Can you re-fit my saddle to my new horse?

Friday, January 1st, 2010 | saddle fitting | No Comments

I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did. I said I didn’t know. — Mark Twain

High maintenance? Moi?

Several times a week, at least, I get inquiries about whether it would be possible to “re-fit” a saddle that was originally purchased for a different horse.

I never know how to answer this, except to say that there is nothing black and white about fitting saddles, and to offer the observation that good fit occurs along a continuum.  The hardest thing to know is where a particular horse needs to be on that continuum for the fit to be “good enough.”

What I can tell you is that it is far easier to find fault in the fit of a saddle than it is to be certain what saddle fit solution will work well.  Where there is some deficiency in fit – which, let’s face it, is more common than not — it’s not always obvious whether the shortcoming is significant to a particular horse.

Some horses seem to do fine for a long time in saddles that, by my standards, are a complete nightmare of poor fit.  Other horses decline to even try to cope if every detail of the saddle and the pad and the bridle and the bit and the girth and the color of the bling on their browband isn’t precisely to their liking.  That would be my bay princess, pictured here. › Continue reading

Tags: fit saddle for new horse, fit saddle multiple horses, fit saddle new horse, Prolite pads, Prolite saddle pads, re-fit saddle new horse, re-fit saddle to new horse, saddle fitting, saddle flocking, saddle pads, saddle panels, Thinline saddle pads

A visit by the saddle fitter

Sunday, September 28th, 2008 | saddle fitting | 2 Comments

“Good judgment comes from experience, and often experience comes from bad judgment.” - Rita Mae Brown

When the saddle fitter calls

I had a chat this afternoon with one of our clients in another part of the country about the impending visit of a saddle fitter to her barn. She is pondering whether she should sign up for an evaluation of her saddle. “Do you think they can make an objective judgment,” she wonders, “or will they just try to sell me a different saddle?”  Well, I can’t possibly answer that objectively myself.  I do know that good fit occurs along a continuum.

If the fit is perfect in one phase of motion, it may be much less perfect at some other moment. If the fit is great when the horse is at full fitness, it may not be so good when the horse has had time off.  Though a saddle may fit well enough with a light rider, the panels may not support the tree efficiently with a much heavier rider on board.  The interface between the horse and the saddle changes all the time, and since there is no absolute standard of what is good enough, we are all left with only judgment and educated guesses, really. › Continue reading

Tags: horse shape, questions for saddle fitter, saddle adjustments, saddle flocking, saddle shape, what happens in a saddle fitting