Questions about saddle fit

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Christmas Crumpet

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Just having a think about saddle fit etc. Had my saddle fitted by a well respected saddler in the south west who has done all my horses for about 10 years.

New horse is quite upside down having been ridden in a too tight saddle for a long time and can be quite nervous so does go along with his head in the air if he spies something alarming. I rode him in my saddle when I had him on trial after physio said it looked fine although would need a bit of amending. Sweat patches were fairly even except under the stirrup bars where there was a fist sized dry patch. I told saddler this when we had our appointment and was told that sweat patches are not always uniform and that the dry patches were due to the horse not using those muscles as he goes along with his head very high. This didn't really ring true with me but I sort of just accepted it.


Everywhere I look on the internet says you should have uniform sweat patches. So I can only assume saddler was talking rubbish or is this true?

Horse is so much better about being tacked up - would rush round stable when I first got him and try and avoid being tacked up. Now he just stands still and is quite accepting of saddle and bridle going on. Same with getting on - he was awful to begin with and now is very sensible and stands next to mounting block. So the saddle doesn't seem to upset him but I am wondering how well does it really fit him?

Any thoughts from anyone?
 
Have to be honest, I have no idea - however will watch with interest as I have a similar question over the sweat patterns under a saddle. Only mine is that on my horse there is rarely sweated where the panels have been, but sweaty where the cloth has been. On your saddle fitters theory, that would suggest none of his back is being used?!
 
Forgot to add that horse was only tricky to saddle up when I first had him on trial when I put his old too narrow saddle on. He was instantly far happier in my wider one which he is still ridden in but is the one leaving him with dry patches.
 
It may take a little while before he starts to sweat evenly if that area has been restricted for some time the muscles might not yet be working properly, I assume you have started physio to address this so I would give it a few weeks then see what the physio thinks when they next see him, the saddle is likely to require further adjustment as he starts to change shape and gain a more correct topline.
 
Listen to your horse - he knows far more about how the saddle feels that your saddler or you. If he is getting better, that's great, you're obviously doing something right.
If you haven't come across them before, Balance International are top when it comes to wide (and comfortable) saddles - their website is worth a peruse.
 
carolineb said:
He's been ridden in the saddle for nearly 2 months now and it's been reflocked for 3 weeks so surely sweat glands should be back to normal by now?
Click to expand...

I would expect things to be improving in that time, if is he working well and the muscle in that area started to build up, it may be worth trying a pad to just cover that area, I have done this in similar circumstances, if the saddle is not quite making contact correctly by putting something there you should get the answer, a few days with correct pressure may get even sweating, relax the muscle and he may then fill in the gap once it is in use, with mine it filled in and the saddle needed no more adjustment until he really widened and had to change saddle again. I used a leg pad folded lengthways just under the stirrup bars, very temporary but it did the job.
 
He's an ISH, mostly ID, and its a symonds windsor saddle. Physio came out today and we had a play with my mattes numnah and shims. Its a little bit too wide in front so we've shimmed up the front and going to try it like that. If he still has dry patches, I might try someone else to come and fit him.

Has anyone any good recommendations for someone who will come to Dorset?
 
If the horse is even... There should be even patches, yours is not even to start with, hence one side would obviously work harder and therefore produce more significant patches regardless of saddle. Once the muscle development is even, the sweat patches will catch up. It's not just saddle fit that affects sweat patches but also physiology
 
Just another thought... How often do you get checked for evenness? You can cause this type of reaction by being unbalanced too... Worth looking into
 
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