Saddle problems

[Loulou]

I have a 17.2hh ISH who has very high withers. I have had him for about 18 months and for most of that time he has had lameness/unsoundness problems.

After spending thousands on vets, osteos, body workers, farriers, barefoot trimmers, medications, potions and pills I think we may have got to the bottom of the problem.

I think it may be to do with his saddle.

He has been looked at by the best vets in the south of France and other vets too and they have all told me that I must just ignore the problem and ride him anyway. To me that is surely a cruelty to ride a horse who is taking a half stride on one leg? When buted 2 twice a day he is better so it is obviously a pain issue. The vets didnt think it was the saddle.

The horse has one shoulder that is much bigger just in front of the wither dip (IYKWIM?) It is very pronounced and so any saddle with a tree seems to fit nicely on one side but is very tight on the big shoulder side. If I get a saddle that fits the big shoulder side then it sits wonky because it is pushed over by the big shoulder. I reckon that the pressure caused by this is causing him to take a half stride on the foreleg on that side.

The owners who I bought him off insisted that I bought his saddle with him as it was made to measure. I thought it was too tight on his withers but after getting a local saddle fitter to look at it they told me to get a good thick numnah under it so I bought a sheepskin and for a time that was ok.

I have tried several other saddles on him and because they dont seem to make any difference to his lameness issues I discounted that being the problem.

I live in very rural France and finding a good saddle fitter is like looking for the holy grail. Even if they do come and look they dont carry any stock to try and so you have to buy a brand new saddle at a cost of £1,500 plus without even sitting on it!

I have just ordered a Thorowgood T8 High wither in the hope that that might help but if it doesnt then I am really in trouble and dont know where to turn next. I cannot afford to go much further with this because I just cannot afford to keep buying saddles.

Does anyone have any ideas about how I can move forward with this? Do you have any saddle suggestions? I could maybe try and borrow one if I ask around but one saddle I borrowed and tried made him hopping lame. It was an Albion K2 Legend which is very forward cut and looking back now must have really pressed hard on his shoulders.

[jes]

My mare had a similar problem, she was very asymmetrical with one shoulder bigger than the other. When I first got her I rode her in a treeless and all was well, but I wanted to do some schooling and found it difficult in the treeless so I got a treed saddle (professionally fitted by a well regarded local saddler) and again all was well for a few months. Then she started taking a short stride and I realised that her big shoulder had got bigger and she was unable to move that leg properly due to the tree.

I changed back to my treeless and the difference was immediate. She was back to her normal forward going self.

We now have a Heather Moffett Vogue saddle, which she goes extremely well in. She also, however, goes very well in my gelding's treed saddle, which is an XW fitting and in theory far too wide for her. Clearly though the shoulder has room to move with the wider tree and I just have to make sure I use the right padding so that it gives enough wither clearance.

Just my experience. If it helps.

[Loulou]

Thanks very much for that info Jes. I have a friend who has a Treeless that she is not using so maybe I might borrow that and try it.

The only reason that I noticed it might be the saddle was that he normally short strides ridden or not but he has had a lot of time off in the last 6 weeks and so I lunged him the other day and was surprised that he was 99% sound, only taking the odd short stride. I put a saddle on him and my husband got on him and he was immediately short striding every step. Duhhhh ..... It's taken me a year to find this out but the vets believed it was coming from the splint bone!

Let's hope I can keep him sound with the Thorowgood but if not then I will look at treeless maybe. We do a lot of dressage and jumping. At least we do if and when he is sound!

[jes]

It took me a while to realise what was wrong with my mare too, well a couple of months. It was only when I put my gelding's XW saddle on her one day for a quick bimble round the block because I'd left her saddle at home that the penny dropped, because she was so obviously better.

[Deleted]

I think you need to think about why he has one shoulder bigger than the other. Either he's more muscled one side, in which case your best bet would be ground work to even him up before trying to fit another saddle on him. Or it could be swelling, in which case there will be pain from muscle tensions, this is what was going on with Talin, one shoulder just looked bigger than the other but when I got a really good sports therapist to see him she showed me how it felt different to the rest of his muscles. There was fluid on it. So either way I'd be investing in a decent body worker before a saddle.

If you can't get one a decent body worker... is he lame/ short striding without the saddle? If he's happy doing groundwork then work him to even him out and see if there's any improvement.

[specialized]

It is very common for horses to have one shoulder larger than the other, in fact it is rare to find perfectly matching shoulders. All horses have a preferred diagonal in the same way that we are right or left handed and are more muscled on our preferred arm.
The facility is there for a good saddler to fit a saddle that takes this into account, but buying a saddle 'off the peg' will mean that it has been manufactured to be the same on both shoulders and will be unlikely to fit without alteration.
Our saddles are adjustable to the point that the 2 shoulders are set up individually, but the system is based on a western tree and will not suit all.
Be careful with treeless on a high-withered horse as you can get problems with wither pressure.

[Loulou]

Thanks for your input.

I have had several different body workers to look at him some better than others and one or two who were totally raving mad!!
The one who has seen him recently seems to be very good and I will stick with her if I can.

France is a bit of a desert as far as good equine specialists are concerned and even a specialist equine vet has staggered me with his lack of knowledge of equine health. We lost a horse a few years ago because of an equine vets treatment.
To be honest I dont really trust them and after travelling several hours to the top vet hospital in the southwest of France to be told to just ignore it and carry on riding and jumping him I totally lost confidence. No matter how much I told them the problem was coming from his shoulder they just wouldnt listen and continued to scan his lower leg. They couldnt find anything wrong there but wouldnt look at his shoulder.

In France riders buy the saddle to fit them and then use it on all the horses they ride with varying amounts of padding and numnahs to make it fit the horse. They dont seem to have a concept of buying a saddle to fit a horse.

Thanks again, I promise I will do my best for him as he is my horse of a lifetime and I want him to be right.

[jen1]

just come back from a saddle fit for life saddle lecture and boy did they touch upon things that have bugged me for years about saddles, see if you can find junes write up , or look on face book or you tube at saddle fit for life, lovely saddles,