From: Mollie
Dear Jessica, I was so excited to learn that you know about and enjoy Tennessee Walking Horses! I read the article in The Trail Rider magazine where you talked about what goes on in training barns for Big Lick horses. God bless you for your honesty, I live in Tennessee and this is going on all the time, everywhere, even though people pretend that it doesn't happen any more. These are such wonderful horses, thinking about the suffering they undergo makes me so angry that I cry. God bless you also for telling people that there are breeders who keep their horses away from that kind of training and are just breeding wonderful horses for pleasure and trail. I know a couple of breeders like that, and they don't get a lot of publicity and it means a lot when someone famous like you comes out and praises them.
My TWH is a four-year-old mare named Sunny. I bought her as a weanling before anybody did anything with her (or to her!) and put her in my pasture with my old Quarter Horse and my mule. They have done a great job of bringing her up. She had nice manners even before I started training her, LOL! I rode her for the first time when she was three and a half. Now that she's four, I want to take her out on trails a lot more, but I'm having problems finding the right saddle for her. Sunny has pretty good withers for a four-year-old, and her barrel is pretty wide, but she doesn't have a lot of back muscle along the top of her back yet. I'd like to get her muscled up on the trail next spring and summer, but I've been going crazy trying to find the right saddle for her. The one I have that fits her the best is an old dressage saddle. I like it a lot and it fits me too, so I would love to use it on trails if it won't be bad for Sunny. When I ride her in it I use two pads because it's a little bit too wide for her. Is that bad? I know that you don't approve of using a lot of saddle pads to try to change how a saddle fits, but Sunny always moves right out and lifts her back when I use that saddle, so I hope it's okay.
The problem is that I just moved here about five years ago, and Sunny is my first gaited horse. I leased an old TWH for two years while Sunny was too young to ride, but he came with a trail saddle of his own, and it went back to his owner when he did! Everyone else around here knows more about gaited horses than I do since Pusher wasn't my horse and I basically just used him to go out and explore the trails. He was very sweet. My friends keep telling me that gaited horses need special saddles and that I'll hurt Sunny if I use a dressage saddle on her. Hurting her is the last thing I would ever want to do, but she always seems so happy and comfortable in that saddle, more than in any of the other saddles I have borrowed to try on her. I borrowed a "gaited horse saddle" and didn't like it at all, and Sunny didn't like it either, she put her head way up and took little short steps, which I know means that it didn't feel good on her back. Is it true that gaited horses need special saddles because they use their shoulders and hips differently? Do they really need special trees designed for gaited horses? Will I hurt Sunny by using my dressage saddle, and if I shouldn't use it, what should I use instead? I need advice, please! Mollie
You're right, I'm not in favour of people trying to use pads to compensate when a saddle doesn't fit a horse, but you're actually doing this right. When the only problem a horse has with a saddle is that the saddle is slightly too WIDE for the horse, then pads CAN be used to make the saddle (effectively) more narrow and help it sit a little higher off the horse's back. As the horse's back develops more muscling, the pads can be removed one at a time until the only remaining pad is a thin cotton one that simply serves to keep the underside of the saddle clean. The ultimate authority on saddle fit is, as always, THE HORSE. If your mare strides out, lifts her back, and seems happy and comfortable when you ride her in your dressage saddle, then by all means ride her in that saddle.
Gaited horses are horses. They need comfortable saddles that fit, and it really doesn't matter whether the saddle's hang-tag says "for gaited horses" or "for bay horses" or "for horses that like carrots". It's the fit that matters, and the best judge of the fit is... the horse. Gaited horses tend to have active hips and shoulders, so owners of gaited horses should look for saddles that can be set back far enough to NOT interfere with the horses' shoulders, and that aren't so long and bulky that they might then interfere with the horse's hips. Here's a big secret, though - ALL horse-owners should be concerned with exactly the same saddle-fit issues. NO horse can move well or comfortably if its saddle is interfering with its shoulders and/or hips.
What Sunny needs is a good saddle that fits her well, and that will let her carry you comfortably and move well whilst she does it. It sounds as though you've got that in your dressage saddle, so stop worrying and plan to enjoy your trails as soon as weather permits.
There's no such thing as a "TWH saddle" or a "Thoroughbred saddle" or a "Morgan saddle". Every horse is an individual, and needs a saddle that fits well. Every horse will change shape in the long term and in the short term. Horses change shape over the course of their lives, according to their growth and development and management, and according to the type and amount of work they do - and where they do it. Horses also change shape every year, in a reasonably predictable pattern. After a relatively inactive winter, they'll lose muscle; in the early spring they'll gain weight as the pasture grasses come in, and they'll lose fat and put on muscle as they're worked during the late spring, summer and autumn. Then when winter arrives, if they aren't being worked through the winter, they'll typically lose some condition, and the cycle begins again. So saddle "fit" isn't a fixed, static condition - it's always going to vary somewhat, from month to month as well as from year to year. It's our responsibility to be on the lookout for any indication of a change that might cause our horses to be uncomfortable in their saddles. We have to pay attention all the time, because all our horses can do is show us, by their movement and their demeanour, whether they're comfortable or not at any given time.
If you get any arguments from your friends who feel strongly that you should buy a "gaited horse" saddle, you might explain this to them. You might also want to explain that dressage horses must have great freedom in their shoulders, hips, and backs - every bit as much as any gaited horse, and possibly more. As for wither height, rib-cage width, shoulder width and degree of rotation, amount of muscling along the horse's topline, etc., those are the factors that influence saddle fit, and when it comes to evaluating them and finding the best saddle, you're right back to observing and meeting the needs of each individual horse! Life would be much easier if we could just say "she's a TWH so she needs THIS brand, or THIS tree size, or THIS design", or "He's an Arabian so he needs THAT brand, or THAT tree size, or THAT design." Alas, we can't count on generalizations to ensure good saddle fit! Your horse's conformation and individual back profile can certainly help you eliminate any number of saddles from your "possibles" list, but in the end, getting and maintaining a good saddle fit for ANY horse is going to come down to constant, informed owner attention.
In your case, it sounds as though you've got a good match between your mare and your dressage saddle. By summer, you may be riding her with the same saddle and one pad; later next autumn, you may be riding her with the same saddle and just a thin pad to keep the saddle clean. You'll have to monitor her comfort, and the development of her topline. It's even possible that in a year or two or three, with good, consistent, body-building work, Sunny may outgrow this saddle entirely and put you back into saddle-search mode. In the meantime, just remember that horses can't read labels or hang tags or advertising copy, and they don't know that a certain saddle is (or isn't) "supposed" to fit. Horses only know whether they're comfortable or not, and if you pay attention - which you obviously DO - they'll share that information with you.
Jessica
Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE is a free, subscriber-supported electronic Q&A email newsletter which deals with all aspects of horses, their management, riding, and training. For more information, please visit www.horse-sense.org
Please visit Jessica Jahiel: Holistic Horsemanship® [www.jessicajahiel.com] for more information on Jessica Jahiel's clinics, video lessons, phone consultations, books, articles, columns, and expert witness and litigation consultant services.