Saddle size and placement

From: Peggy

I hope this doesn't sound too amateurish, but how do you fit a saddle to your horse. I ride western, but am interested in trying close contact or endurance type saddles, too. I recently bought a quarter horse gelding that is built differently than any horse I've ever had before. He's long and tall and lean. Most of the ones I've had are 14.2 - 15.2 and broad with fairly short and well muscled withers, and a broad rather short neck. This guy's 16.2 and has a long graceful neck and really pronounced long-boned withers. I've never had any formal riding lessons, but was taught that the saddle is supposed to ride in the center of the withers, that is the saddle horn should be placed at the peak of the withers. But when I look at the English saddles in the pictures they appear to ride down in the valley or slope behind the withers. This horse's back slopes down behind his tall long bony wither and the saddle rests nicely in the valley of the slope.

(western saddle - rather small, light "women's saddle") If I try to pull it up on his withers it won't lie flat. I haven't tried a bigger saddle because I don't have one, but could borrow one to try if that's the problem.

Should I try one that is longer. I'm worried that I'm putting heavy ressure on the wrong part of his back, and don't want to injure him. I haven't ridden him much, but want to build him up for long rides. Just want to do it slowly and correctly to build strength and endurance in him and not injure him in the process. If I do get a longer saddle, it will be a light weight endurance type for both of us, since I have a hard time lifting the big western saddles up high enough to saddle him! Please help! Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Signed, "Ignorant"

Hi Peggy! I would have signed that letter "Intelligent" if I were you, because you've been doing a lot of good thinking. You've found out something that the saddle manufacturers caught on to a few years back -- Quarter Horses have changed! There are four distinct types now, and each type takes a different saddle whether you're riding Western or English.

The heavy, bulldog-style muscular QH is still with us, and (unfortunately) so is the popular halter-style QH, which is flat-backed and high behind, and VERY hard to saddle. Then there's the games horse type QH -- generally lighter-built than the bulldog-type, but solid and compact and quick. And then there's the racing-type QH, which usually has a high proportion of TB blood, and is built taller, lighter, leaner, and with more pronounced withers than any of the other types.

Western saddlemakers have learned to work with all these types by varying saddletree width, bar placement, and rigging placement. English saddlemakers offer different trees and gullet sizes.

You've found exactly where your saddle belongs -- behind the withers, not on top of them. English saddle trees don't just lie along the ridges of muscle on either side of the spine; the points of the tree come down on either side in front. If the saddle is placed too far forward, or if the tree is too narrow, those points can dig into the horse's shoulder whenever he moves, and will quickly create a lame or short-stepping horse. Many people have saddles that WOULD fit their horses nicely IF they were positioned correctly -- and they can save themselves the cost of a new saddle (or a new horse!) by sliding those saddles off the horse's withers and back into place.

Your horse sounds like an appendix-registered QH that would be well-suited to English riding and English tack -- in TB sizes and width, NOT QH! But if you're thinking of endurance riding, or even long rides on the trail, I would advise against a close-contact saddle -- those are designed for jumping, and not meant to be sat in for any length of time. They are wonderful in the show ring, but on the trail, you need something that's designed for LONG rides, and that provides more comfort for you and the horse and distributes your weight better.

In English saddle terms, that would mean an all-purpose saddle, an eventing saddle, or a hunting saddle. My personal favorite for riders who are crossing over to English from Western is just about any Courbette saddle in the VSD model (all-purpose/tendency dressage) -- it's well-balanced, well-designed, distributes the rider's weight well, and Western riders feel very comfortable and at ease in this model from the first time they sit in it. And like all Courbettes, it's available in many tree widths and seat sizes. I know, this sounds like a commercial, but these are truly awesome saddles!

With an English saddle, remember that the deepest part of the saddle should be the center, not the pommel or the cantle.

If you put an English saddle on your horse's withers and stand back to look at it from the side, the lowest part will be the cantle. If you then slide the saddle back into place -- it will "find" its own place where the horse's back widens and flattens, a little behind the withers, and settle there -- you can stand back again, and THIS time, the lowest point will be the middle of the saddle. If the saddle is too far forward, you'll hurt your horse's shoulders because the saddle tree will dig into them, and you'll hurt the horse's back because you'll be sitting on the cantle... with the saddle pushed back into place, you and the horse will both be happier.

If endurance is your preferred discipline, you can certainly use an English saddle -- many endurance riders do. But whether you're using an English or Western-style, an Australian pattern, or a McClellan endurance saddle, here are some tips for saddle fit.

1) The saddle gullet (the channel from pommel to cantle) should be wide enough and high enough to allow airflow, and should NEVER touch the horse's spine. When you sit in the saddle, the gullet should still allow airflow and still not touch the horse's spine.

2) The saddle should clear the horse's withers -- not just barely clear them, but allow several INCHES of clearance. Some models -- the Sharon Saare for instance -- provide a LOT of wither clearance, and are especially good for rangy, TB-type horses with high withers.

3) The saddle should fit your horse EVENLY, not just here and there -- and the only way to determine this is to ride in the saddle, using a CLEAN saddle pad, and then look at the underside of the pad, and at the horse's back. If you see a clean space down the center of the pad, that's good -- the gullet doesn't touch the horse. If you see sweatmarks everywhere else, that's good -- the saddle fits evenly. If you find rubbed areas or dry areas, that's not good -- the dry areas mean that there was SO much pressure in those spots that the sweat glands in the horse's skin couldn't function! A longer ride would create sores in those spots. Another fit-testing method that some endurance riders use is to dust talcum powder evenly over the horse's back, then put the saddle on and take it off again. If the powder is everywhere, then the saddle fits evenly when no one is in it, and it will be worth trying. If the powder shows up on some places and not on others, it's probably not worth sitting in the saddle.

4) The saddle should not be too heavy -- but the weight of the saddle is NOT as important as the way the saddle transfers YOUR weight to the horse. The lightest saddle may not distribute your weight evenly or well, and the PSI (pounds per square inch) may be much greater with a smaller saddle than with a larger one. It's good to have as light a saddle as possible, but you can't get anywhere on a horse with a sore back. The Ortho-Flex saddles are particularly good for weight distribution.

5) The saddle rigging (if you choose a Western or McClellan-type saddle) should be a center-fire rigging or a 5/8 rigging. The 7/8 rigging that you're probably used to seeing in show Western saddles won't work for endurance riding -- the horse must have its elbows completely free, without a cinch too near them. If you choose an English saddle, be sure to position it correctly -- if it's in the right place, you'll have room to put your hand between the horse's elbow and the front edge of the girth.

6) The saddle must also fit YOU -- if it's too small, you'll be miserable, and if it's too big (less common), you may get badly chafed from moving around too much.

There are a lot of lovely saddles for endurance riding. The Sharon Saare is a nice model for high-withered horses; and it has adjustable rigging. Fallis saddles are beautifully made and balanced, and carry on the tradition of the Monte Foreman Balanced Ride saddles. The Ortho-Flex saddles, with their large, hinged panels, probably offer the LOWEST PSI of any saddle on the market today. But there are many other types and models to choose from. Try to borrow before you buy -- try your friends' saddles, and talk to them about why they selected them. It's a VERY good idea to try before you buy -- even if that means spending a month or more borrowing saddles from everyone you know and trying them out! Know what you want and what fits your horse BEFORE you order a new saddle. You don't want to order something, use it once, find out that it doesn't fit, and then be told that it can't be returned.

My best suggestion to you would be that you GO to an endurance or long-distance ride and talk to the riders, look at their horses and their saddles, and take notes. You'll learn a lot, and you'll find that endurance riders are a well-informed group, and that most of them will be very happy to share what they've learned with you.

Good luck! Keep in touch, let me know what you get and how everything works out for you.

- Jessica

Back to top.

Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE is a free, subscriber-supported electronic Q&A email newsletter which deals with all aspects of horses, their management, riding, and training. For more information, please visit www.horse-sense.org

Please visit Jessica Jahiel: Holistic Horsemanship® [www.jessicajahiel.com] for more information on Jessica Jahiel's clinics, video lessons, phone consultations, books, articles, columns, and expert witness and litigation consultant services.