feeling one muscle but layer upon layer of muscles.  They are so soft and so easily compressed that you would never suspect they lay over and under each other and would assume that it was just one sheet of muscle. They are continuous from the pelvis to the neck and pass under and over the scapular.  The back is strengthened by strap like ligaments running along the top of these bony processes.  These help store and release energy, making movement less fatiguing for the surrounding musculature.  When the back is healthy these muscles are all contracting and relaxing in harmony with every tiny movement of the horse.

 The musculature of the back also plays a role in dissipating the concussive forces from the horses’ gaits. The G forces experienced by a horse when a single limb hits the ground at speed are approx. 350 times the horse's own body weight.  Shock waves travel up the limb not as one smooth wave motion but as a series of intermittent stresses.  In shod horses these are exaggerated by the resonance created from a steel shoe. 

 The shock waves from the forelimbs angle backwards and terminate at the lumbo-sacral junction (just behind the saddle).  Those from the hindlimbs travel upwards through the gluteal mass and then terminate at the 4th & 5th cervical vertebrae (neck).  For spinal vertebrae to withstand this concussion they must be perfectly aligned one to another and protected by the healthy musculature of the back.

 

A normal horse has 32 vertebrae between the back of the skull and the tail, and there are several growth plates on each one. These do not fuse until the horse is at least 5 1/2 years old (this figure is based on small pony sized horses).

The taller your horse and the longer its neck, the later full fusion will occur.....and for a male you add another six months. So the equine spine is not sufficiently developed to withstand being weight bearing until the horse is fully mature.  At least five years of age!  The lateness of vertebral "closure" is most important to consider. The growth plates in the limbs are (more or less) oriented perpendicular to the stresses of the load passing through them, while those of the vertebral chain are oriented parallel to weight placed upon the horse's back.  This means that this chain of connected vertebrae has to support your weight with only the assistance of the muscles that surround it, a bit like the "flying fox" bridges you see suspended over great ravines! Its easy to see why early breaking and riding can damage young horses. You can more easily sprain a young horse's back (i.e., displace the vertebral growth plates) than you can damage his legs.  Something hardly ever considered by horse breakers or the owners of young horses. No horse is ever mature as a two year old and although they cope with physically carrying weight, to ride them at this early age we are causing early and permanent damage to their spinal processes.   If you respect your horse you might like to consider allowing him to fully mature before you ask him to carry a load.  This means accepting that you may have to wait till he is six years old before you embark on his education. This time waiting can actually be a chance to educate your young horse with ground exercises. Most riders are not aware of the control and respect that can be had through these and how they are often the making of a wonderful safe riding horse later on.  Ground work develops good co-ordination in young horses and is a great basis for later higher education.

Suspended under the spine is the huge weight of the horse’s gut.  The horse’s intestinal tract is large and much of the viscera is suspended from the bottom of the vertebrae with a ligament and rests on the floor of the abdomen. Much of this heavy gut weight is borne by the rectus abdominus muscle under the belly.

When the horse has to carry weight above the spine the rectus abdominus  muscle has to work in concert with the muscles of the topline, to lift the spine and the abdomen.  It is worth mentioning this is a co-operative effort by both groups of muscles. 

Most articles on saddle fit tend to deal only with the muscles of the topline.  Whilst they are vitally important they also work as a unit with the muscles of the abdomen and both are influenced by poor saddle fit.  If the horse hollows out his back to avoid saddle discomfort the abdominal muscles then work in opposition and cannot lift the spine and the horse develops a sunken abdomen.

Chain of Muscles & their role in true collection.

Often the back is said to be part of “the chain of muscles”.  This is a good way to think about it as the muscles of the back work together with the abdominal muscles to lift, flex and protect the spine and to provide locomotion.  An easy way to understand how these muscles work in concert is to imagine that the top line muscles of the horse are a bow (of the bow and arrow variety) and to think of the abdominal muscles as the bowstring.

To flex the back the horse must also contract his abdominal muscles (just as a bow would bend if the string were pulled tight). To extend the back the horse must relax the abdominal muscles.

To understand the biomechanics of collection its necessary to think a little deeper about the chain of muscles and bowstring ideas.

To create the bow in simple terms, the pelvis, spine, first rib and the sternum comprise the bow and to create the opposing force, the rectus abdominal (belly) muscle represents the string. But with one big difference to a bow.... instead of the string being tightened by being pulled back, in the horse the rectus abdominus contracts and just shortens to create the upward flex in the spine.

 FLEXING THE SPINE IS A MAJOR PART OF TRUE COLLECTION.

If you look at the diagram you can imagine that when the rectus abdominus muscle contracts it pulls the ends of the bow towards each other.  So in reality this large muscle is exerting force upon the pelvis and sternum.  This causes flexion of the sacro-iliac joint and the lumbo sacral joint.  As the pelvis tilts it allows the horse to reach further forward with his hind leg under his belly.  This action curves his spine upwards and creates impulsion in the strides. 

This extra reach in turn allows the horse to leave the leg on the ground longer whilst the body passes over it, and this extra time on the ground enables the body to increase the amount of propulsive force generated by that stride.

It should be noted that most dressage instructors have been taught, and are still now re-teaching a biomechanical myth to their students.  They are informing their students that when a horse works on the bit he needs to rebalance himself and learn to carry more weight on his hindquarters.  This is incorrect.  The lift and power you feel when a horse collects properly is merely the horse employing the bow string effect fully.

The horse is not transferring more weight to his hind feet, he is merely stretching further forward under his belly with his hind hooves, which allows him to leave his hoof on the ground for a slightly longer period as his body passes over it. This extra time on the ground is what provides the greater amount of impulsion!

The lift created at the same time in the forehand comes from muscles in the chest at the bottom of the neck, the long. coli and scalene muscles, and these two muscle groups work together provide what we call collection by lifting the forehand. 

Its merely elementary physics and you may remember it from your school days,  Force x Time = Impulsion, is the equation used.  Put simply, the greater amount of time over which you are creating a force, the greater the amount of impulsion generated. 

  Horses with pain from poor saddle fit will hollow their backs downwards away from the pressure and to do this constantly relax their abdominal muscles.  These then become weak and unable to work in concert with the muscles of the top line to protect the spine. This upside down posture has far reaching consequences for the horse’s biomechanics and its musculo-skeletal system.

If the horse adopts a continuos hollow back then the tall spinous processes will collapse towards each other and the condition quaintly called “kissing spines” develops.  Despite its cute name it is a particularly nasty condition whereby the tall bony spinous processes become jammed together causing inflammation and arthritic pain.  Sometimes eventually fusing together as a solid bony mass. While these processes are fusing there is constant pain for the horse and once fused there is a lack of movement between the vertebrae involved as they now have a permanent bony connection to each other. So a permanent loss of range of motion results.

Before this happens there will be a great deal of inflammation around the spinous processes. This creates swelling and pressure on the nerves that pass through this area and innervate muscles deeper in the back.  Altered nerve impulses cause pain and can cause secondary issues to the underlaying deep musculature too causing atrophy (wastage).

There are many muscles and joints that depend on the flexibility of the back so that they can operate as a unit to produce impulsion and well co-ordinated powerful movement.  Healthy backs are symmetricl with muscles that are a mirror image of each other on both sides of the spine and rump.  They apply equal forces to the bony structures they anchor to and provide support and protection for the spine. Asymmety in your horse is a warning sign that there are major compensations happening due to altered gaits or postures. 

Muscle Atrophy:

Atrophy (muscle wastage) and the pain that accompanies it is a common problem associated with poor saddle fit. The muscles of the equine back, in fact all muscles are activated by electrical impulses which reach the individual cells through a network of tiny nerves.

Muscle wastage (atrophy) is caused by the absence of these electrical impulses due to an inadequate nerve supply.  Trauma from pressure points from ill fitting saddle panels as well as causing nerve damage will also cause bruising and inflammation, the effect of which is that these tissues will swell.  Superficial swelling causes localised skin stretching. 

The skin is endowed with elastic properties and if the swelling is near the surface it will stretch. This relieves the pressure building up in the damaged muscle tissue. This stretching prevents the local swelling from putting pressure on the nerves passing through it and permanently affecting deeper structures. 

But in areas close to the vertebrae there is no escape route for this pressure and as swelling presses on nerves altered nerve impulses will result.  The muscles of the back are supplied by many motor nerves that pass though these areas and also travel deeper into other soft tissue located further on, areas such as the loins and pelvic areas.  Swelling and pressure causes damage to these motor nerves causing temporary lack of normal electrical impulses and loss of normal sensations. 

Lack of correct nerve function results in immediate atrophy of the affected muscles and with it, a lack of associated support for that area of the back.  It also causes a loss of support for the associated vertebrae, excess strain on the ligaments that partner these muscles and eventually visible loss of topline or large hollows behind the withers as these long muscles slowly waste away leaving a weak back.

I see many horses who from a distance may appear perfectly well until their saddles are removed and then the huge hollows behind the withers are visible evidence of long term muscle atrophy from ill fitting saddles.

True or forced collection – (or just a hollow back) which is your horse offering you?  It will make the world of difference to his spinal health.

For those interested in achieving true collection with their horses, and those who have performance horses and seek powerful movement, it is important to realise that power and collection are gained only through the horse being able to use this chain of muscles to its full extent. 

 At  left -  Dr. Hilary Clayton leading reaseracher into the biomechanics of dressage demonstrates true collection on her  Arabian horse. 

Whether horses are dancing lightly in the dressage arena or powering across the cross country course the biomechanics of good movement are all the same.  Good movement cannot be forced but must be encouraged, and pain is the enemy of any trainer. 

No amount of training will ever overcome pain. 

If you continue to train a horse carrying muscular issues the horse is forced to work in an abnormal posture to guarde sore areas, eventually secondary musculo-skeletal problems will arise in many other areas too from this and limit his performance. 

You cannot train the pain out of a horse ...... if the source of the pain, the saddle remains unchanged.  But you can train him to move badly if you work him with pain.  He will make adaptations for the pain that will create habitual poor movement patterns that will remain long after the saddle as been changed!

Horses with sore backs will avoid lifting their backs and hence avoid true collection, and if you force them into this shape by trying to ride them into the bit they will take a false collection posture.  They will try to give you the collection you ask for but also try to avoid the pain by putting unnatural kinks into the cervical vertebrae of their necks whilst still maintaining a hollow back.  You will only have an over bent neck, a hollow back and a sour horse.

Adopting a false collection with the neck only causes the vertebrae of their necks to bend into an “S” shape and to collapse downwards underneath whereby the muscles of the lower neck become dysfunctional.  When the back is constantly hollow horses become unable to use a whole group of muscles that lift the chest and forehand upwards. Straight away you have lost the lift that creates impulsion.  This “broken neck” type collection has serious consequences for the horse’s cervical spine and is to be avoided at all costs.  Not only poor saddle fit can create this but also the use of the bit to "pull" down the horse's head so that it looks collected.

Performance horses with sore tight backs will also find it hard to flex their lumbo-sacral joint and have shortened hind leg strides lacking power. We all love to see our horses collect whilst at play in the pasture as it is performed with lightness and joy when they are in this state.  What we must also realise is that collection is a fleeting posture. It was never intended for horses to work in this form for more than a few playful strides.

Horses who are trained to collect by force and held into a collected frame by gadgets, side reins or ridden forward into the bit will never offer you true collection as it is impossible for them to achieve in this state and this type of collection is only a punishment as it creates muscle spasms and cramps after a few minutes.

True collection is acquired by building confidence in the horse with gentle techniques that never ask the horse to stay in a form that is uncomfortable for him for more than a few strides.  Slowly as his musculature and mind adapt to the training, the time the horse works in collection can be extended. A truly collected horse will collect equally as well in a halter as he will in a bridle.  True collection has nothing to do with what you put on his head or in his mouth or the type of saddle you put upon his back.

Saddles from the horse’s perspective:

Indications of a saddle fit problem

Want to know if your horse likes his time spent under saddle?   His body language says it all!

If he looks at you like you are the last thing he wants to see when you come towards him with his saddle, turns away, or actually runs away often this says it all!

If he lays his ear back and nips you when you try to do up your girth he has reached the end of his tether and has been telling you for a very long time but you have not listened to him.   Horses don't lie or fake discomfort, its not part of their mental makeup to “fake” anything.   If your horse is “cold backed” he is not having a bad hair day he is in real pain. If he rears as you put your weight in the stirrup its proably because his back has become so damaged and tight that the muscle cells are in a state of "firing" all the time and it only takes a little pressure to cause a painful spasm.

Club footed horses & saddle fit. Sometimes you just can’t get perfect saddle fit, and you have to choose a saddle that will flex to fit an asymmetrical horse and work with the problem.  Be aware that hoof problems, especially clubby feet alwlays cause asymmetry in the upper shoulder musculature of the foreleg at the withers and lower shoulder area.  If you have a clubby footed horse sit on him bareback and lift his mane and compare both sides, you will see one shoulder is much larger than the other.  This is caused by the different heel heights of the front hooves forcing the horse to have different actions in the front legs.  This can be helped by barefoot trimming but you need an experienced trimmer.  Farriers often chock up the lower hoof to match the clubby one.  This never works and just increases the hoof problems and body problems. Because these horses have once large shoulder the saddle will be moved back and twisted sideways across the spine as the foreleg is bought backwards with every stride.  In thin horses it will jam against the spine. These horses need the help of a saddler who can make a saddle specifically designed to fit these asymmetries or the owner may need to look at the treeless varieties that can by adjusted by padding.

 

Riding a Club Footed Horse. The rider often feels that they have one hip higher than the other and will drop a shoulder to compensate and this in turn will cause back soreness in the rider too. Horses with this type of overdevelopment often feel to the rider as if they are not travelling in a straight line and they make you want to correct the horse with your hands.  They cannot be corrected this way and trying to do it by pulling their heads around merely sets up a series of kinks in their spines and a checker board pattern of soreness throughout the horse.

Most of us would never consciously choose to hurt our horses.  Unfortunately most of us have also been taught to ride by instructors who had no knowledge of horses' musculo-skeletal systems or how to identify saddle fit problems.  We therefore have been taught to ignore the subtle signs that horses give us when they are sore.

Usually we are told they are just lazy or difficult or we are encouraged to use spurs and to train harder.  Horses are branded as being "cold backed" or "bridle lame" when they try to show us that they can stand it no longer. Some spend years in chronic pain and become sour and withdrawn when all that was needed to change their attitude was a change of saddle. 

Horses are prey animals and as such will exhibit very few symptoms of poor saddle fit, often suffering chronic pain for many months sometimes years before they exhibit seriously bad behaviours due to pain. There are no cold backed horses, just very sore horses.

Too many choices!

Owners are bombarded with glossy advertising that promises that this brand or that brand will fit just about every type of horse.  This is a physical impossibility.  Would you assume that every one the same height and weight as you would be able to wear the same shoes?  NO!

There is a vast range of difference in the shape of horse's backs even between horses of the same breeds.  You must treat each horse individually.

It doesn't matter which style of saddle you choose, what does matter is that the tree and underside of the saddle is a mirror image of your horse's back and that the saddle is soft enough to bend and flex slightly with the horse's movements.

We also usually outlay quite a considerable amount of money for our saddles so we want to get value for our dollar, so its important that the inner construction is also strong enough to withstand the stresses of riding for many years. 

Treed or Treeless?

If you choose a treeless saddle remember that the stirrups that bare you weight are still attached to something that replaces a tree, and that this “something” will transfer your weight directly to the horse’s back every time you rise to the trot.  There was a reason that saddles were built around a tree and it was because it allows the weight to be spread over a larger area and provides an attachment point for the stirrups that is solid and transfers your weight over a greater area (that’s if they are a good fit)!

With the development of many new space age materials and foams it is now possible to have a treeless saddle, but the dynamics of good fit are still the same. Keep a close eye on the areas of your horse’s back underneath the attachment point for the stirrups whatever form it may take.  Even in  treeless saddles this area  may be a problem as the stirrups are often hung from a strap inside the saddle that passes up and over the top of the withers and this can cause pressure.  Be very diligent with keeping your foam saddle pads in good order for treeless saddles and never use them without the manufacturers recommended saddle cloths as they are vital to good fit.

Placement of the saddle:  The age old question!

When sitting in our saddle it would be great if we could place our weight directly over the horse's centre of gravity.  This is the easiest place for a horse to carry weight.  Its just above his elbow in the middle of his chest, but unless you are bareback this is not possible to do.  

The scapular shoulder blade) moves under your saddle with every step and there are many muscle attachments to it.  These muscles are thin and can easily be bruised with pressure from above.  Positioning yourself directly over the horse’s centre of gravity would require you to have your saddle very far forward. So a saddle needs to be wide enough through the front of the tree  to allow the scapular free movement underneath it and yet still have enough contact there to support the rider and to stop the saddle from sinking down onto the withers.

In an average ride of an hour the scapular moves under the saddle 9,000 times so it is vital that you get this part of your saddle fit as near to perfect as possible.

 

 We must compromise between what is best for weight carrying and what is anatomically possible without causing damage.  

Although the saddle should keep your weight as close to the centre of gravity it must also not crush the muscles that lay over his scapular so getting good fit there is vital. This allows the scapular muscles free movement with the action of the leg without being crushed under the front of the saddle with every stride.

So we have a relatively small area of back for our saddle panels to rest and only the portion of the back above the "shelf of ribs" for support of our weight.

The panels that support the saddle must be a mirror image of the shape of this part of the back as distributing this weight over the greatest possible area is what protects our horse’s back from pressure.

Perfect fit can only happen when every square inch of the weight bearing surface that contacts the horse, when a rider is seated in the saddle, is dispersing that weight evenly, and every rider because of their body shape and skeletal structure will sit slightly differently in every saddle.

Tests have shown that pressure in the region of 1 – 1.5 pounds per square inch is tolerated well by the horse’s soft tissue, providing the horse is not thin and is well muscled. Of course this changes if the horse is thin as the muscle is much less dense.  So depending on the weight of the person sitting in the saddle there can be a huge difference as to the impacts on the horse as the area for panel contact cannot be made greater due to the limitations of the shape of the back.  There may be only slight pressure from a tiny child but excessive pressure from a very heavy adult will exceed greatly the range of tolerance.

As soon as you have panels that do no mirror the shape of the back you will have bridging where there are areas of heavy contact and areas of no contact at all.  If the rider is a heavy person then the horse will soon suffer excruciating pain.  This sort of pressure is lethal for the muscles of the back, quickly driving circulation out of them and causing deep bruising.  Continually bruised muscle will replace muscle cells with scar tissue and then there will be an area of the muscle that will no longer function properly.

The other key aspect of good fit is to forget most of the hype that you have been told about brands of saddles and styles of saddles and to think of the saddle as a solid object.  Forget the padding, once your weight is in your saddle and it is girthed tightly to your horse it might as well be a block of solid wood.  Forget that the saddlery staff said it is a wonderful type of saddle and will fit your horse like a glove, forget that you read a top rider uses this brand and wouldn’t use anything else.............. none of this matters to your horse.

Find a saddle that is a mirror image of your horse's back. Its matters not if it is a tree-ed saddle or a treeless, a Western an English or Australian, an expensive German brand or from Mars.  The dynamics of good fit are exactly the same for every saddle.  You are merely seeking to avoid pressure points.  There are hundreds of saddles out there and most fit very badly!

Saddles must be basically the same shape as the horse's back; they must allow the horse room to move his spine comfortably from side to side and up and down; and they must not drive themselves into the thin muscles that cover his scapular or cause pressure points at the rear in the lumbar area.

Price is no indication of good fit!  I say again price is no indication of good fit do not be bullied into buying a flashy new saddle that looks pretty but does not fit your horse. The smell of a new saddle seems to have the same effect as the smell of a new car................we just have to have it!  Ebay is also not a good place for your purchases unless they come with the option to return them if they do not fit.  YOU MUST RIDE IN ANY SADDLE THAT YOU ARE GOING TO BUY unless you are prepared to resell it if it doesn’t fit.

Easy Tests for Fit.

Avoid using only a wither pattern as a tool for your choice of saddle .  It’s a good start but there is a whole lot of back behind the withers to be considered too.

Also remember that what appears to fit well on a static horse may not be so good once the horse and rider are a moving combination.  Saddles should make it easier for you to ride not more difficult, and if you find you are struggling to find your centre in a saddle and feel you will need time to adjust to it then it is probably not the correct saddle for you.

Remember it is vital that before you select a new saddle you take the time to ride out in it and do the "white cloth test" mentioned below.  Ride everywhere you normally do, up hill and down dale and if possible keep the demo saddle for at least a week before you make up your mind about it.  You must also be comfortable in it.

Remember also that if the horse is already suffering from muscle wastage then this must be addressed with massage therapy and rehabilitation so that the back musculature may return to normal before you select another saddle or you will be choosing one that is the shape of the damaged back and therefore just prolonging the problem as incorrect pressure will continue to harm the muscles.

White Saddle Cloth Test - Reading the dirt map!

This is the easiest and cheapest test you can do and one of the best ways to assess fit.

NEVER buy any saddle that you have not taken home and done this test with first. The dynamics of your saddle will of change once your weight is applied to it and the only way to really asses fit is when it is weighted and the horse is in motion.

Ride for at least half an hour, more if possible using only a thin white saddle cloth (or a pale colour) under the trial saddle.  Take enough time to get a good dirt impression from the saddle panels, and then examine your dirt marks carefully.  Most good saddleries will carry some test saddles so you can take them home and even most owners will allow you a trial of second hand saddles.

 After all they don’t want you to return them later either.  Sometimes placing a material saddle cover over the saddle will protect it from any marks or damage whilst you trial it.

What you are trying to establish is if the saddle panels are wide enough and disperse weight throughout their entire length, and if they mirror in reverse the shape of your horse's back.  It doesn't matter what type of saddle you choose, English, Stock, Western whatever........... it must pass this test to avoid pressure points.

The saddlecloth imprint will tell you a great deal about the way your saddle fits once your weight is added to it. Spread it out on the ground next to your upturned saddle and look at them both carefully and ask yourself these questions.

Is the imprint even throughout all the areas of the panels?

 

 If the imprint is symmetrical and even, you know that your weight is being distributed evenly throughout the entire panel which disperses the pressure over the greatest area.  If the imprint of the panels is in patches, then your saddle does not fit. Dark areas are where the saddle is bridging and there is heavy pressure.

The light areas are not receiving any weight at all.  This creates immense pressure in the dark areas. Dark patches only in the front panels of the saddle indicate that the saddle is receiving all the pressure there and is pivoting off this area and probably moving from side to side at the back causing friction and heat.

Dark areas on one side only?  Maybe you are carrying an injury and are sitting with your weight more on one hip, maybe there is atrophy of the other side of your horse's back.  Maybe there is asymmetrical muscle development due to a clubby hoof.

Dark areas at the back of the panels (often evident with Australian stock saddles) show that all your weight and the consequent pressure to the horses is to the back of the saddle and you are not being centred properly. These saddles are designed to sit you at the back of the saddle with your feet forward and have fairly rigid construction through the pommel which unless they are an exact fit will act like a nut cracker on the withers area.

Check the saddle thoroughly underneath:

There should be no hard spots in the padding and definitely no nasties like bolts or fittings pushing through which would be driven into his back.  These can lay just below the surface and not be seen by the naked eye.  Use your hands and press deeply over the entire padding.

Sometimes stuffing will compact and roll up into hard solid rolls which are hard to detect with your hands but your horse will certainly feel them when you sit on the saddle.

Saddles should also be symmetrical, take the time to really compare one side to the other, look along the channel to see if it is straight.    

The channel up the centre of the saddle should be wide and high.  It should not narrow towards the back as the horse's spinous processes are smaller there than near the withers.  It must be wide enough never to touch the spinal processes or trap the muscles that attach there when the horse flexes sideways.

Panels themselves should be wide sitting just above the shelf of ribs.  There should be no places where the panels have bowed and pushed in towards the spine and no sharp edges where the leather has folded as the stuffing has compressed and become sharp.  It is almost impossible to detect a broken tree unless the saddle is dismantled by a saddler so often these go unnoticed expect by the horse! 

Next place check for dynamic fit – place your saddle on the horse without a saddlecloth.

o        Place the saddle on the horse where you would normally put it but don’t do up the girth.  Put one hand on the centre of the deepest part of the saddle to stop it moving.

o        Put your other  hand as if you were offering to shake hands with someone (it will have to be your left hand if you are facing the near side of the horse).

o        Pass your left hand into the pommel at the withers, deep into the channel, right up to your thumb ( till it won’t go any further ).  Still keep your hand in that handshake position so your fingers lay flat against the horse’s shoulder.  

o        Stiffen your fingers and then pass your hand down under the front panels towards the horse’s foreleg. Keep your hand firmly jammed in as far as it will go but also continue to keep your fingers flat against the horse’s shoulder.

o        Slide it right down from top till it emerges out of the saddle at the bottom. 

o        If the saddle fits well you should feel a little resistance at the top of the panels, but you should be able to smoothly run hand straight downwards with only a small amount of force.  If you find your hand is jammed at the top of the panels by pressure from the tree and you need to use some force to slide it down, then this is not the saddle for your horse as once you add your weight to it, it will surely drive itself into the horse’s withers in the places where your hand became stuck.

You should be able to see daylight all the way along his spine and the front near the withers should give good clearance and not touch his withers even when your weight is in the saddle and a thick saddle blanket is under it.  Once mounted put your hand under the pommel and feel to be sure that the saddle still is well off the top of the spinous processes of the withers.

The saddle should sit level on the horse’s back and the deepest part of the seat should be half way between the pommel and the cantle so the tree can disperse the weigh evenly along its length.  If the back is lower than the front or vice versa then your weight will be forced towards the lower portion and the panels will not bare weight evenly.

Don’t be tempted to adjust a saddle that is not level by placing wedge pads under the rear or front of it, as these tend to move around and cause more problems than they cure.  Saddles that need constant adjusting just don’t fit...give up on them and get one that does.

Next do up the girth and check to see if the saddle is still sitting correctly.  Is it still level?

Does it now appear to want to lift up at rear and dig into the horse's shoulders?

If your saddle will not stay forward without a very tight girth, or you have to anchor your saddle forward with a tight breastplate (which is then damaging your horses shoulder muscles) your saddle is too far forward.  Usually the saddle moves back to the correct position, leave it there! Cruppers also should be unnecessary.

Never stretch your horses front legs out to pull the skin from under the girth.  Horses do not have a shoulder joint like ours and to them this is an extreme stretch and when done to a cold or sore horse may cause a muscle tear.  In fact never stretch cold horses.

By now you may be thinking, oh dear, I will never find the right saddle and feel panic setting in.  It is often a frightening thing for horse owners to acknowledge that their favourite saddle has actually been causing problems.

Be patient and be prepared to try a few saddles.  Once you have an understanding of what your saddle is doing to your horse it makes it possible for you to make informed choices about your next saddle. Saddlery owners today are usually more than happy to assist you to find what you need, after all happy customers are their best advertisements

All saddles will have some impact on your horses back, how much depends on what saddle you choose but regardless of its outward appearance the mechanics of any saddle are exactly the same. Many horses never reach their full potential because training has become a punishment.

Does your horse have undiscovered back problems already?

Use your hands to explore your horse’s back for answers.

First things first............. assess your horse's back for existing damage. 

Most of us look at our horse every day and never really see him and although we groom him we seldom really observe his reactions to our touch.  Take the time to really look at your horse’s back.  Get a mental picture of its shape and form. 

Stand above the horse and look at both sides of his withers, are they the same?  Really look as the differences can be subtle.  Crouch down in front of him and look up at his shoulders, stand behind and look at the straightness of his spine or for any irregularities in his spinal processes.  Look for any muscle asymmetries by carefully comparing one side to the other.

Next run your hands over him and do a flat hand assessment of his back.  Often it is good not to look at your hands while you do this as then you will use your tactile senses and concentrate fully on the tiny differences you will feel underneath the skin. 

Feel for hard tissue, and cold areas which indicate inadequate circulation from pre-existing damage.  Hot spots indicate chronic inflammation and at all times be aware of your horse’s reactions to your touch, this will tell you much.

Then palpate more deeply over the whole area and again watch his reactions. This can be done by running your flat hand over him and probing with the ends of your three middle fingers.  You are not trying to dig into his back but merely to compress the underlaying muscles and  structures, and to watch his reactions to this.

Watch carefully as many well mannered horses will only give clear signs of discomfort on your initial touch as they have been previously chastised for showing their annoyance at saddling. It is best to do this palpation test again several hours after a ride when the horse is cool and the muscles are reactive.   If you do this test straight after you first unsaddle or before you ride after a long spell you may miss a lot of the signs of damage due to the muscles being desensitized and warmed after the ride.  

Healthy backs are warm, and the muscles should feel soft with a texture a bit like a boiled egg!   There should be a yielding to your pressure and should feel as though they are "giving" and moving slightly ahead of your hand. You should be able to run your finger tips gently but firmly along his back over every inch where the saddle panels would be touching  without the horse flinching and tightening up his back. 

You should not see any "flickering" of the muscles due to your touch. The horse should not look apprehensive or concerned. There should be no hard areas or hot spots under your hand and definitely no white areas of hair.

Backs that when probed seem to "flicker" under your touch are very sore indeed and the muscle is so tight that it is on the verge of contraction at all times and will “fire” and spasm at your touch.......imagine what happens when you add your weight to the stirrup to mount. Many horses are so fearful of the pain of cramping backs that they will rear up when mounted to avoid the pain they know will come.

Most definitely they shouldn't feel like your ironing board does! If you find this flickering of muscle tissue there has been months, or years of muscle damage and atrophy already!

Run your hands from withers to croup, cover the whole area both in front and behind where the saddle would be. The horse should never "dip" under your touch or seem resentful in any way.  Watch the horse's reactions, look at the expression in his eye, often they become very anxious about having their backs handled when they are sore. If you find an area of muscle that seems to have the imprint of the saddle panels already sunk into it, there is already muscle atrophy taking place.

Horses with severely damaged backs may even be indifferent to your probing the surface tissue because long term swelling and pressure in this area causes nerve damage and the muscles might not be reactive at all due to this. These horses will be in constant chronic low grade pain.

 

Common behaviours that our horses’ will exhibit if they have ill fitting saddles: If your horse is exhibiting some of the following then suspect that you have an advanced saddle fit problem already. First of all does your horse snarl and lay back his ears when he sees you coming with your favourite saddle?  You may love it, he hates it and it telling you so as it makes his time with you a punishment. Does your horse's back have areas of white hair, or if he is a grey, areas that don't seem to get wet when you hose him?  White hair indicates damage from pressure, usually ongoing and done months ago.  Pressure or friction has actually damaged the hair follicles causing them to grow back without pigment.  Much the same as freeze branding does.  Areas that don't seem to sweat are also caused by severe trauma killing the sweat glands.  This damage is often evident under where the stirrup bars exert force in the hollow at the wither. Riding instructors often say that standing in the stirrups lifts your weight off the back.  This is a myth, this  practice does not "take your weight off the horse's back" and unless you have actually learned how to levitate above the horse it just concentrates your weight onto the two points where the stirrup bars attach to the saddle, driving the tree into his back at those points. Even sweat marks are not a good indication of saddle fit as often areas of earlier damage will not sweat even after the muscles have returned to normal.   Only the white saddle cloth/dirt map test mentioned below will give true indications of fit once your weight is added. Does your horse have high head carriage or an over developed ewe-neck?  The reasons for this are mentioned earlier in these notes.  This is always a warning sign of serious problems. Does your horse exhibit head tossing or want to reef the reins out of your hands and stretch his neck downwards?  This is caused by the horse wanting to relieve the pain from the saddle. By stretching his neck forwards it stretches the ligaments of his neck and back and gives temporary relief to tight muscles. Much the same as we are want to do when we are tight between the shoulder blades. Does your horse resent girth tightening and 'blow up'?  Riders still seem to dismiss this as just horse behaviour and I have even seen horses abused and kneed in the stomach for supposedly "blowing up" when the girth is tightened.  This is one of those nasty old wives tales (or should I say bad horse manager's tales).  Horses never fake discomfort.  They are also not capable of holding their breath deliberately, as this is not a concept they have. What is actually happening is that they anticipate are about to be hurt and become tense.  This causes them to tighten all their abdominal and thorax muscles, giving the impression that they are holding their breath. When they relax after the girth is tightened they appear to deflate! Much as we do when the dentist steps back from the chair and announces "finished" and we sink back down more comfortably into the chair Is your horse cold backed and sometimes bucks when first mounted?  This is usually because the muscles of his back have become shortened and are in a very contracted and reactive state.  The application of your weight causes the panels under the saddle to press into these tight sore muscles and the muscle will then cramp.  Sometimes horses will even buckle at the knees when mounted trying to get down and away from this painful pressure. Does your horse start his ride (or workout) calmly but become agitated and jog and fidget as the ride proceeds?  Horses who become unsettled the longer you work them usually find that this is the only way they can cope with their sore backs.  These are usually the type of horse who is too polite to buck but is reaching the end of his tether! Is his back hot or tender to the touch, or have raised areas when the saddle is removed? These are friction burns. Saddles that don't fit tend to pivot from the girth points. Moving from side to side causing great heat and skin damage. Often owners are told that they can help by placing a thick saddle pad under an ill fitting saddle.  Actually what you are doing is forcing more bulk into an already too small space.  Just like buying shoes that are too small and then wearing them with hiking socks! Does your horse resist flexing to one or both sides, or not want to pick up his canter leads one way?  Horses often resist flexing because the saddle panels are too close to his spinal processes.   The part of his spine you can feel along his back is just the top of long spinal processes, which rise up from his vertebrae. Many muscles and ligaments have attachments to these processes and they do actually move quite a lot under the saddle.  It is important that saddles with a channel down the centre don’t trap these processes and prevent movement and that saddles without any channels such as Western style saddles have very thick soft pads under them and that they are never used on thin horses who have atrophied backs or they will place a lot of pressure on the spinal processes once the rider's weight is pressing the saddle down. Remember these types of saddles were originally designed to be able to rope and anchor a full grown bull to the saddle horn. They are unyielding and solid and their girthing system was designed so that they would never pull sideways around the horse. They were purpose built for working stock and not meant for casual trail riding. A word about “girthy” or “cold backed” horses. The girth presses on the pectoral muscles under the chest and against his sides where the serratus muscles lay over the ribs.  Both these muscles are thin and easily made sore.  The pectoral muscles bring his legs backward with every stride so every stride causes discomfort if they are damaged.  Pear shaped horses have all this force concentrated on a small area of pectoral muscle directly under their belly.  Girths need to be as wide as possible and in a neoprene sleeve so as not to crush these muscles.  The fashion at the moment is for long girth points, which extend below the saddle.  These cause areas of direct pressure against the horse's side where the thin serratus muscles lay.  Be sure to buy a wide girth with plenty of material behind the buckle to protect the horse’s sides. Just as wide panels spread the forces so do wide girths. Western style cynch setups are also responsible for a lot of damage to the serratus muscles and the steel rings can cause circular areas of muscle atrophy if these girths are done up too tightly.  Their very design allows for a huge amount of leverage and owners should be aware of this. Sometimes girthyness may be due to nerve dysfunction to the girth area creating altered impulses.  This may be from damage to the stay apparatus muscles of the forehand from long term hoof problems or spinal trauma that needs investigation by a veterinary chiropractor. Don’t do up your girth when you are sitting in the saddle.  This gives you way too much leverage force from above. Check tightness by passing your fingers under the front section between the horses legs.  Not just behind the elbow where there is a natural hollow or you will get a false impression of the tighness. If your girth needs to be very tight to keep the saddle from slipping then your saddle doesn't fit properly.  If you saddle fits well then the girth should be almost unnecessary unless the horse shies. Avoid pulling the saddle sideways around the horse when you mount.  When this happens the girth also may pull the pectoral muscles sideways and upwards. Some horses become so frightened of this pain they will not stand still for mounting. Putting a girth sleeve over the girth will prevent this as then the girth moves in the sleeve and doesn’t pull directly against the horse’s sides.

 

Saddles  – from the riders perspective.

Saddles should serve the rider as well as protect the horse.  They should aid your riding and balance and keep you safe and centred when your horse suddenly decides that the twig at his feet is actually an attacking alligator.  They should allow your pelvis to rest comfortably in the deepest part of the seat and your legs to spread around the horse without putting your hip joints into unnatural angles and they should allow you to ride for many hours without becoming fatigued. A well balanced and well made saddle positions you comfortably so you don't have to struggle to ride.

A wise saddler told me that you should never need to work hard at riding well.

 A good  saddle should make a poor rider easier for the horse to carry and a good rider look spectacular.

If you are struggling to feel centred or to rise to the trot or balance in the canter then you are being positioned badly by the saddle. Saddles should aid your riding not hinder it, if you are fighting you own biomechanics to ride you will become fatigued and will ride with a poor posture which will cause you back, knee and hip pain.

For this to happen they should actually be built slightly differently for men and women as both have different anatomies.  If you can have a saddle purpose built be sure your saddler takes this into consideration.

Saddle making over the centuries has been devoted to making man comfortable.  Even as late as the beginning of the last century there were still mounted brigades of soldiers such as the Light Horse Brigade. It was men who rode into war, rode to work, and rode into history.   Very little thought has been given to the female anatomy and its requirements for riding comfort.

In fact it was considered almost embarrassing that women should want to straddle a horse hence the development of the side saddle.   Horses today seem to be mostly owned in the majority by women and yet saddle makers and saddle retailers seem to have not noticed this fact.  A shame as there is a large marketing opportunity there for the wise.

It is physically impossible for a woman to ride as a man does as there are anatomical differences in our pelvis and thigh areas.  Women also have a centre of gravity that is lower.

Good riding is not possible without the rider having good riding posture.  Not just when they are sitting unmoving in the saddle but good posture in movement too. 

Not the type of posture that hollows your lower back, and makes you fatigued and rigid as this is jarring to the body and will soon cause lower back pain, but the type of posture that allows you to align your vertebrae one directly on top of the other from the sacrum upwards and move elastically and still comfortably in time with the motions of the horse’s back.

To do this you will need to employ your lower back well and the skeletal construction of the lower back of male and female humans is very different. These differences start with the sacrum.  This triangular shaped bone connects lumbar vertebrae to the pelvis and thighs and differences in sacral shape for both sexes will create differences in the lower back positions.

For men the sacrum is long and curved and allows them to sit on their tailbones something that a woman cannot do due to the shape of her pelvis having to accommodate the birth canal. She also has a sacrum more tipped than a mans and due to this, her lumbar vertebrae are more curved too.  

When a woman is sitting in a saddle her hip socket lies under, or sometimes behind the pillar made by the lumbar vertebrae.  When she relaxes her pelvis will tend to rock forwards and her lower back will naturally hollow. When a man sits in a saddle his hip socket is located in front of his lumbar vertebrae so that when he relaxes his lower back his pelvis naturally rocks backwards.

There are also differences in the angulation of the hip joint for men and women.  This difference makes it easier for men to rest their inner thigh against the saddle whilst still keeping their toes pointed forwards.  Women have thighbones that slant inwards and tend to have more rounded calves and thighs. The more a woman can open her hips and stretch her thighs further back the easier it is to keep her toes pointed forwards.

Because of the articulation of the hip joint and the orientation of the leg and ankle in women, a woman needs to have her leg hang down naturally to accommodate the twist. Most stirrups do not allow for this to happen.

It is essential that saddlers recognise the various needs of riders and to meet these, or we will continue to see the huge amount of riders who suffer lower back pain as they are being forced to adopt an unnatural riding position by their saddles.

References:

Equethy Workshops – Equine Massage Therapy Course Notes.

National College of Traditional Medicine – Equine Myofunctional Therapy  -  Saddlefit .

Saddle fit as Art & Science by Eliza McGraw

Imagine your horses back as a Bow – Dr. Gail Williams PhD

Find that Perfect Saddle – Endurance World Magazine article - Chrisann Ware

Who’s built best to ride? Dr. Deb Bennett PhD

Free to Move A Saddle Fit Video – by Freehorse Productions -  Caroline Hamilton, Danni Symmonds & Chrisann Ware – graphics by Vikki Morgan who generously allowed me to use some of them them to illustrate this article