For this post Kay Hastilow welcomes Guest Blogger Rachael Argo, who like Kay, is a Master Saddler and Master Saddle Fitter. Originally from Scotland, Rachael now lives and works in Portugal.
This is an article I have been debating about writing for some time. After more than 20 years of saddle fitting, I have seen so many horses set up for failure by owners who have chosen the wrong route and ended up with chronically lame or injured horses.
These horses’ working lives have been cut short needlessly for various reasons, some of which include lack of knowledge, not having access to a team of professionals who are familiar with equine rehabilitation, not following good advice from knowledgeable professionals, wanting to ride at all costs, being in too much of a hurry and not ensuring the horse was ready and fit to ride, costs and sadly sometimes just not wanting the hassle of rehabilitating their horse.
I cannot count the number of times I have been called out to assess saddle fit on horses because they have problems. Perhaps the horse’s performance has diminished, he has behavioural issues, the rider is slipping to one side and so on.
In most cases there I have found that poor saddle fit has played a part in the overall issues. In most cases there are also other issues underlying, for example, pain, mental distress from pain, arthritis in joints, soft tissue injury, poor hoof balance, teeth problems, poor bridle fit and bitting, riding techniques that are detrimental to the horse, use of gadgets like draw reins, pessoas etc. The easy part to alter is the saddle and bridle fit and the bit. These can be changed quickly to more appropriate tack that halts the cycle of re-injury that occurs each time the horse wears the tack.
HOWEVER this is where it gets more challenging. Once the offending tack has been changed to more suitable tack the owner often believes that all is now good, the problem will now magically disappear and the horse can resume not just normal work but actually increase the work because that is what the owner wants.
WRONG. WRONG. I say this over and over.
I cannot emphasise enough just how false this idea is. I can, and have, repeated this statement hundreds of times and yet I still have clients that it is not getting through to.
It is common to find horses that have had poorly fitted tack for a year, two years, ten years. A horse cannot have poorly fitted tack for any length of time without sustaining chronic injury and a resulting alteration of his gaits ie he will adapt his movement to try and minimise the damage to his body. It is not a big jump for rational people to make the connection that this change in gait will affect the horse’s whole body, his muscles, tendons, ligaments, bones. To simplify this concept the horse now has excess wear and tear on his whole body, he is suffering from chronic long term pain and injury. So WHY is he immediately expected to get back to full work and be sound????
If an athlete had been running for a year in badly fitting shoes and had gradually lost their speed and endurance and started to have pain and injuries, you would not simply give them new shoes and expect them to immediately to go back to running and to perform at a higher level than before with only a couple of days off and one physiotherapy or osteopathy treatment. You would expect months of careful and slow rehabilitation to re-educate the body. The ‘wrong’ muscles would need to diminish and the right muscles would have to be slowly built up. All of the soft tissue would need time to adapt to a new way of moving and be allowed to develop to support the joints. All of that is assuming that a long time of moving unevenly or in a less than optimal way had not caused skeletal damage. If there was bone damage, then a whole different approach would need to be taken. In all cases a thorough medical assessment would have to be undertaken to see exactly what damage was apparent before a successful rehabilitation programme could be developed.
So why is it different for horses? Why is it a common belief that changing the saddle will fix all of the problems with just a session or two of complimentary therapy treatment? And when it does not solve the complex plethora of problems and the horse starts to lose performance or the saddle slips to one side the saddle fitter is summoned to ‘fix’ the saddle because it ‘doesn’t fit’. And when they ask the question ‘Did you get your vet to come and do a work up to check for pain and lameness?’ the answer is usually ‘no’.
My best guess as to why this happens is that owners cannot believe the horse could have profound and far reaching injuries because they are not on three legs or bucking riders off. The horse has learned to ‘cope’ with the chronic pain and injury because he has to and it is his nature as a prey animal. It is also that the rider can see the saddle and bridle. They are tangible objects and often changes in the horse come after a saddle fit therefore the saddle or bridle must be to blame.
Most times we already have the information that the horse has always thrown a saddle to one side or not picked up one canter lead or not been able to bend one way. The situation gets worse after the saddle is changed because the horse is being asked to change his entire way of going. He has to carry the rider in a different place, a different balance, and he is simply not equipped to do so at that moment. Because he is a horse and they are generally very accommodating animals, they will often try for their riders. In some cases the horse may feel better straight away because the saddle is no longer pinching so he may go a bit better initially. Often the owner will misread the situation and take this as a sign that they can increase the horse’s work. Over a short time the horse will start to break under the strain. The first sign for the rider is often the saddle starting to slip more to one side. It is not the first sign of issues but it is often the first one the rider notices. (Recent research from Centaur Biomechanics and from S Dyson and D Pollard - The Ridden Horse Pain Ethogram - has correlated saddle slip with hindlimb lameness) At this point the rider will do the 1+1 = 256. The saddle was changed, the horse is losing performance or saddle is slipping therefore the saddle fit is to blame.
How lovely it would be for all of us if a simple change of saddle could not only enhance the rider’s ability and make the horse feel better but it could miraculously undo all of the damage that has been done to the horse over the last year, five years etc. Sadly this is not true. The saddle fit is the first step to breaking the repeating cycle of damage. It is the first step on a long road of rehabilitating the horse. I always recommend that the horse be assessed by a vet and a qualified professional in whichever other modality the owner chooses to help the rehabilitation process.
Ideally the saddle should not go back on the horse until all of the rehab assessments and work are done. In some cases I will fit a saddle sooner than is ideal but with the caveat that the horse needs careful treatment and reintroduction to work. This is only in the case that I am a long way away from the client and know I cannot get back in the shorter term. In some cases I will refuse the saddle fit if the horse is obviously lame, thin, in pain etc. In other cases the horse does not appear to be too badly off and work is needed to help build up muscle and straighten the movement. When I hear the work has not only been resumed with no rehab involved, but has been increased and now the horse is really struggling, my heart sinks. In this case I will refuse to refit the saddle until the horse has been assessed and cleared for work by the vet. It will not make me popular but all equestrian professionals should be advocating for the horse and have a duty of care to tell the owner what the horse needs them to hear, not necessarily what the owner wants to hear. It is difficult for professionals to risk losing clients because they have to make money to live, but short term gain will be offset by long term loss if the horse becomes unfit to work.
So the next time your saddle slips or you are questioning why your horse is losing performance it is worth considering the bigger picture. Nothing happens in isolation and saddles can only go where the horse and rider put them. They cannot move on their own. Saddle fit issues can sometimes be the problem but more often they are an indicator of a much more complex problem. You need a team to get to the root cause and help formulate a plan to keep your horse healthy and sound.