Recorded: November 2021

ONLINE LECTURE CONTENT

The purpose of this webinar series is to teach equine veterinarians how to recognise poorly and well-fitting English-style saddles and to illustrate how saddle fit can affect a horse’s behaviour, gait and soundness.

The anatomy of a English-style saddle with all its components will be discussed and how different types of trees, panels and girths and materials affect saddles and their fit in horses with variable back conformations, muscling, body conditions and possible asymmetries.

There is far more to a correctly fitting English-style saddle than having a ‘3-finger clearance’ at the front of the saddle. The wrong type or shape of tree, panel or girthing and/or an incorrect saddle balance can lead to discomfort, bad behaviour or even lameness. This can be further compounded by the rider through an unbalanced saddle, or simply due to limited rider ability…

A myriad of English-style saddles shapes will be shown, and how these can affect individual horses positively or negatively, depending on their individual conformations.

Whilst not trying to turn equine veterinarians into saddle fitters, this series will highlight how much a qualified saddle fitter needs to take into consideration when fitting a saddle and how certain problems encounter by vets could well be saddle related.

Kay Hastilow has included some links to eye-opening, validated research carried out by Centaur Biomechanics (Warwickshire, UK) on various aspects of saddlery, rider influence and horse movement.

Module 1

The first series of lectures illustrate how to take into consideration a horse’s conformation, its shoulders, back and girth region and to assess these areas for discomfort, injury or asymmetry. A gait assessment will furthermore reveal any gait abnormalities that could influence the saddle fit, or possibly indicate an underlying medical problem requiring veterinary attention prior to the fitting of a saddle.

This will be followed by a review of the different English-style saddle components and materials, the difference in shapes of trees and panels and how these, combined with girth strap positioning, influence the saddle fit.

Assessment of an English-style saddle for ‘soundness’ and straightness will wrap up this module. Broken trees are surprisingly common, and many saddles are not straight through the tree or panels. Either of these factors can severely affect a horse’s performance and even lead to lameness under saddle, which might be in stark contrast to the horse’s gait in hand or on the lunge.

Module 2

This module will start with how to recognise a good fit of English-style saddles in a horse. Keeping in mind the anatomy of a saddle tree (Module 1), the taught method will allow you to assess if an English-style saddle is well-fitting or if it is at risk of interfering with the horse’s movement.

The next section will focus on taking templates and measurements to illustrate how the horse’s withers/back conformation, muscling, body condition and possible asymmetries should be interpreted and factored into an English-style saddle’s fit.

The following lecture on rider influence will show how a rider’s bodyweight and/or asymmetric weight distribution due to lack of riding skills can adversely affect a horse’s performance.

The final lecture on ‘trouble shooting’ will highlight some of the problems that are encountered when fitting an English-style saddle and will offer solutions on how to best address them.