Riding To The Left?

[DougalJ]

I have ridden my friends cob over the last couple weeks and took him to dressage yesterday. I had a lesson on him on Saturday and my instructor said I was sitting to the left too much. I do not do this on my own horse. I then had comments of my test result sheet that I was sitting on the left too much. When my friend rides him in front of me when hacking out, I do notice she sits a little over to the left on him. Now he has had his back checked and he is spot on, the saddle was made to measure for him (very wide cob) and was checked and re flocked by the saddle fitter recently and all ok. Any ideas what this is all about if his back and saddle are all ok?

 

[Tnavas]

Does she mount from the ground? - This can quickly affect the balance of the saddle as it compresses the flocking on the off side.

What are the muscles like on the horses back - are they even on both sides or is one side more developed than the other.

Hold the saddle upside down with the cantle in your stomach and look down the channel carefully - do all the panels sit evenly on both sides of an imaginary centre line. HAve seen saddles offset in the past - including some top makes. Everything must be totally even on both sides.

We had a school pony that went better one way than the other and riders always looked askew on him. When I checked the saddle as described above the panels had been sewn in off centre. Saddler was able to fix this really easily and we then had one happy pony and straight riders.

And get your friend to stand up straight, feet together and view her posture from behind - if she has one shoulder lower than the other suggest that she goes to a chiro to be straightened u.

 

[DougalJ]

Does she mount from the ground? - This can quickly affect the balance of the saddle as it compresses the flocking on the off side.

What are the muscles like on the horses back - are they even on both sides or is one side more developed than the other.

Hold the saddle upside down with the cantle in your stomach and look down the channel carefully - do all the panels sit evenly on both sides of an imaginary centre line. HAve seen saddles offset in the past - including some top makes. Everything must be totally even on both sides.

We had a school pony that went better one way than the other and riders always looked askew on him. When I checked the saddle as described above the panels had been sewn in off centre. Saddler was able to fix this really easily and we then had one happy pony and straight riders.

And get your friend to stand up straight, feet together and view her posture from behind - if she has one shoulder lower than the other suggest that she goes to a chiro to be straightened u.

Thanks Evelyn for this, I'm going to check this all out with him this morning. I've been riding him for a couple of weeks and now I've got a very twingey back on my lower left hand side which I'm sure is from riding him.