saddle lifting at the back in trot/canter

tobiano1984

tobiano1984

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Any thoughts on what's wrong that causes this? The saddle sits on pony's back perfectly well (to my untrained eye) - fits well round the withers, good spine clearance, and looks fine in walk but in trot and (very bouncy) canter it lifts up and down at the back which is obviously not ideal. I've got a saddler coming out next week to look at it and possibly adjust but just wondered what causes this - too narrow, or just not the right shape? The pony is in to be sold so I don't really want to buy him a new saddle now, hopefully the saddler can adjust it enough to fit him. He's put on a lot of condition recently but it still doesn't look tight/narrow to me.
 
Saddle sounds too banana shaped for your ponys back unfortunately. Like the poster above said, you could use a riser pad but it's not ideal. Get the saddler to see you in action - some don't bother getting you on board let alone watching you ride, but tell them your concerns and hopefully they'll sort you out.
 
This is the saddle in action - currently got a gelee-fish rear padded thing, doesn't seem to help it fit better, but hopefully makes it more comfortable. The saddle doesn't have a lot of flocking so I hope the saddler can adjust it fit at least as a short term solution until he's sold:

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My saddle did this, and I had numerous saddle fitters and experienced people look at it. All of them said it fitted him . The final straw was when he exploded when I tacked him up, I took the saddle off and dumped it in the tack room, never to use again. I think it was just too curved a tree for him.
Kx
 
It does look a little to far forward. It needs to sit behind the shoulder blades

Could be it is a little wide. My saddle has just started doing the same. It needs a little flocking at the front and it will be fine
 
Bouncing at the back usually means the saddle is too wide. If it has previously been fine, then hopefully your saddler will be able to rebalance it for you to stop it happening. Agree that saddle looks a bit to far forward. When you tack up do you check that the saddle is not sitting on the pony's shoulder. It could also be moving forward if it is too wide, so possibly you can kill 2 birds with one stone :)
 
longdog said:
Bouncing at the back usually means the saddle is too wide. If it has previously been fine, then hopefully your saddler will be able to rebalance it for you to stop it happening. Agree that saddle looks a bit to far forward. When you tack up do you check that the saddle is not sitting on the pony's shoulder. It could also be moving forward if it is too wide, so possibly you can kill 2 birds with one stone :)
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When he's tacked up it sits fine but he is very "active" to say the least and the saddle migrates forward. So yes it may well be too wide - there's not a lot of flocking in it so hopefully the saddler can pad it out to fit.
 
tobiano1984 said:
When he's tacked up it sits fine but he is very "active" to say the least and the saddle migrates forward. So yes it may well be too wide - there's not a lot of flocking in it so hopefully the saddler can pad it out to fit.
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It does look a bit forward if its too wide a shim numnah or shim prolite will help, just put a few shims in the front pockets, check the saddle is level and it should stop it moving forward.
 
The most common reasons are too wide or too curvy, though upright or narrow bars in the middle of the saddle can cause a similar pivot. Shimming the very front and very back of the saddle, keeping the seat against the horse, is the best way to do it, use wedges, not just lumps of foam etc :). You can layer up fybagee etc. Try and keep the saddle in the correct balance. The fitter might be able to flock it if it's not too major.
 
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