Getting Help from a Professional Saddle-Fitting Consultant 

Asking for help was the best thing I ever did!

Auggie started to become sensitive to the pressure of the saddle.
We needed to correct that quickly!

        The longtime Equine dentist in our area, Mark, arrived at the farm that Friday morning to work on several horses that were due to be floated. I could not leave work that particular day, so Amy was in charge of bringing Auggie to the wash stalls for the procedure when it was his turn to be examined. I figured with the sedation there shouldn't be any trouble getting him to safely cooperate with Mark for the fifteen minutes or so that it takes to file down the teeth.

    Amy texted me later that day to say that Auggie hadn't cooperated with Mark and that he needed a dose of Dorm gel ( Dormosedan ) in order to get the exam completed. Once Auggie was fully sedated, Mark examined his mouth and determined that he did NOT need any dental work done at the time; his teeth were in great condition, and they could be checked again later. It seemed that the horse just didn't care for people messing with his mouth, but there was no physical reason for it. I was very surprised by this news, since his teeth hadn't been done since Omega picked him up the previous November. 

    With the dental work out of the way, the next order of business was checking for saddle fit with someone who knew what they were doing. I waited for the vet to visit the farm to check my saddle, but somehow that never got added to the schedule with the routine vaccinations on the farm. Slightly irritated, I began to shuffle through my list of old contacts in an attempt to re-connect some horse people that might know someone who could help.

     I ended up mentioning the dilemma to my mother. To my surprise, she was supportive and helpful; perhaps seeing that she was in the minority in her opinion of Auggie, she offered me the number of an old horse acquaintance from years ago. She rummaged through the clutter on her desk to produce a business card from a lady named Holly that we used to ride with back in my younger years. Holly had become certified in multiple areas of horse therapy, including Magna Wave treatments (Magnawavetherapy), as well as saddle fitting. This was definitely the answer I was looking for. I decided to give her a call immediately.

    After talking to Holly on the phone, we decided to make an appointment for the upcoming week to properly assess Auggie's predicament. She would meet me at the farm after work to look him over, inspect my current saddle and then check the fit of the saddle when applied to his back. I had never needed this sort of service before, but then again, Auggie was unlike any horse I had ever had before. As I researched fitting technique on the internet, I began to wonder why I had never done this with any of my other horses. It seemed worth the money to avoid potential problems down the road. 

    When Holly arrived at the farm the following Friday, she came prepared with a saddle tree and alternate saddles to try on Auggie's back. Initially, she took some time to just observe Auggie from all sides as I held him by a lead rope in front of the barn. She felt his withers, sides, shoulders and down his back to get an idea of his topography. As she passed her hand over him, she found a spot just before his kidney area that seemed to be sore when she pressed on it.

    "Aha! He's telling me that spot might be a bit of a problem," she said as Auggie flinched away from the pressure applied to his back. 

    "Let's take him into the wash stalls where we can have him stand up on level ground so I can get a better look at his back."

    I put Auggie in the first wash stall where I had left my saddle for the appointment. Once he was clipped into the cross ties, Holly entered with the saddle tree and a dressage saddle to try on his back. She stood on a milk crate and looked over his back to get a better view of each side in its entirety. I was surprised that Auggie managed to stand quietly and patiently this time, although he seemed a bit suspicious of Holly at first.

    She placed the saddle tree on his back to demonstrate the points of contact and then switched it out with my saddle, allowing it slide back into place against his back. She felt underneath it for uneven points and checked the length, explaining that the saddle should sit evenly on both sides and fall between the eighth and eighteenth thoracic vertebrae, while being level in the seat area.

    By feeling for Auggie's scapula, or shoulder blade, she could then measure about two fingers back and place the saddle at that point and count to the last rib, which corresponds with the 18th vertebrae; the saddle should fit in between these two points and not exceed them. She felt along each side of the saddle, minus the saddle pad, checking the width of the gullet and the balance of the seat. The gullet should not be too wide or too narrow; as there should be enough room for approximately three finger widths between the point of the eighth thoracic vertebrae and the pommel. 

    After a lot of manipulation, Holly concluded that my saddle wasn't quite as poorly fitted as I had thought, rather Auggie's back was still uneven in certain spots from his previous lifestyle as a harness horse. His right side was bulged out around the withers and shoulder, while his left side was hollow and didn't make proper contact with the saddle. This explained some of his distrust of the mounting block, as the saddle would most likely pinch his right side as I stepped into the stirrups from the left side. 

    I felt a sense of relief knowing that I would not have to run out and purchase a new saddle just yet, but there was a solution for this predicament. Holly pulled out a correction pad, or a half pad with pockets in both sides, and showed me how to add foam or cloth shims to even out the fit of the saddle. It was going to be a monthly process, she explained, because Auggie's body was going to go through a lot of changes as he developed new muscle and gained weight. It didn't make sense to invest in a brand-new saddle while he was developing at such a rate, but in the meant time, we could make the old one work for now.

    At the conclusion of the appointment, Holly instructed me to order a correction pad and place a shim in the right-side pocket underneath my saddle. She recommended purchasing one online from Smartpak or Dover saddlery as soon as possible. Once I had a correction pad, she would come back out and watch Auggie in motion without the saddle and then with the saddle to make the proper adjustments. Needless to say, I was very hopeful that this could solve at least some of the issues I was having and provide Auggie with some relief for his back. 

    I ordered a correction pad that evening from Equine Comfort products on Amazon and had it shipped immediately to my house. The sooner I could this issue sorted out, the better I figured, and the $60 I spent on the pad was nothing compared to the price of buying a new saddle of damaging the back of my new horse. I still had a lot of work to do, but having a professional assist me was well worth it. 

Here are some helpful links:

Equine comfort products

  

English saddle fitting

 Saddle fitting quick reference