Kay Hastilow Master Saddler: January 2021

Friday 29 January 2021

Busting Myths 9 – “The saddle fitter should be prepared to come and measure my horse so that I can buy a saddle cheaper on line”

There are many myths that have been going around with regards to saddlery and the use thereof. In this series of posts, I endeavour to show most of them are without foundations and can, in some cases, be the opposite of the actual facts.

Pictured left is author Kay Hastilow, Master Saddler and Master Saddle Fitter.

I was recently made aware of yet another saddle fitter receiving abuse for refusing to come out and measure a horse so that the client could buy a saddle on line at a cheaper price. “I’m prepared to pay you for the visit. You just want to have the profit for yourself.” Is a phrase often heard.

NOT TRUE!

Yes, of course we want to sell saddles – that is a big part of our business after all, but it really isn’t why we refuse this service. The client will either want templates to send off to someone to ‘make a bespoke saddle’ or they will expect us to say ‘you need a medium fit’ or in some cases expect us to specify the make of saddle that will fit. If only that was all there is to it.

I learned my lesson many years ago. In those days I always gave the client a copy of the templates that I had taken and in this case said client used these to order a saddle on line ‘bespoke for your horse’. It was a horse with a high wither but when the saddle came it didn’t have a suitable panel. It was actually quite skimpy so totally unsuitable. I was told in no uncertain terms that the fact that the saddle came down onto the horse’s withers and tipped back badly was my fault as I obviously hadn’t measured the horse correctly! I was then told to make it fit. No chance! As I was told once when asking directions to somewhere “well, if I was going there I wouldn’t be starting from here!”

When your Society of Master Saddlers (SMS) qualified saddle fitter comes to assess your horse for a saddle they will look firstly at his conformation, then muscle development, asymmetry of the body and at his movement. They will also look at you, as it is just as important that the saddle is a good fit for you as for your horse – an uncomfortable rider will be constantly moving about trying to find somewhere to sit and this really unbalances the horse. He won’t work well for you in this situation.

All of this is so that the saddle fitter will know what type of tree the horse needs, both in width and shape at the head and the shape of the rest of the tree, the cut and depth of the panel, position of girth straps, size and shape of flap and seat for you and many other factors that you probably never thought of or knew about. This is before they have even taken a saddle out of the van, let alone tried one on the horse.

It is because all of these factors are important in achieving a good fit that we won’t help with these requests. For sure, the minute there is a problem with the saddle that the client ordered, they will be on the phone to the person who measured the horse, and they will be told that they are to blame, they are responsible! But who is responsible? Who would you turn to? Do you now understand why we won’t offer this service?

It’s the same if you ask what saddle to buy. We really can’t tell what saddle will fit unless we’ve done a full fitting and even if you have done this, it doesn’t mean that the saddle that you order elsewhere will be the same. Many fitters have a supposedly standard saddle made with slight differences that they find helpful. Also, most saddles are still bench made to some degree and all will fit slightly differently. We cannot take responsibility for that.

Also consider who is going to service the saddle? Give it the first check and lift? Come to that, check that its right in the first place? Not the fitter that you were rude to for sure, as I doubt that they will want to know. Good saddle fitters regularly have a long waiting list for visits so understand if they prioritise existing clients over you.

Yes, a saddle fitted by an SMS qualified fitter might be a little dearer than one bought on line, but you have the comfort of knowing that a) the fitter has spent a minimum of three years and a lot of hard work to achieve their qualification, b) that they will come and check and adjust the saddle once it has settled, c) that they are looking to care for the fit of the saddle in the long term, d) that to be a RQSF with the Society you must hold insurance, not always the case with other fitters out there and e), provided they are registered as well as qualified with the SMS (always check this – all registered qualified fitters are on the SMS website) the Society will be there to try and sort any problems in the unlikely event that there should be any.

Worth the little bit extra I would have thought.

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Thursday 21 January 2021

Busting Myths 8 - "Bald patches have appeared under the back of my horse's saddle. It can't be fitting properly"

Pictured left is author Kay Hastilow, Master Saddler and Master Saddle Fitter.

As saddle fitters we will be expecting this call as soon as new year is past. As regular as clockwork the phone will start to ring between now and the start of March with this problem. Now there are a multitude of reasons why your horse might develop rub marks under the saddle but here I am only talking about even rub marks (uneven rubs should be seen as a red flag) that appear in or just after the new year having had no problem with this or the saddle until now. If you find that your horse’s back is getting rubs at any other time of the year it must be investigated immediately as there are some causes that will need rapid intervention. However, post new year rubs are usually not a long- term problem.

Of course, you are right to get the saddle checked and in years past it was probable that your horse had lost a bit of condition, the saddle would be a bit low at the front and have a bit too much movement at the back and that would cause it to rub, but nowadays horses don’t seem to lose any weight – the opposite often being the case. Horses have fantastic rugs, so they are never cold or wet and there is a much better understanding of nutrition and that, along with haylage and good quality feed means that many now go out a width fitting rather than in during the winter period.

Anyone who has and ‘does’ their own horses will know that from the start of October until Christmas you will be constantly clipping your horse and it seems that you have no sooner removed all of the hair from your person that you are having to start again. For hunters or horses in heavy work this may well mean that you clip four or five times in three months!

Have you ever noticed that after Christmas this stops? The only hair to clip is a few ‘goose’ hairs here and there but the coat doesn’t seem to be growing any more. Also, the coat tends to go a bit dull, even if he is groomed regularly. It is my belief that this is exactly what is happening. The coat seems to stop growing and won’t grow again to any extent until the end of February when the summer coat starts to come through.

A horse is a mobile animal with sway and swing to his movement. A saddle is a fixed item. It doesn’t bend with the horse and because of this the back of the saddle always moves across the back when the horse is being ridden. If you ‘locked’ the back of the saddle down so that it couldn’t move your horse would find it impossible to work. This saddle movement is expected and correct. Usually, the growth of the coat keeps up with any hair loss, so you don’t notice it, but once the coat stops growing……

I first became aware of this when I was learning my trade. A saddle came in to have the flocking altered as ‘it was rubbing the horses back.’ (no saddle fitting in the ‘60s!) My boss put it on a rack and left it. The client would ring, he would say I’ll do it next week’ and finally gave it back at the end of February. She rang to thank him as ‘this has solved the problem.’ He hadn’t touched it! Lesson learned.

So, what to do if this happens. Don’t panic! Check to see if your saddle is sitting a little low at the front / is looser at the back than it was, and to see if your horse might have lost a bit of weight. (I hope that you all measure your horse’s girth every week, so that you know). If it is I wouldn’t rush to get the saddle lifted by adding flock as the horse will soon put weight back on with the spring grass. Rather, use a half pad of some sort. A Prolite ‘pressure relief’, no need for shims in most cases, a sheepskin half pad so long as it has a free centre seam and using a cotton cloth between that and the horse, something like that. I have used a folded Fybagee leg pad under the front of the saddle in the past between saddle and saddle cloth. It did the job well.

Understand that rubs may appear at this time of year – we often see them where the reins have rubbed the neck or the rug has rubbed the shoulders as well, so it’s not just saddles that cause this.

If the saddle is fitting well, then you have options. Some people swear that when clipping you should always leave the saddle patch on. Others that it is better to take it off so that you can keep his back really clean. I have seen rubs in both circumstances, so I leave that decision up to you.

I hear that a top groom will put a little coconut oil or ShowSheen on the immediate area when they first see the hair turning which, they believe helps the saddle to slide across the back smoothly but please note two words in that sentence – ‘little’ and ‘slide’. An excess of one may well lead to an excess of the other, and you don’t want to have the saddle slide right around the horse’s belly.

Many turn to using sheepskin directly against the horses back but it has been noticed that this seems to make matters worse in many instances as the wool seems to catch and scrub the hair. Someone whose opinion I respect suggests using the saddle directly onto the horses back. (Leather panels only.) This allows the saddle to move smoothly over the horse’s back and is less likely to cause friction. A word of caution here though. If your horse isn’t used to being ridden without a cloth or pad, girth up slowly and carefully and allow the saddle to warm up. Let him walk around with the saddle on for a while before getting on or the reaction might be interesting and really not what you want at all.

Allowing sweat to dry on his back and not brushing it out will make the situation worse, as will dirty, sweaty saddle cloths. Also rugging up too quickly while the horse is still hot from work isn’t good as hot, damp skin in the saddle area can lead to all sorts of dermatological problems. The one thing that you must look out for is whether the bald patches are pink and sore. If this is the case stop riding. You must, or the problem will get progressively worse. I have found that a salt water solution or surgical spirit applied to this area would harden the skin up a bit, and if you know that your horse is prone to this problem perhaps start this application just after Christmas. Whatever you do, please, unless it is an open wound don’t put creams or salves on it, nor something to encourage hair growth as these will soften the skin. Really not what we want. Comfort yourself with the knowledge that usually the horses that really get rubbed here are the ones with a big, swinging stride. Everything has its price!

Thursday 14 January 2021

Busting Myths 7 - Measuring D to D To Find Width Fitting

Pictured left is author Kay Hastilow, Master Saddler and Master Saddle Fitter.

For saddlers this is possibly the most annoying myth out there as such a measurement is totally without any meaning. Saddle Ds are not put in one specific place on all saddles – so much depends on the length of the tree points, the position of the side rails and stirrup bars and the cut of the flaps and throat. (That rounded bit at the front of the pommel.) In a tree with short points and side rails set on a bit higher, the stirrup bars will be put on higher than on a tree with lower side rails. (Ever wondered why, when you swap your stirrups onto another saddle they feel too long or too short? This is your answer.) Add to this the fact that in most bench made saddles the Ds are positioned by eye and you can see that this is a totally unreliable measurement.

With some mass-produced machine / laser cut saddles the position will be pre marked and more reliable, but this will only be for that one model of saddle. Take for instance the Kent and Masters dressage against their cob saddle. Totally different trees, totally different positioning of the Ds.

There is also the consideration of what you count as Ds for this purpose, as many saddles have two sets at the front – the top ones are called drop fall staples (there are some different ones, but these are the most common) and below these you will sometimes see another set of Ds attached between the flap and the panel, and these are stapled onto the tree with a staple gun. They are there for you to hang a flask, a pair of wire cutters or anything else that you want to carry on your horse but NOT for fixing a breastplate to! The drop falls are on a bifurcated nail which goes right through the tree and opens out on the underside so that the bifurcations are between the tree and the panel. Very strong and suitable for breastplates. The others stapled to the tree are just not up to that job and will come off at the first strong pull.

If you measure from D to D it doesn’t give you a width (which are measured in angles) and nor is it likely to tell you if that saddle will fit your horse. It doesn’t take into consideration the shape of the head U (which has many variations in its shape), V or keyhole. It is essential that the tree shape here is correct for your horse. Nor does it consider the length of the tree points, nor the shape and depth of the panel. All of these will have a huge influence on how that saddle fits your horse.

Some saddles will have the size marked on them, either stamped onto the sweat flap or marked on the stirrup bars, but please bear in mind that this is the size of the saddle when manufactured and it may well have been altered since then, so not a great deal of help. I know that riders would love to have an easy way to work out if a saddle that is for sale somewhere might fit their horse – sorry, but I cannot suggest anything for this. However please be aware that a properly trained saddle fitter not tied to any particular brand (Society of Master Saddlers Qualified or Master Saddle Fitter is the best qualification in my opinion) will have spent a minimum of three years training to take their assessment and will have far more understanding of what is involved, yet even they, with their years of experience, would struggle to tell if a saddle might fit from a D to D measurement!

Watch a brief trailer and buy securely online for unlimited streaming or downloading to your device at
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/saddlefittingknowhow