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Saddle fit

New Saddle has Passed the Test

I bought a used 16 1/2″ super wide Parelli Natural Performer via eBay. Last Sunday it passed the Cisco test. Today it passed the Lucky Star test.

I tried to cinch it up tight enough so the saddle would stay on Lucky. When I mounted, it tipped a little,letting me know it might not be fully secure. But when I got balanced in the saddle and shifted my weight to each side, it felt secure. Off we went at a nice “trail walk” speed. I could feel those back legs reaching far underneath. Hmmm, have I ever felt that back leg reach before? I don’t think so.

As we were walking around the arena, the seat felt really “roomy” to me. I am used to being squished in the saddle and this was a new feel for me. My body worried a bit. There was nothing that braced against my legs to hold me in the saddle. I do feel like the saddle is deep and holds me almost inside Lucky. I don’t remember that roomy feeling while riding Cisco.

Lucky and I spent more time in the arena. We did all the gaits both directions. I decided it was time to get off. The saddle tipped a bit when I dismounted, but it stayed on top of Lucky.

I ran my hand underneath the saddle blanket and could not find any tight spots. Lucky’s shoulders have impressive freedom to move. I checked the tightness of the girth. There was no tightness. The girth was touching Lucky’s body, but not really enough to have kept me secure. Well! The saddle fit Lucky extremely well. It might have stayed on top of him even if we had been barrel racing (or not).

I now will happily make my PayPal payments to pay off this saddle. Yay!

Parelli Natural Performance saddle with bucking rolls removed and fenders with enough holes to let my legs fit. Picture coming next time!

Saddle Hell Saga

I was a beginning adult rider in the mid 90’s and started out my riding life using my childhood saddle.  My childhood saddle fit my large pony and a narrow Saddlebred horse back in the sixties.

After some months of daily riding, horrid silver dollar size white spots developed on Sage’s withers.  My saddle was too tight and cut the circulation off at those two spots.  After no blood flow for a while, the horse’s hair grows white.  It was a blow as it meant young Sage had experienced pain while I was riding her.

Thus began saddle hell.

We had the Internet then so I was able to look at saddles on the Internet.  I found the Sharon Saare Saddle site.  Sharon was an early endurance rider.  She rode the famed Tevis Endurance ride with a 50 lb western saddle.  Light weight saddles, other than English saddles, were not yet invented.  Sharon invented a light weight Western Saddle.  She then learned that all horses did not fit under one tree.  By the time I found her, she had developed 9 trees.  Clearly, this was the saddle for me.  I ordered a saddle with a tree for a wide mutton withered horse.  Saddle fit at that time was determined by sweat pattern.  I rode the saddle and the sweat pattern was better, but still unacceptable.  I still had too much pressure on her withers.  She did not sweat where the saddle was too tight.  Here is an up to date explanation of all the Sharon Saddles by Barb Peck.  There is not much information detailing the eleven trees now offered by the current owner of the Sharon Saare saddles

I tried different pads.  I tried expensive pads.  I knew that if I spent enough money on magic pads and magic saddles, the problem would be solved.  Sadly, this is a false statement.  Money does not matter in saddle fit.  Knowledge matters.  So far my knowledge had failed.

I went to Equine fairs that had saddle makers.  Some of them gave speeches about saddle fit.  Dave Genadek was the new hero of saddle fit and I got to hear him talk and see his trees and saddles.  Plus he had saddle fitters in my area!  Oh excitement.  A Dave “saddle fitter” came to our barn.  Several of us were interested and different trees were put on the horses to find a fit.  A tree was put on Sage and declared “the right tree”.  I took a picture and had the film developed.  I was leary of Dave’s saddles.  He had only three trees available and I had failed with a saddle company that had 9 trees.  Why would this tree fit Sage when the other didn’t?  It was only when I got the picture of Sage with the tree on her back developed that I understood the problem.  Sage was a “downhill” horse.  Here is Dave’s web site now.

Pictures are two dimensional.  Real life is three dimensional.  I did look at Sage to see if she was a downhill horse early on.  I remember measuring her rear end and her front end.  She did not look downhill.  The wither and the rear measurement were very nearly equal.  I determined early on that she wasn’t a downhill horse.  But now I had a picture of Sage with a wooden tree on her back.  The tree pointed down on her withers. All my weight shifts to the front of the saddle in two silver dollar size pain spots.  Oh my!  This saddle would have been just like the Sharon Saare saddle or even worse.

Shims had not yet come into the saddle fitting vocabulary or perhaps I gave a try to shims and it was just too unknown of a concept for me to grasp.

Questing around for saddle maker experts, I found an Australian saddle maker who claimed he could fit any horse..  I called him.  He told me that he could build shims in the saddle.  He would build in the shims and make the saddle fit.  Oh my!  My excitement level was high.  He had directions on taking pictures and measuring Sage’s back.  I got all this together and picked out my Australian saddle.  It did have a horn.  It also had those knee pads or poley.  With my theory that money makes a difference, I ordered the most expensive saddle he had.  Expensive saddles have lots of leather. Plus I am a large sized person who needs a bigger saddle.  Bigger saddles have more leather and weigh more. Expensive large saddles contain lots of very good leather. When you put these concepts together with a wooden tree and the built-in shims, it makes for heavy.  I now owned a very well made Australian saddle that fit Sage.  Oh I was so happy as I drug that saddle up on Sage.  It might have been the Down Under “The Legend with Horn”. I did love the knee pad/poley.  When I changed back to a Western saddle, I really missed the support of the poley.

I took Sage and Velvet to the Missouri Fox Trotter World Show.  I read the rulebook and the rulebook said they didn’t allow Austratlian saddles in performance classes.  What!  Now I am on fire to find another saddle that I can show in which is a lighter weight.

It is about this time that Brenda Imus came along with her claim to know all things about gaited horses.  Plus, she had a saddle that had a special Supracor® liner that would make her saddle fit all gaited horse.   I sold the Australian behemoth and got my Imus saddle made by Amish saddle makers.  The saddle did OK while I was riding my older horses and the younger horse, JR.  But I had a two year old horse starting out.  After his start, I rode him and always ended up with my saddle on his neck.  And this little upstart colt decided to buck me off one afternoon, breaking my collar bone.  Good Lordy.

There was a strap broken on the saddle and I took it to a local saddle repair guy.  He took one look at the three point saddle girthing rigging system and told me it would likely work its way forward on a horse’s back.  I felt betrayed.  This saddle tried to kill me.  I sold it to a fan of Brenda Imus.

By this time the Tucker saddle had gained a lot of fame.  I ordered a Tucker saddle.  It fit Sage like a glove.  It fit Velvet.  It was a dream saddle.  But wait.  After riding my dream saddle for about an hour, I became a rider in serious pelvic pain.  I would get off barely able to walk.  Surely this was a one-time glitch.  I rode the saddle again and right about at an hour, the pain started.  Now I had a great saddle that fit the horse.  The saddle was comfortable for me for an hour.  I can’t go through life riding for a limited time of an hour.

Here’s how the Tucker tree was explained to me by the foremost saddle dealer in my world at the time, Freddy Fender.   The Tucker human seat is like a basket.  The ride sits on a a comfortable “basket” above the tree.  The “basket” has to be wider than the tree to fit.  Thus a rider’s pelvic bones have to be wider to fit the saddle.  I am a size large large in fat, but my bones are not of a wide enough width to fit the Tucker Saddle.  Oh cry…the best fitting saddle and it makes me moan with intense pain.  I looked for tree information on the Tucker saddle to see what the saddle tree is like now: Tucker Saddle Rider Fit. I would hate to pick out a Tucker saddle now after reading all this information.

Usually, a woman has a wider pelvis than a man and it makes it tougher for a woman to ride a saddle built for a man.  Long ago, this point was made a saddle makers started coming out with women’s saddles.  Who knows if this is being done now!

Next up is the Orthoflex saddle. The Orthoflex saddle was big news at the time.  The inventor, Len Brown, has sold the company and now sells Corrector Pads.  Here is the current  explanation of saddle fit from Len Brown I went to Freddy Fender and explained the situation and how I now wanted the new Orthoflex saddle.  He told me the Orthoflex saddle is built much like the Tucker saddle with the “basket” above the tree.  But he had one particular Orthoflex saddle in mind that was made more narrow in the seat that most of them.  I bought that saddle.  It must have weighed 45 lbs.  I could just barely manage to throw the saddle up on the horse.  When I rode at my original boarding stable, I carried the saddle to the large mounting block.  I got the saddle up on the mounting block.  I got myself up on the mounting block.  I was much better able to put the saddle on the horse with a three foot high head start!  The saddle worked really well.  It fit me and it fit the horse.  I might have had it for about six months when the unthinkable happened.  I carried the saddle out to my trailer, put Sage in and took off to a clinic or trail ride.  I stopped in Harrisonville at the Farm and Home Store.  When I got out of my truck, my back went out.  I was barely able to climb back into the truck cab.  I managed to drive back to the boarding stable.  I had someone get Sage out of the trailer and put her away.  I drove off to the hospital.  It took them a few heating pads and pain medication to get me to where I could make it home into the house.  It was that heavy saddle!  My back just couldn’t take tossing my saddle up on my horse anymore.  Orthoflex saddle had to go!

At this time of the century, more people started getting into saddle fit.  Linda Parelli started studying saddle fit and the instructors were all given a course in saddle fit.  A couple years went by and Linda had an English saddle made for her.  More time had gone by and the Parelli world produced saddles.  I ordered one of the original Natural Performer saddles.  This was a Western saddle.  In my horse life, I was now riding Sue.  Sue was a horse that had been ruined by people and she was slowly starting to return to saneness.  I got my new saddle and rode Sue.  Oh wow!  The Natural Performer was really an English saddle in disguise as a Western saddle.  I felt like is was high and dry on Sue’s back.  It was a very uncomfortable experience.  I don’t really understand how something that looks like a Western saddle rides like an English saddle.  I tried hard with that saddle.  I rode it and was nearly always just slightly nervous in it.  A Western saddle is supposed to be like sitting inside the horse’s back and cuddle you against all sideways motion.  This saddle felt like I was high above my horse and had no support from the seat or fenders to keep from slipping sideways out of the saddle.

I crawled back to Freddy Fender in Harrionsville and met Rhonda Martin.  She had recently moved to Harrisonville and was highly versed in saddle fit.  It was Rhonda that started me out on the Circle Y Flex Lite saddle.  Oh I loved that saddle.  It was light weight.  It fit me.  It acted like a Western saddle.  I came back a few years later and bought a used Circle Y Flex Lite that had a suede seat.  I rode the heck out of that saddle.  Some years later a person at the boarding stable was getting out of horses and he had a pecan colored Cirle Y Flex Lite saddle.  I bought that saddle from him.  I continued to ride in the suede seat saddle.  And that is when my earlier story of the broken tree occurred.

I have no saddle answers.  I wrote this article to describe how difficult saddles can be and some things to think about.  Saddle pads have come a long way.  I have a CSI saddle pad and you get what you pay for…protection for the horse.  I have shims now which need to be used if a horse’s back needs support.  I rely on Rhonda Martin, expert saddle fitter.  When it comes time for me to really think about getting another saddle, I’ll ask Rhonda for advice.  I don’t trust saddle makers.  They go on and on about saddle twist and rock, but there are few companies in existence that make the trees. Saddle makers don’t talk about a downhill horse.  They talk about twist, rock and width of the tree.

I could easily make a Sharon Saare saddle work now with my CSI pad and shims.  Oh the journey to saddle knowledge is huge.  Parelli has now spent years and years of testing saddles and developed many more styles. Checkout Parelli Saddles. They now have a barrel saddle that really makes the rider secure.  Pat Parelli rides in a saddle invented by Craig Johnson.  It has a tree made out of some kind of thick movable rubber life material.

 I have long been impressed by the Steele saddle tree.  Many saddle makers use Steele trees. I just found the Steele tree site and think this is the best explanation possible.  Similar to the Sharon Saare saddle, there are nine different trees and a way to find out if the tree fits your horse.

Buyer Beware.

One in Six Saddles Might Have Broken Trees – AKA Death of a Saddle

Circle Y Flex Lite saddle hiding a cracked tree

Circle Y Flex Tree crack

Circly Y Flex Lite saddle hiding a cracked tree

Have you saddle checked for things like cracked tree

Circle Y Flex Lite cracked tree

Cracked saddle tree on both sides

Cracked Ralide Flex Lite Circle Y Saddle

Cracked Tree

I love Circle Y Flex tree saddles so much that I have three of them. A couple years ago I managed to let go of the ones I don’t use to get them checked and cleaned. However. I couldn’t let the one that I use daily leave to get cleaned and checked. I had bought this saddle a long long time ago and it was checked out before I bought it.

This summer was a horrid hot and humid one. I stopped riding plus I was going on a week long trip. I decided to let Donna of Yellow Boot Saddlery take my beloved saddle, along with a few broken and filthy bridles to be checked, cleaned and oiled.

The unthinkable happened. Donna called me and I was somewhere in the middle of Kansas on my way to Colorado.
“Susan, I hate to give you this news. Your saddle tree is cracked. It is cracked on both sides.”

My world spun to a stop. My beloved saddle was dead. MY BELOVED SADDLE IS DEAD! Donna managed to get a few more sentences in. She mentioned that they had seen a lot more cracked trees than they ever thought. She said many people are riding on saddles with cracked trees. My brain registered these words, but i heard the unsaid words, your saddle is dead. I was gruff with Donna. I think I was mean. She had called and gave me horrible news. Poor Donna was the bearer of bad news. Forgive me Donna. I have apologized since and Donna understands.

I came home from my week of wonderful travel and it was time to visit Yellow Boot Saddelry. Donna showed me my dead beloved saddle. I saw the cracks. Donna told me that the flex lite tree is not the best tree In the tree world for a daily, hard riding rider. My riding is all speeds with slide stops, roll backs. turns, spins, etc.. If I were an easy going recreational rider, the tree wouldn’t be so stressed. I had certainly never thought of myself as a “hard rider”.

More bad news was coming. My favorite “on the rail dressy bridle was made out of underbelly leather. My bridle had started stretching. It was too long in Cisco’s mouth and it was the smallest it could go. This spring I was astride Cisco at a horse show with my class coming up next when the bit fell out of Cisco’s mouth. That was exciting. Donna told me the sides of my bridle were made out of the cheapest worst leather part of the cow. It should be against the law to make a bridle out of this cheap leather. What! I have been “taken”! Buying a new bridle is cheaper than fixing this one. Sniffle

I brought my other two Circle Y Flex Lite saddles for Donna to check. They had been cleaned and checked 3 years ago. Both trees passed inspection, but I got to see again how cheaply it was made. My favorite of the two had a piece of leather and when Donna tugged on it, the stitching broke. The stitching material is cheap. Donna kept the saddle and sent me pictures a couple days later showing screws in the wrong place. The screws were ready to come lose and come thru the place where I sit. They were already loose and the saddle seat had bumps where they were about to erupt into my tender places. Good Lordy! Donna said this was an after market deal. Where did these misplaced screws come from. I bought this saddle used also.

Yellow Boot Sadlery just got started this year. Donna told me that they have found one in six saddles have broken or cracked trees. Those are bad odds. I’m keeping my broken saddle in my trailer and will show everyone what a broken tree looks like.

Test Results of Shoulder Relief Girth – Failure. NO! Rips The Horse

I have done everything possible to get a saddle to fit my horse. I use a Circle Y Flex Lite saddle. I use both girth rings of the saddle to try to keep the saddle from creeping forward on the horse. I use a very expensive saddle pad, because you get what you pay for in saddle pads. I use a CSI saddle pad. If a pressure point exists, the CSI pad prevents the pressure from hurting the horse. I use a shim to even out the hollow spot behind the shoulders. But, I have long been irritated at my girth. The saddle never stays back where I want it. The girth always ends up pushing against my horse’s front legs. What must that feel like in the hours and hours I ride my horse?

Facebook horse people have recently been regaled by yet another magic invention that will prevent the saddle forward creep and make our horse comfortable and happy. I think one sentence mentioned the prevention of the girth rubbing the elbows of the horse. I had no idea where the elbows of the horse are, so that went sailing over my head.

I have been to saddle fit clinics. I have been to saddle fit seminars. I have sat through many saddle fit demonstrations by saddle makers. I have been through the horrors of learning how to shim a horse from making my own horrid shims to now owning a workable pair of shims. I have watched the scapula move on a horse. I’ve marked where my horse’s scapula is at rest and how far back it goes when the horse moves at a walk. I have a local wonderful saddle fit expert come and look at my saddle and how it fits when ever I get a new horse. Saddle fit is “Master Class”.

I was intrigued at the Facebook ad and it was the first of the month when I think I have money. I looked at the web site and pondered. I had not bought anything silly for an entire month. I ordered the intriguing girth. That is what us horse people do. We want the magic to happen and our horse to be happy.

Read on:

Shoulder Relief Girth
Below is the girth newly installed on the saddle

New shape for a cinch.

The girth arrived and scary in how different it is when you actually hold the girth in real life. It has a big curve. I guessed the point of the curve would be in the rear and point at the rear legs. Luckily, I looked at the explanation of the girth before installing it on the saddle. WhooWEE! The curve goes to the front of the horse! I would have “installed it” incorrectly!

Still the girth is a scary thing with that big curve. I wanted my horse to move a lot before I rode. Perhaps the horse would think the girth was weird and do a little bucking to express that feeling! I took a lot of care to move my horse around at a walk and then a trot. That went well, so I asked him to canter both directions. Nothing happened to show any discomfort with this weird shaped girth. Whew!

You can barly see the difference between a normal girth and this girth from this angle.

The brand name side of the girth. We have now done our extensive ground work and neither the saddle nor the cinch have moved forward. What! That never happens!

I decided it was safe for me to ride. I rode for almost an hour. We did all our gaits. We walked, flat foot walked, fox trotted, and cantered. I didn’t try to do any flying lead changes, but we did try to do drop to a trot lead changes. We did hindquarters and forequarter turns. We did leg yields at a walk and flat foot walk. We backed through the trail obstacle “L”. We curved through a line of barrels at a walk. We moved every part of my horse’s body.

I dismounted and immediatey took this picture of the underside of my horse. I’ve never seen the underside of my horse before. This is a moment for me, to see the damage caused by regular girths. There are no sores, blood or anything like that, but it is probably going to keep me awake tonight. I have PTSD Saddle Fit disease.

From the underside of the horse

This is camera selfie mode, not me laying underneath the horse. You can see how the girth lays on the horse’s belly. You can see the dried skin on the horse’s legs. That is where all my old girths ended up…rubbing the legs when the horse moves. My normal girth ends up next to the front legs…touching the front legs when he stands and rubs when the horse moves at any gait. If you look closely at the spot where the leg meets the belly, you can see an indentation and above that, a lump. This is where my normal girth pressed against his leg and made a lump. The girth, every girth I have ever used on any of my horse’s always pressed against the front legs at all times after moving around for a short time. Where does your girth end up after you ride? Put your phone on selfie mode, bend down and hold the phone between the legs. Take the picture. With this amazing girth there will no longer be any rubbing. It stays back where it was originally placed. Boy Howdy!

After Riding

Sweat Marks the Spot

Sweat never lies in saddle fit

And the true story is told after the saddle is off. The girth stayed back. Which means the saddle stayed back off the shoulder and allow more freedom of motion which is a very good deal for horse and human.

Updating the test to highly recommend that you get the fleece cover with the neoprene girth. My horse got sores on both leg where it rubbed against the stiff leather piece that is stitched on top of the neoprene.  The placement of the leather piece is too close to the side of the girth.  The leather made the sores.  There is no other girth in the Western world that has a leather piece on top of the felt girth.  The leather piece also mades this girth highly expensive.  I wonder why we need the leather.

I ordered the fleece cover.  I put the new girth with the cool fleece cover on my saddle and the saddle on the horse.  The girth seems to stretch a bit.  I did order a shorter girth when I sent back the girth that had soared my horse.  I run my horse around quite a bit and tighten the girth at intervals before I ever mount.  The rule is that my horse has to either canter or jump something so that the saddle will be in place and the girth securely tightened.  That was done.  My horse cantered and other things as I gradually tightened the girth.  I got on a mounting block, put my foot in the stirrup and started to swing my leg over the back.  But the saddle had other ideas.  The fleece material was too slick and my saddle turned sideways while I was mounting.  I fell on the mounting block.

I am done with the Shoulder Relief girth.

Susan Engle is in her second childhood as seasoned horsewoman following the great journey of developing Missouri Fox Trotters using natural horsemanship. She started at age 48 and is now staring in “the 70’s”. You can read her dramatic, humorous and pathetic stories from Kersplat to Bridleless in a book called Susan Fox Trotter. Susan Fox Trotter book

There is a chapter in the book on how Susan thought money could solve saddle fit. HA! Sadly, money will not resolve saddle fit, only a learning journey and prayerfully , saddle fit experts. Saddle fit and girth fit go hand in hand. Susan still has a lot of rage about saddle fit and what the saddle makers fail to mention…downhill horses. Read the book and feel the saddle fit rage!

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