04/07/2025
It's fat season!
At the moment most of the horses I am seeing are overweight. Maybe just a little, maybe a lot. And this is not a judgement post! Just look at my horses! They too are chunky 🫣
Whether it's our grass suddenly sprouting up full of lovely calories or the very common fear of ulcers meaning restricting feeding feels risky, there is a huge rise in chunky horses.
This makes saddle fitting tough and temporary. If your saddle has fitted well, having had regular checks and maintenance and is now too narrow - swapping it for a saddle that fits while your horse is carrying unhealthy weight is not a good idea. You will simply be swapping it back once it starts to roll around on your lovely equine once they are back to their correct weight.
You may have an adjustable saddle that we can swap the bar out to make it fit better for now but this will also be temporary and will need swapped back once weight is controlled again.
If your horse is graded at below 4, altering the width may be ok as a temporary fix, adjusting the workload to be appropriate until their weight returns to normal. The problems start if their weight score is 4 or more.
When they are carrying weight behind the shoulders, over the back, on the sprung ribs the saddle isn't being fitted to their true skeletal frame anymore. It is being fitted to soft tissue. Fat. Not only does this mean the saddle is likely to move around - possibly side to side, possibly slipping forward over the shoulder assisted by that lovely, big, soft, spongy fat roll, but it is also placing uneven pressure onto soft tissue.
Take a moment and pinch a muscle on your body, maybe your calf - us horse riders have good calfs - then pinch a soft fatty bit - my mummy tummy is perfect for that. Which one feels sharper and more unpleasant with less force??
It is the same for your horse. Because the saddle is spreading pressure through soft uneven fat, the pressure concentrates in areas and can feel pinchy. Especially if we are having to widen the saddle beyond the horses actual conformation, ie placing more weight on the spinalis rather than spreading that weight evenly on down the Latissimus Dorsi.
So here is my advice, if you are going to widen that saddle or swap it for a wider model, do so in the knowledge that you will need to swap it back.
BUT ideally work on the weight, get your horse back to an ideal 3 or 3.5 score and then get that saddle reassessed. In the meantime in hand work, long reigning and a very controlled diet is much better for them than ridden work. As they are already carrying excess weight without a rider and the tack too.
If your saddle fitter advises working on your horse rather than the saddle - they have your best interests at heart. It's a great sign that they don't just want to make a buck, charging unnecessary sales or adjustments. But it can be a hard conversation to have.
A saddle should only be fitted to a horse that is fit and ready to be ridden. Therefore age, obesity, lameness, dangerous behaviours can all result in the fitter advising it is better not to fit a saddle today. Each fitter will have their own set of moral guidelines as well as those of the organisation that trained them. If you are ever in doubt just ask prior to booking that fitting.
Thanks to dengie for the great illustration.
