Does your saddle fit your horse?

This is my second blog about saddles, have a look at the first one if you haven’t seen it yet.

This is my list of 10 things to check when assessing if your saddle actually fits your horse.

 Put the saddle on your horse without girthing it up.

1.  Is there 3 fingers’ clearance between the horse’s wither and the underside of the pommel.
2. Is there clearance above the spine from front to back?  Stand behind your horse and look through.
3. Is the gullet wide enough to sit on the muscles either side of the spine? Put your hand in at the front and back and have a feel.
4. Is the tree a good width? Put your hand under the front of the saddle, palm down, at the wither.  Run it from top to bottom between the shoulder and the flap.  There should be no pinch points and the pressure of the saddle on your hand should feel the same from the wither to the knee roll.
5. Does the saddle fit the contour along the length of your horse’s back? Reach up under the saddle flap and panel until your fingers on your horse’s back under where the stirrup bar lies, and run your hand from front to back under the panel.  There should be no gaps (bridging) and the pressure of the saddle should feel the same all the way through.
6. Do the contours of the panels match the contours of your horse’s barrel? The panels behind the waist of the saddle should follow the shape of the body: they should have a broad contact area, and neither dig in nor sweep up.  Check from the side and from behind.
7. Does the waist of the saddle sit level to the ground? Stand back and look at the saddle with your horse standing square on flat ground.  The place where your weight will be should be level, not tilted uphill or downhill.
8. Can you place the saddle so that your horse has full shoulder movement without hitting the points of the tree, and still leave a hand span between the back of the saddle panel and the kidneys? If not, your saddle may be too long or the wrong cut for your horse.
9. Re-check items 1 to 6 with the saddle girthed up.
10. Finally, does the saddle sit still when you move? With the girth fastened, walk on and watch the back of the saddle.  Some movement is inevitable, but if the saddle bounces up and down enough for you to see a gap under the panels, then there is a fit problem.  Check again in trot with a rider on board.

(This applies to standard treed saddles: podium, treeless and other specialised saddles are very different. 

This is not intended to be a comprehensive list or the replace the advice of a qualified saddle fitter.  It is just a starting point.)