saddle fit

[MBlanchrd@aol.com]

Hi, all, 

  The analogy between shoes and saddle pads DOES fit. There's too many times
when I've seen someone add another pad to a horse who's experiencing back
problems. When asked about the propriety of this, I use the shoe analogy of
"if the shoe is too tight, would you add another pair of socks?" Why? Because
it's something most people can relate directly to. The next time you blow out
a pair of running shoes after only six months of wear..and the tops are still
in great shape..what are you going to do..pitch them out? No, you'll put on
another pair of socks and use them as barn shoes..
  English saddles were originally designed to be used without a pad. This was
in the days when EVERY horse was professionally and custom fit to the saddle.
Saddles were woolflocked then by people who fit and made saddles every day.
These days in the era of mass production, few saddles  are custom fit, never
mind custom made.

   A sidenote, if extended, to this...in New Braunfels, TX, there's a saddlery
called Comal Saddlery. They make western saddles, as well as the trees for
EVERY major western saddle brand in the nation. Tex Tan, Circle Y and others,
all get their trees from Comal.
   Comal has a tree factory. They use cottonwood to make the trees for their
saddles. A plank of cotton wood is placed on a saw..alongside of which is a
lathe like thing that has a "master" plank. The master is turned like a
rotisserie chicken, with a guide that merely circles it from one end to the
other. The saw with the "blank" plank follows every move of this guide,
producing a "copy' of the master. In a few minutes you have half of a western
saddle tree. Add a layer of rawhide or fiberglas (again, same tree in both)
and voil a`.. you have the foundation for another western saddle, be it a $250
cheapy or a @2500, silver encrusted show saddle.

  The "master" plank is one that is a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy..ad
infinitum..of a tree that was hand measured and hand cut to a horse ..a
Quarter Horse..FORTY FIVE years ago.
  This means that every tree that's in  any of the big named western saddles
is custom fit and cut to a horse that's been dead for at least forty years.

(I'm not hammering Comal, by the way. I'm merely making the point.  If you
trailer your horse down there, they will custom fit a western saddle to him on
the spot.)
   
 Please don't think that English saddles are any different in this respect. In
these days of cheapest production for the most money, you are only going to
see more and more cutting of corners for the fastest buck. Plus, more and more
English saddles are being stuffed with foam, rather than wool. Wool is
expensive, many people are allergic to it, and  a saddle that's used hard
every day should be restuffed every year. This is time consuming..let me tell
you, it takes a while to do the job right. It also isn't cheap. But in the
long run it's the best thing for your horse. 

 Foam is cheapcheapcheap. After a year or so of hard use, heat, pressure and
absorption of sweat, the foam breaks down into hard balls of junk.  A saddle
stuffed with foam CANNOT be restuffed. Most people cannot afford to buy a new
saddle every year, especially when the upper part..the leather parts..hardly
show a bit of wear. So what do they do? They add pads. They use cushions or
gel pads or whatever. When the real problem is the stuffing...this is, if the
saddle is the right one for your horse in the first place.
I won't even go into the matter of the horse himself. A year is a long time in
the physiological  realm of a horse. He can gain weight, lose weight, build
muscle, lose muscle....

   Michelle... equine massage therapist, and saddle fitter and restuffer. (and
Jordan, who's  saddle fits him to a T...)