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From Mary Wanless, 1997
"For the Good of the Horse".
Kenilworth Press: Great Britain.
Saddle Fit
p118:
"(T)he damage (from girths and saddles of all types) will be inflicted over and over again, despite the protestations of our horses, who do their best to tell us of their discomfort. Many short-striding horses who move with hollow backs, swishing tails, and their ears pinned back, are making their predicament very clear. But they tell us before we even mount - by refusing to be caught, laying their ears back when we approach with the saddle, and biting, swishing their tail, and kicking out as we girth up. They could not make their case much clearer - and since they only have one language, they have to resort to 'shouting louder at the natives'. But we (the natives) simply reprimand them for their ill-
manners and persistently refuse to listen."
p134: On poor saddle fit:
"It may be tempting to just ignore it; but to do so is negligent, for in trot, the cumulative effect on the horse's tissue of nearly 150 steps, rubs or bumps per minute, or 9000 per hour can be devastating"
p140: On saddle packing:
"At the very least, a flocked saddle should be completely restuffed every two years".
p116: On Dressage girths and the dangers of over-tightening the
girth:
"The buckles of the dressage girth lie over the serratus ventralis, the muscle on the lower part of the rib cage behind the elbow, which draws the body forward over the leg. This often becomes very tense and sore - especially in the horse who is over-using his forehand to compensate for poor use of his quarters. The mounted rider who is tighten
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ing a dressage girth can get a tremendous amount of leverage, pulling almost directly on the ribs, and potentially affecting their
attachment into the spine. This can cause a dysfunction which can only be righted by manipulative treatment - implying that the rider has already 'manipulated' her horse simply by tightening the girth! It helps to use a girth which is longer than the average dressage girth, which has elastic to each buckle, and a soft, padded buckle guard; but care is still needed."
Page 154: On Using Pads to compensate for poorly fitting saddles:
"I have, at this point, to give the traditional warning that pads (however good) can only go so far in making the saddle which does
not really fit into an acceptable 'pair of shoes' for the horse. Putting a pad under the saddle which is too narrow is actually dangerous - it is rather like wearing extra pairs of socks, and expecting to pad out a pair of shoes which are already too tight! This means that padding is only useful under the saddle which is slightly too wide. All too frequently, pads merely change the pressure points under the saddle, offering temporary relief to the old problem whilst creating yet another. It is a strange paradox that although we want to spare our horses the discomfort felt by the princess whose sleep was so disturbed by the pea, we also need them to know where we are, and to feel the changes in our body position as we prepare for various movements. (That they do this so well through layers of pads and even the 'two-layer' saddles never ceases to amaze me). On a computerised pressure measurement, the way the rider sits makes a significant difference. The 'sack of potatoes' rider hugely increases the pressures registered - especially in a moving reading - whilst the
rider whose high muscle tone enables her to 'carry her own weight' will help to minimise the pressure".
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