The Right Saddle for Your Horse

     Horses and saddles both come in all shapes and sizes and it is pretty much up to you to put the two together so they fit.  A poorly fitting saddle will hurt your horse and cause all kinds of trouble, so it is really important to find the right one.  Here are a few tips that I hope will help: 

     First, put the saddle on the horse without a pad and don’t attach the girth.  Then just slide your hand all over the horse’s back under the saddle.  If any part of the saddle pushes down hard on your hand then it will also push down hard on your horse’s back and hurt him.  Get another saddle or try to figure out what the problem is with the one you have.

     Next attach the girth and look at the gullet.  There should be enough space to slide two or three fingers between it and the horse’s withers.  Then go around back and look at your horse’s backbone all the way up under the saddle.  Its spine should not touch the saddle bars anywhere.  Then sit in the saddle and have someone else look to make sure that the horse’s spine still does not touch anything.

     Then check to see if your saddle is the right shape for your horse’s back.  Make sure the girth is secure and then use one hand on the cantle and one on the pommel to rock the saddle back and forth.  If it rocks like a rocking chair then it means that it was made for a horse that is more swaybacked than yours.  If it doesn’t move at all and all the weight seems to be resting on each end then it means that it is too straight for your horse’s back.      

     If you are shopping for a saddle or just want more help fitting the right saddle to your horse then visit the Saddle Shop online.  They have a series of templates which you can download from their website and then transfer to cardboard cutouts.  You can take these cutouts and compare them to the shape of your horse’s back.  This will tell you the width of the gullet and the slope of the bars in the saddle that your horse needs.  They also have an interesting website and lots of fine saddles for sale, so if you get a chance just click here to check it out.