Causes and impact of saddle slip..

Every saddle fitters nightmare ...

Let's start with saddles that slip forward !

This is a super tricky one. Many horses are kind of arrow shaped or cheese wedge as we like to say! This is simply science, the saddle moves forward to the narrowest point, this is very often accompanied by a very forward girth groove. I have seen some horses with a girth groove literally under the arm pit. Saddles can also move forward when they have the wrong tree shape, when the saddle is too wide, when the saddle is too narrow and when the saddle is too short so they are sat at the back of the seat and drive it forwards. It can also be caused by the riders position and style. Some jockeys like to ram their heels down and rotate the pelvis helping to shunt the saddle up the ponies neck !!!

Some are super high and well sprung in the rib cage, again contributing. I have also found quite often, horses with ulcers can push the saddle forwards. I have no research to prove this, but I do see it. They tend to put their back up against the saddle almost behind in the lumbar area and shunt it forwards. I figure this is to help with the acid splash ?

So many reasons, so I hope you understand why this is a huge problem for us mere mortal saddle fitters. Certain girths can often be the solution as long as everything else is correct. I must add also girth straps that do not line up with your horses natural girth groove will help to pull the saddle forwards.

Saddle moving sideways.

Oh boy, I see so much of this. More often than not the slip is to the right. Again there are lots of reasons this may happen. Hind limb lameness in my experience is the main culprit. This is not in every case so please don't panic! If a horse is weaker on one hind the saddle may slip. We can try and keep you central with shims or asymmetric girthing as a last resort but this must only be done if your vet and body worker are happy the horse is not lame. Your horse is putting you where it is most comfortable. Rider asymmetries and injuries can also cause saddle slip. Many riders sit heavy in the left seat bone sending the saddle right. Why ? Possibly lifestyle ? Sitting at a desk, driving, many reasons for this. We are all one-sided, as are our horses, yet we expect them to work equally on both reins, land on the correct leg after a fence etc. We really do ask a lot of our beloved friends !

Other reasons can be as simple as stretched stirrup leathers, one side longer than the other. Girth elastic over stretched and only one side. Silky shiny saddle pads with our gorgeous matchy matchy . Saddle fitters do not like them! Again tree too narrow, tree too wide, tree wrong shape. So next time your saddle fitter comes to visit, please remember we have the huge task of keeping a saddle central in-between two moving objects, both with little bits of wonkiness thrown in. It's a very difficult job !

Girths again can help hugely but if we cannot get a saddle to stay central, I do very often refer to vet just to rule out any nasty problems !

Next saddle slip back

This is not quite as common. It can again be the tree is the wrong shape, wrong width etc but can also be caused by the horse being herring gutted. Where his midline slopes upwards towards the rear end. Again the saddle will want to move to the narrowest point causing the saddle to slip back. Huge scapular rotation can also cause this. We often see this on very fit athletic horses, the fitter they get the more this can happen. Sometimes a breast plate will help. There are again some girths that can help. I particularly like the Mattes athletico to help this issue.

So I hope this gives you an insight to the challenges saddle fitters face. It's a very tough job, we are only human and can only do our very best to try and help. Keeping both yourself and your horse fit and up to the job you are asking helps tremendously. I always try to educate on my visit and really hope this helps. If you have stuck with me through reading this bit of an essay, thank you for your patience !!! It was a long one