Hidalgo
Does my saddle fit ?
Does my saddle fit my horse?
What do you have to consider when it comes to saddles?
This question arises time and again when it comes to finding the right saddle for your horse. Does my saddle fit at all?
- If the saddle has a gullet plate, this should be parallel to the shoulder contour. Under no circumstances should it be fitted to the area behind the shoulder! If your horse has atrophies here, the gullet plate would be too narrow. A flexible leather tree saddle without gullet plate should also lie parallel here after breaking in.
- You should also be able to get 2-3 fingers between the saddle and the horse at the front after a long ride. In other words, the saddle must not rest anywhere in the area of the spinal canal. Be careful with horses with longer withers!
- By and large, the saddle panel must correspond to the saddle position of the horse, i.e. it should lie parallel to the back everywhere. This is often not the case in the rear area, which is why dents (atrophies) can often be seen here. If your horse has poor back muscles, a suitable balancing pad is recommended in any case.
- The saddle must not hinder shoulder rotation and must not rest on the saddle after the last rib. Anything else restricts the movement. This is the reason why western saddles, for example, are not made for bending and are therefore completely unsuitable for dressage.
- The saddle (tree as well as panels) must be symmetrical and must not be distorted (e.g. due to mounting or a crooked seat).
- The saddle should automatically place the rider correctly in balance. If the rider tilts forward (split seat) or backward (chair seat), the saddle is not in the center of gravity. You will usually notice this as soon as you have mounted!
- The saddle should lie evenly everywhere and distribute the pressure as evenly as possible. With a correctly muscled horse, you should be able to slide your hand in and out of the front and back! If your horse has atrophies, this will probably be difficult. In this case, you should refer to the pad again. Grandeur pads, for example, are well suited for this because they can be filled in a variety of ways and can therefore be used to compensate well as long as this condition exists.
- The saddle should neither slip nor tilt. If this is the case, the saddle is often incorrectly padded!
- The spinal canal should be at least 4 fingers (approx. 6 - 8 cm) at the rear. This varies depending on the horse. The canal should then run forward in a V-shape.
- The saddle panels should be soft and evenly padded. Without knots or similar. Darting in the panels - as often seen in Spanish saddles - can have a relieving function or ensure different levels of firmness in the padding. The condition of the padding should be checked at least once a year if the saddle is used regularly.
Finally, on the subject of how my saddle fits: please let me say something about the statement "a saddle must also fit without a pad", which I hear very often:
Yes, that's right! But this applies to a correctly muscled horse! A horse with atrophied back muscles needs - in addition to a saddle correctly adapted to the horse's target condition - a good pad to bridge the gap until the necessary muscles have been rebuilt.
Maximum contact surface of the saddle
The saddle should always lie BEHIND the shoulder, approx. 2 fingers. You can easily determine the extent by lifting one of the horse's legs forward. The shoulder blade cartilage will tell you how much space the shoulder needs to rotate.
After the last rib, the saddle must not rest on the horse's back, otherwise it would press into the sensitive loin area. A saddle that still rests here can be the cause of imprecise rhythm, (severe) tension and even lameness! You can feel the last ribs quite well on most horses.
Muscle atrophies and determining the correct chamber width for your horse
What is often incorrectly referred to as "good saddle position" is a more or less pronounced atrophy (loss of muscle mass due to disuse or disuse) of the trapezius muscle or long back muscle.
Causes for this are, for example, too narrow or too wide a ventricle, too narrow a spinal canal, etc. After all, it's quite simple: muscles that can't work (e.g. due to too much pressure) atrophy and atrophy.
As the attachment of the trapezius muscle to the spine is very sensitive to pain, special care must be taken here. If you were riding bareback, you would always place your horse behind it.
The correct gullet width is not measured where the gullet plate would lie (which is very often done incorrectly!), but at the shoulder blade. Only the shoulder blade angle provides the correct information about the required angle of the gullet plate. So to speak, the TARGET and not ACTUAL condition! Unfortunately, it must be noted that all too often measurements are not taken correctly, even by experienced saddlers! You can easily measure yourself, e.g. with a curve ruler or templates are available at: office@hidalgo-sattel.com.
One more thing: There is no or hardly any rib bending, as we unfortunately often hear! The ability of the rib cage to bend is very limited in horses!
How do I measure the seat size of our Sanlucar Working Equitation saddle?
We are often asked where exactly the seat surface is measured and have therefore taken the liberty of demonstrating it very simply using this picture. The blue arrow is the seat 👍🏼
If you would also like to try out Sanlucar, then write to us at: office@hidalgo-sattel.com
(Please note that there may be slight deviations for custom-made saddles or older saddles).
