A visit by the saddle fitter

Sunday, September 28th, 2008 | saddle fitting | No 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