Horse Clothes
I’ve been really good, and haven’t burbled about Vento for several weeks. But… have I mentioned I love my horse? Today I’ve got a riding lesson in the morning, and a saddle fitting in the afternoon. I’ve been riding in borrowed saddles since I got my boy, and it hasn’t been fun for either of us. Finally we tried a Legacy that my friends owns, and it fits him wonderfully, but then I’m having to make sure I don’t overlap with her ride times, and we don’t get to ride together.
A lot of people don’t realize the importance of a good fitting saddle. They just throw the same saddle on different horses, and ride off. That’s why most horses are going through life with chronic back pain. I’d never get that far with Vento — he’s the horse version of the heroine in Once Upon a Mattress (which if you don’t do musical comedy is a retelling of the Princess and the Pea). Anyway, if I put a saddle on him that doesn’t fit right he tightens up his back, closes his shoulder so his strides get much shorter, and eventually he starts bucking when I try to canter. The Iberian Prince will not tolerate an ill fitting saddle!
The saddle we are adjusting was custom made for my horse Pi. Fortunately on a Schleese saddle the tree itself can be adjusted. Which is good because Pi’s back measured as a medium width, and Vento wears an extra-wide saddle. For those of you who have never done this I’ll give a little background. First the saddle technician just stands in front of the horse and behind the horse and looks down his back. Then they measure with a flexible piece of metal. If they decide to go all the way they pull out this device that fits across the entire back like a saddle, but it has hundreds of soft pins in it. When you lift it off you have a three dimensional picture of the horse’s back. Horse’s are generally left footed so often the right side of their body is not as well developed as the left.
Once that is done the technician takes my saddle, and cuts open the leather. She then expands the tree, and reflocks the saddle. Usually a saddle is stuffed with lambs wool between the tree and the leather. She flocks based on what the pin measure showed, so there will be more padding on the side of his back that is less developed, etc. The goal is that the saddle sits level on his back, doesn’t pinch and impede his shoulders or pinch or put pressure unevenly on his back. Saddles are now made with really wide gullets (the channel on the underside of the saddle that runs down the middle of the horse’s spine) In the old days they were very narrow, but now they realize you don’t want to have anything pressing on the horse’s spine. If you do it impedes the swing of their back, and that’s what gives you those big floating steps.
Anyway, now you’ve heard more about saddles than you ever wanted to know. 
But maybe the other writers will find it useful. And I got to talk about my horse — because when I’m not riding him I’m thinking about when I get to ride him again.
March 10th, 2008 at 10:14 am
I’ve got to get the fitters out to refit Ace’s saddle, now that his body has changed somewhat and so has mine. The problem is the price-tag, which is akin to a major car check-up. I’d like his weight to stabilize and for Gayle to get a bit more training on him before I call the Schleese folks down for a visit. Between the rain and the wind and the bruised foot he got in December, he hasn’t had quite as much work as he should have. The nicest thing about DST is I’ll be able to ride most nights after work–if it doesn’t rain and if we don’t have gale force winds. I’ve lost 3 of the last 4 Sundays to wind (one combined with rain), including yesterday. But we had good lessons on Friday and Saturday, and Gayle did a heavy-duty training on his lazy butt on Friday.
Now that I’m buying his food (I’ll tell you about that when we speak), I won’t have to feel guilty about thowing him some lunch or an evening snack. The vet was out on Saturday and said he looked great, but I said he didn’t see him two weeks ago. He’s not quite the easy keeper he used to be–I don’t think I could graze him on asphalt any more.