From: Lisa
Dear Jessica,
I would like your opinion on my older horse and the saddle I have been using forever. I bought my Quarter Horse, Shorty, when he was four. Sixteen years later I am still using the same saddle and he is starting to wince and give me dirty looks when I saddle him up. It is a good western saddle that has never bothered him until recently. I am concerned now that he is twenty that his back is changing and the saddle just doesn't fit right anymore. He has actually tried to nip at me when I tighten the cinch, and he never bites or kicks, he's a big sweetheart - a real good kids horse. I have considered buying a new saddle, and have looked at the corduras. The vet says he is healthy and there isn't any physical problem. I would really appreciate your thoughts. Thank you! I love getting your newsletters! Lisa
A horse's back will change shape throughout its life. If you bought the saddle when your horse was nearly mature and quite fit and strong, it might well have served him as long as the contours of his back remained basically unchanged. The big changes over the horse's life come as the horse develops through work, and its back becomes larger and more muscular. There are also seasonal changes -- within any given year, most horses will show a regular pattern of physical changes if they are turned out for the winter, brought back into work in the spring, and worked through the summer and fall.
As a horse ages, it loses its ability to come back from a long layoff and regain its full strength. This is why, although it's quite safe to turn a four- or six- or ten- or twelve-year-old horse out for several months, it's not such a good idea to leave a horse in its twenties without a formal exercise program at any time of the year. Younger horses can be "let down" and brought back into work; with horses in their twenties and up, it's better to ensure that they get several hours a week of organized exercise, even if it just means bringing the horse in from pasture every other day for forty-five minutes or an hour of walking and slow trotting.
Even with consistent exercise in addition to maximum turnout, an older horse's body will change, and one of the most noticeable changes is a change in the horse's back profile. Look at your horse in profile, as he stands or grazes in his field. Do his withers suddenly seem more prominent, even though he hasn't lost weight? Is there a dip behind the withers or a saggy area in his topline where his back used to be straight? These are normal changes, and they don't necessarily mean the end of your horse's career as a riding animal, but they may mean that he now needs a new saddle or at least new, different, or more padding under his old saddle.
As a horse's back drops and its withers become more prominent, a saddle that previously fit well, distributing weight throughout the bars, may come to "bridge" on the horse's back, concentrating all the rider's weight at two points in the front and back of the saddle. This, as you can imagine, is very uncomfortable for the horse.
Saddles can change over time, too. Trees can become cracked or broken -- this causes great pain, so be sure that your saddle tree is intact and that the bars are still straight. Nail-heads can work their way down and put painful pressure on small areas of the horse's back. The sheepskin lining can develop loose areas or wrinkles or lumps -- and any one of these can hurt a horse. The best way to know how the underside of the saddle feels is to inspect if closely with your hands. FEEL every inch of the saddle's underside -- don't trust your eyes, trust your fingers to tell you where the lumps, bumps, wrinkles, and rough spots are.
Check your horse's back for soreness -- but don't forget to check other areas too. A sore anywhere under the cinch area will cause pain. So will skin-wrinkles caught in the cinch or girth -- whenever you tack up, remember to take a moment after you've fastened the saddle and before you make the final adjustement to the cinch or girth. It takes just a few seconds to pull your horse's front legs forward, one at a time, to stretch the skin behind his elbows and remove any wrinkles that could cause pain.
Horses don't lie. If your horse is complaining that something hurts, listen to him. If he's been comfortable in the saddle for sixteen years, that's wonderful, but something about it is making him uncomfortable NOW. Making faces and nipping are the only ways he has to tell you "Hey, something's wrong here, that HURTS."
If you do get a new saddle, whether it's made from leather or Cordura, be careful to select one that fits your horse's back, both in width and in back profile. You obviously did a very good job of this the first time, since the last saddle you selected fit your horse for almost sixteen years. ;-)
Jessica
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