Excellent series of videos on Saddle Fit - a must see!

[Festive_Felicitations]

Also in CR, but I know you don't all venture in there...

The videos may be old news to you all, but I just 'discovered' them today and thought I'd share as they are very informative and easy to understand and follow.

There are 9 videos in the series this is 1/9:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2mKz0uP_K8&feature=related

Just follow the links for the rest of the series.

 

[soloequestrian]

Sorry, I've watched the first few minutes and can't bear to watch any more. He points out damage to the back, but doesn't seem to notice the huge hollows just behind the horse's withers. He then starts to fit a saddle that sits right into those hollows, which will NOT help to improve them, and will probably continue the cycle of damage. He says the saddle is sitting behind the shoulder blade, but that is only on the horse as it stands still. As soon as it moves off, the shoulder blade will rotate backwards and be impeded by the points of the saddle. That's where I stopped. Poor horse.

 

[Festive_Felicitations]

I'm not defending the videos but, would like to point out that he starts by saying the horse has past 'damage' from poor fitting saddles, and if you watch the other vids goes on to talk about shoulder movement etc.

I thought they were very informative, but as a wiser HHO'er than me said 'the best judge of saddle fit is the horse'.

 

[scally]

'the best judge of saddle fit is the horse'.

Not sure the above saying is very true at all horses are stoic animals by their design Horses are able to hide their pain, to 'put up with it' or alter how they move to compensate for their discomfort. A horse has to be in considerable pain before they show even the slightest discomfort, therefore we can assume that the saddle fits as the horse is doing their job, going well, performance is good, until the pain/discomfort becomes to much to compensate then we see the results of poor saddle fitting. Sometimes not even then, it is not until muscle wastage occurs, or white marks appear months down the line that the owner realises that there is something wrong as the horse has shown no signs of outward discomfort.

A lot of horses at the top of their game still perform well with poor fitting tack and muscle wastage as that is what nature has designed them to do.

A good saddle fitter is absolute priority to eliminate any chance of ill fitting, an owner with a general knowledge of how to fit a saddle will then be able to make a well informed choice of a saddle fitter is doing a good job or an indifferent job.

 

[BayLove]

I watched them all and found them very interesting and helpful. It's given me some idea on what to look out for. Thanks for sharing them.