Real-World Saddle Fit

I haven't posted for a few days due to a recent death in my family.
That said, I'll turn today's discussion over to "Disgruntled Horse Trainer" as this is her area of expertise.

People... people... please stop making flimsy "saddle fit" excuses for your horse (and yourself) every time things go less than smoothly.
It simply gets tiresome after awhile.

Not a day goes by without my hearing of yet another rider blaming her horse's poor behavior on everything in the book EXCEPT the actual cause.

The popular excuse du-jour seems to be "saddle fit", and quite frankly, it's pretty worn out at this point in time.

I'm not saying there aren't "hard to fit" horses, but if there truly are as many horses that are difficult to fit a saddle to as people claim, then saddle makers need to completely rethink saddle design... because obviously there is a need.
I jest of course.

Saddle fit isn't rocket science (regardless of what many choose to believe), and MOST horses with halfway decent conformation are easily fitted with a saddle that affords them comfort and freedom of movement.
In my experience, only horses with SERIOUS conformational flaws (such as sway-backed or roach-backed) require specialized saddle fitting.
Unless your horse is a conformational disaster, if you think your horse is hard to fit for a saddle, you're drinking your bath water.
Once again, the problem is YOU... not the saddle.

Chew on this:
I trained Thoroughbred racehorses for 22 years, using ONE saddle for the entire barn (usually about 25 horses).

Additionally, I rode races for 22 years (jockeys use their own saddles for racing)... and of the thousands of mounts I rode in competition, I only had to borrow a saddle from a friend a couple of times to accomodate a hard-to-fit horse.

Perhaps a poor example, because most Thoroughbreds are comparable in conformation (making a saddle more universal), but the fact remains that these were the elite athletes of the equine world, competing for large sums of money; and as fact, the livlihoods and families of everyone involved from grooms, to trainers, to jockeys, depended solely on their performances.

Now, wouldn't it be stupid to saddle a racehorse with ill-fitting tack when the food on your table depended on him being able to give his best performance during competition?  Sure it would.

When I semi-retired to training trail horses for hobbyists, I was shocked to discover that SADDLE FIT was being blamed for every imaginable issue by the majority of my clients... a flimsy excuse (and not applicable) in almost every case.

In training hundreds of pleasure and trail horses, I had just 3 saddles that I regularly used... one a full-bar barrel, one a semi-bar barrel, and the other was a wide tree dressage saddle.
Using just those 3 saddles, I was able to comfortably fit a wide variety of breeds and sizes (from drafts to ponies), rode them hundreds of miles, and solved their undersaddle issues.
Now, wouldn't it be stupid (since my livlihood depended on good results) to train these horses in ill-fitting tack?
Of course it would.

The last thing any trainer wants to do is cause chiropractic issues or return a horse to its owner with unresolved problems, yet every professional trainer I know uses only a few different saddles to accomodate hundreds of horses... what does that tell you about your own "hard-to-fit" unicorn?
Correct... the problem is a figment of your imagination... another Unicorn Dream... your horse in reality, is not "hard to fit".
Once again, you're grabbing at straws to explain away poor behavior without placing blame on either you or your horse.

Yep, saddle fit was almost never an issue in all those years, and with all those horses... yet you have 5 saddles in your tackroom because Dobbin is "difficult to fit"?
Poppycock.
Get off it people... get REAL... you are using the saddle-fit excuse to validate problems you're having with your horse when the saddle isn't at fault.  (Look in the mirror to discover the true root of the problems).

This isn't to say I didn't run across some legitimate saddle fitting issues over the years with the riding horses, but except for a very few cases where the horse's conformation was absolutely horrid, the animals were never the "special case" their owners thought they were.

Over time, I became aware that owners claiming saddle fit issues with horses of decent conformation were using the excuse for one of two reasons:

1]  They feared their horse, and if they couldn't find a saddle to "fit" him properly, it relieved them of having to ride the beast.
Afterall, consideration for his back and chiropractic health validates the excuse, right? ... of course it does.
The *hole* in this excuse is that the owner/rider is lying to herself.

2]  They somehow associated owning a "difficult to fit" horse as a warped form of status symbol.  Peruse any horse forum and you'll be treated to endless posts regarding the woes of saddle fit, accompanied many times by extensive photo studies of horses with saddles that fit just fine.
How something that's actually RARE has turned into the widespread, popular topic it has become is mindboggling.
So I guess I'm saying the second reason people are overly worried about saddle-fit is simply because "it's cool" these days.

I'm not sayin' that under the highest levels of performance a saddle with a slight *tweak* towards affording a wider range of motion or comfort won't have an effect... sure it will... especially at the upper levels of showing and eventing where even the slightest advantage makes a difference between winning and losing. 
BUT for the average trail rider moseying through the woods on a Saturday afternoon, such a high refinement in saddle fit is of almost no benefit, because the horse is never asked for a level of athleticism beyond that which any typical saddle can deliver while remaining comfortable for him.

From my experience, discomfort for the horse from "poor" saddle fit (and the accompanying unruly behavior) usually falls into the following catagory:
Overweight or Unbalanced Rider.

*** WARNING***  If your itty-bitty feelings are easily hurt, stop reading here, and continue buying saddles in a lame attempt to fix a non-existant problem.  If you can handle the truth, and are truly committed to having a realistic relationship with your horse, read on...

The #1 saddle fit issue that causes back pain for horses is NOT really saddle fit... it is OBESE or UNBALANCED riders on saddles that fit the horse just fine with a lighter or better balanced rider.
Riding isn't traditionally a hobby of unathletic people... look back at really old photos, and you'll rarely see unfit or grossly overweight people on horseback.
By contrast, as Americans have become an overweight society, being overweight has become not only acceptable, but has actually become *normalized*.

Am I against overweight people riding horses?
NO... but I do feel there are considerations (and in some cases sacrifices in preferred saddle style they should make) to avoid damaging their horses. 

How does this have anything to do with saddle fit?
I'll tell ya...
Do you know that a horse properly fitted with a suitable saddle is directly affected by the weight distribution of his rider?
Yes, a 130 pound rider causes little or no distortion of a saddle, while a 230 pound rider can actually slightly spread a saddle tree simply by taking a seat.
This applies to lightweight, synthetic Western saddles ... and even moreso to English saddles.

English is more of a problem with heavy riders than Western because of the difference in the support mechanism, they are much more likely to *bridge* or cause severe pressure points... especially if the rider is not only overweight but unbalanced as well.

Many of my overweight clients had no idea that their saddle fit issues were merely them not allowing for the "mash down" from their weight of the entire saddle towards their horse's spines, and the accompanying *pinch* at the shoulder, pressure just ahead of the loin, etc.

In other words, the horse was already properly "fitted" to his saddle, and was FINE with me on him (120 pounds)... but when the 200+ pound owner mounted, the entire "fit" of the saddle changed, causing discomfort to the horse.  

Face the Facts... Riding was originally something that slim, athletic people did, and if you're obese (I'm not talking about just a few pounds of extra flab here), you're going to have to make a few sacrifices on your end in favor of the comfort of your horse saddlewise.

I don't care if you used to be the Queen of Dressage Riders in your twenties, and have the photos of 98 pound you to prove it.
Now middle-aged and weighing in at 198 pounds, you're NOT that rider anymore... get real.

Your saddle needs have changed.
Regardless of your love for riding English, it's time to look at saddles that offer a more heavy-duty tree that covers a broader area on the horse than any English saddle can offer... same goes for lightweight or synthetic Western saddles.
This will eliminate tree spread and pressure points by distributing your weight more evenly and correctly.

This isn't to say you *must* ride Western... there are a variety of cross-over saddles that offer the support your horse needs to carry you comfortably... and are comfortable for you as well.
In short... as a rule, the heavier you are, the more substantial your saddle needs to be to retain it's integrity once you are seated.

I was able to convey this to some of my overweight clients, and overall, they were astounded to discover that a simple change to a saddle that accomodated their weight better made all the difference in the world to their horse's back... and ended their saddle fit woes.
Once they accepted the reality of the effect an overweight rider has on the saddle and horse's back, and switched to a saddle that was kinder to the horse in it's basic styling, their problems were solved... WITHOUT "custom-made" or gimmicky saddles.
The HORSE wasn't the root of the problem or difficult to fit in the first place...  the overweight RIDER was the problem.

Same applies to treeless saddles... they should NEVER be used by 200+ pound riders as they cause too much stress to a horse's back without a tree to properly distribute the load.

So there it is...
Saddle Fit isn't the complicated quest many people believe it to be... it's simply common-sense.