From: Wendy
Hi Jessica,
I'm really enjoying and learning a lot from Horse Sense!
I wrote you a few weeks ago with a question about my 4 year old mare's tail carriage and her "sensitive" back. As you suggested, I read the T-Touch book and found it helpful in many areas. Cassy, my mare, continues to be very sensitive about anything touching her back - but has been (or was) improving. I was doing a lot of ground work with her including throwing my gortex swishy sounding jacket on her back and walking and trotting her and allowing the jacket to slide off. This became old hat. I would also take a lunge whip and lightly run it all over her body and legs - talking to her constantly and rewarding with lots of pats along the way. She never moves, although her head still goes up and her eyes get very big whenever I pass the whip over her croup and down her back legs. Still, I think progress has (or was) being made.
Now to the "or was" part and my first question. Six weeks ago, it was a bit chilly in the arena so, without thinking, I mounted Cassy while I was wearing my same swishy sounding jacket - undone. I had just gotten on, put a little weight in my right stirrup to straighten the saddle (hadn't even gathered my reins properly - my mistake), when the back of my jacket tickled Cassy's back. She took off in a real scoot, trying to flee from this thing on her back. No bucking or rearing, just lots of quick turns. Anyway, I landed in the dirt eventually and broke my upper arm (humerus). Cassy is being ridden a couple of times a week by my instructor and hasn't repeated the incident - although my instructor makes darn sure she's not wearing a jacket of any kind. What do you suggest I do to get over this? I'd like to do some trail riding and Calgary is not always the warmest city in the world.
Second question: I took another look at my saddle fit (before I fell off) and decided that the tree might have been a little narrow for Cassy - my previous horse was a very fine lined TB. No matter where I placed it, the pommel was ever so slightly higher than the cantle. I also decided the saddle was too big for me (18", when I should be in a 17" - it seems we all rode in bigger saddles 15 years ago??). So, I sold the saddle after I broke my arm, and I'm beginning to shop for another and am not sure what to buy.
I did have a german made Stubben Seigfried, 22 years old, before they made two versions of this saddle. I've become a bit of a knee pincher and think to help correct this problem it would be wise to avoid anything with large knee rolls (which my Stubben had); however, I'm not so sure I'd be happy with a "true" close contact saddle. Comfort is fairly important to me, and very important to Cassy. I think good weight distribution is critical for this horse. I'll be continuing mainly with flat work (Cassy will make a lovely show hack), but I may want to do some hunting down the road, nothing over 3'. Cassy is about 15.1, sort of a QH build with some Arab thrown in - low withers, short(er) back, fine to medium build. Any thoughts on a saddle suitable for Cassy and me?
Thanks in advance!
Wendy (hoping to be back in the saddle in 4 weeks)
I think you're probably right about your saddle not fitting Cassy correctly if it fit a narrow TB with withers -- most Arabs and many QHs take a medium-wide tree (say 31.5 32 cm). It's a good idea to find something that will fit her comfortably.
Knee-pinching CAN be exacerbated by big kneerolls, but ONLY if you are pressing into them all the time -- which shouldn't be the case unless you are jumping and have shortened your stirrups. Since you are jumping only low fences, you could probably do ALL of your riding with only a one- or two- hole change in stirrup length. Remember, if you are mounted with your feet OUT of the stirrups and your legs hanging comfortably, the stirrup treads should hit your anklebones or just above them -- that will make you quite comfortable for all of your flatwork and over small fences, and you can take the stirrups up a hole or two if the jumps get larger.
Knee-pinching is a funny thing. If you are riding with too-short stirrups, you will tend to roll forward onto your knees and pinch with them, but if you are riding with too-long stirrups, you will also roll forward onto your crotch, straighten your leg and fish for your stirrups with your toes, which puts your weight onto -- you guessed it -- your knees!
The best thing you can do to help yourself avoid knee-pinching is to do a lot of riding in a two-point position, paying great attention to relaxing your knees so that the contact you have with the saddle and the horse goes from your upper thigh to your upper calf, and your weight can settle into your heels. As you ride in two-point, notice where your heels are -- if they are NOT the lowest point of your body, then you are probably holding the saddle too tightly with your legs, and you are very likely to be pinching with the knee. Relax the knees. They are shock absorbers and very good ones, but they can't function as such if they are tense and rigid. If you have a dressage arena with letters, you can two-point all the way around it at the walk or trot, checking your leg relaxation at each letter -- if you do this often enough, it becomes automatic. If you work outdoors, check your legs every other tree or fencepost or rock -- or every four or five strides.
Now, for the saddle -- your old Stuebben sounds nice, but you might be happiest in a VSD model (Steubben and Courbette both make many different saddles in this model). It's designed primarily for flatwork, but there's just enough kneeroll to allow you to shorten your stirrups and jump comfortably over low fences (up to 3' or so).
Now, for the spooking problem -- you may just have to spend a lot of time touching Cassy behind the saddle with different jackets and bits of cloth, to get her accustomed to the sensation. But she'll never IGNORE it completely -- she's a horse, and one very basic fear that all horses have is the Fear Of Something With Teeth And Claws Leaping Onto My Back. Horses are prey animals, and speed is their primary defense -- hooves and teeth are only brought into play if the horse is cornered and flight is impossible. And a horse has NO defense against a predator leaping onto its back.... and no amount of training is going to overcome that reaction 100% of the time. They learn to accept saddles and riders, but unusual sudden sensations will almost always provoke a leap or a shiver, especially if other conditions spell "danger" -- if it's windy outside, for instance.
Some horses are especially sensitive, and although they can learn to put up with something that's always there (a long riding coat or a quarter blanket), they don't react well to sudden occasional contact, especially from something that rustles! Sometimes they'll stop objecting to your jacket if you put a quarter blanket on them -- or an extra-large, "trail" saddle pad -- and the jacket doesn't touch them directly. Sometimes you can desensitize them by longeing them in their saddle with a jacket tied loosely to the saddle so that it flops about -- but if you do this, be sure to use a longeing cavesson! If you are longeing from the bit (a bad idea anyway) and Cassy takes off when the jacket brushes her back, she'll hit the bit, hurt her mouth, and become absolutely convinced that jackets are evil creatures.
Keep working with your exercises to desensitize Cassy behind the saddle, but be aware that you may need to be extra-careful whenever you're riding with a jacket of that particular length! Something shorter that doesn't touch her, or something longer that touches her all the time, might be preferable.
Good luck!
- 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.