Hills Equine Saddle Mapping Tool

07/11/2024

This really has me concerned! Who dreams up this kind of crap???

For more than 40 years, I have committed my life to veterinary medicine, having served on the faculties of leading universities and practicing as an equine veterinarian across the country. Since receiving my doctorate in...

05/11/2024

Worked on a gorgeous fellow today, I did take a few pictures-but need to honor owners request for privacy.
But I can share this note she sent me by the time I got home. Love when I hear this from my clients, because it makes my day:

Thank you, Laurie. Your experience, kindness, skill and generosity are inspiring and very much appreciated.

25/10/2024

22/10/2024

Check this out!!! I finally have a website page!

https://www.hillsequineservices.com/

This is a direct link to purchasing your own Hills Saddle Mapping Tool! Of course you also can always go through me too.

Send a message to learn more

18/10/2024

Cassandra Belle Richardson

15/10/2024

Article By Kim Gates
When is it too late to just fix the saddle?
This past weekend I had someone who I have fit for in the past haul in a new horse for me to see. A ten year old TB mare.
My first overall impression was that the horse had compensation issues. Its lower neck was over developed. Top of the neck underdeveloped. The back was dropped. The shoulders were pulling and the hind end trailed behind. The back was sore on palpation but not terribly. Her eye was soft. She was kind. Beautiful mare.
As soon as I brought out the saddle she jumped sideways and started to shake. When I got the saddle on someone dropped a bag of shavings at the other end of the aisle. She spooked and ran backwards blindly in an aisle full of people.
Her expression was that she was terrified and not thinking. Just reacting. A horse in pain and scared.
I took the saddle off and talked to her. It took a few minutes. But the soft eye came back.
This horses problem is no longer an ill fitting saddle. The damage saddles have done is now something she lives with everyday. How many of these horses are labeled as “ bad.” How many are punished or even abused?
Her history added up. I hear the same story often with the same results.
This horse has a wonderful owner and she will get good care. First stop? X rays and a full work up. I referred her to a good back clinic.

Laurie Leverich Hills

09/10/2024

So I did a saddle fitting with thermography late last week. The gelding has been dangerously bolting under saddle and the owner is starting with saddle fitting.
We started with the Saddle Mapping Tool to validate poor saddle fit with the saddle she liked the most. She was told the saddle was too narrow and purchased the same saddle in a wide tree. We did find some issues with that medium treed saddle – and fitted him with the wide tree. The following pictures are of the wide tree with a flex tree.
#1 & #2 are fittng the horse with the Hills Saddle Mapping Tool
#3 picture is before any riding
#4 is the owner showing more heat under her left leg.
#5 is the pad which shows the pressure over the left withers and shoulder area.
#6 shows the left withers and left lumbar area showing more heat (pressure)
#7 shows the horses back and he has a downhill build.
#3 with my hand in the mapping tool shows gapping under the center area – which may show bridging with the withers and lumber having pressure points. I do have a couple solutions that may work to help alleviate the pressure to make the horse more comfortable.
I sent a report to the owner, showing the findings, we texted a bit back and forth and she did have a bad experience riding him over the weekend. Being that he has quite a bit of white over his spine and lumbar area my first suggestion was to have him xrayed to eliminate the possibility of kissing spine or some other anomaly.
Received a phone call this am from the owner; and the vet did xrays and she did diagnose kissing spine around T16 ( Lumbar area) and he has damage in the withers where a small piece of spine was chipped off.
Our next step will be to find a solid tree rather than the flex tree saddle and he will be getting rehab. We are coming up with his protocol for healing.
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100092231437987
Hills Equine Integrative BodyWork Services
Laurie Leverich Hills

16/09/2024

A general guideline

16/09/2024

This is why a large portion of my massage work is Myofascial Release.
Hills Equine Integrative BodyWork Services

08/08/2024

Many of you know that I ended up pretty sick right after July 4th. After a week of constant coughing I went to dr. She decided not to test for covid, but that I had Viral Bronchitis. Another 1 1/2 weeks It turned into nasty sinus infection and she put me on antibiotics. I truly didn’t give a rats ass if I ever left the house again. Slept alot, fatigue, aches and pains seemed tripled of what I normally have.

This is my first week back in the field working on horses. And I’m finding I missed it!!!

August is pretty full and already booking September dates. Give me a shout to get on my calendar!

Hills Equine Integrative BodyWork Services
920-988-4156

Keep your eye open - I will be having an August Sale on the Hills Saddle Mapping Tools!
Hills Equine Saddle Mapping Tool

14/06/2024

Who wants a Fathers Day Weekend Sale?

10/06/2024

I have been alot of calls where people are not leaving messages. I am going to assume those are spams and won't call back.

If you did call me and left a message and I didn't get back with you - please assume life got busy and nag on me! I'm not ignoring you on purpose. June has been busy between my Equine business and other things going on; that it may have slipped my mind to get back with you.

Hills Equine Integrative BodyWork Services

Hills Equine Saddle Mapping Tool

920-988-4156

29/05/2024

Did a recent saddle fit for a lovely lady who is baffled about why her horses have started recently bucking or not performing well under saddle.

My normal routine is to study the saddles themselves first – looking for oddities like uneven seats, any kind of crookedness, or saddle failure of some sort.

Then we get into the nitty gritty – taking pictures of the horses back and then checking for body soreness. I don’t usually just settle on any one thing and say this is it – but will try to come up with ideas about causes and possible solutions. (I’m not giving veterinary advice)

Unfortunately sometimes it seems as if what I see does create more questions (and confusion) than what I meant for the owner – and leaves them a bit frustrated because it may have set them back a bit in their plans.

Let me share some of what I saw during the session.

We checked over the saddles – there was one I gave a nope to – it just wasn’t an even saddle in through the bars. The others – depending on which back it was used for could be used with attention given to pads.

1st horse – unknown reason for throwing bucks in. He is a paint and is used as a lesson horse. This guy was sore in the lumbar area – and with pictures I could see his rib cage is lifted on his left side. This also could be seen with using the mapping tool which showed how uneven his rib cage has become.
My suggestion was bodywork. We discussed that she could probably use a treeless saddle for this horse with proper padding.

2nd horse – ridden only by the owner and her young son, both are using her custom made saddle. This mare was super sore in her lumbar region. The mapping tool was fitted to her and then to her saddle – which showed a bad case of rocking. When we placed the saddle on the mare the back was lifted off the lumbar by several inches with clearance in the shoulders. NO clearance through the center of her back – leaving the saddle to rock back and forth on her back. Since this saddle was CUSTOM made for this beautiful girl I can only assume in the two years since; her back underwent a lot of changes, as she was custom fitted in person.

3rd horse – will throw bucks after a right hand barrel turn. Her rib cage was lifted and bulging more on her right side – so when she makes her right turns she is getting pinched throughout her right side rib cage. Again – this one needs bodywork also.

The unfortunate thing is when there are issues that are not resolved with proper bodywork care the issues don’t go away.

Normally when I walk into a barn and see the horse has major issues I won’t do a saddle fit and WILL strongly recommend bodywork – get that horse pain free and then I’ll do the saddle fit at a later date.

It’s just the right thing to do for the horse.

Hills Equine Integrative BodyWork Services

Hills Equine Saddle Mapping Tool

920-988-4156



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18/05/2024

Wednesday and Thursday were jammed packed with busy-time. Some of you will recognize this guy and yes - he’s learning how to use the mapping tool and learning other details that I look for in proper saddle fit and details of the saddle itself. Thrilled to work with Greg and Jill!

The horses that I worked with Wed evening and Thursday were a joy to work with and I enjoy helping identify issues they are having, and helping them to feel better.

The Hills Equine Saddle Mapping Tool has been steadily doing well with sales and I’m taking the next scary step with patent work. This has now been over two years in the planning, designing, and manufacturing with many revisions to make the Mapping Tool easy enough for anyone to use to help figure out issues with saddle fit.

Hills Equine Integrative BodyWork Services

29/04/2024

I spent the weekend learning from Jillian Kreinbring who has a fantastic teaching style and tons to learn! As an equine bodyworker and saddle fitter I find there’s always always always room to learn! I feel so blessed to be able to attend as I’ve heard of her for quite awhile. This class was about Functioning Anatomy and learning more about eyeballing to recognize issues, which was perfect to add to my learning!
Oh! Abby Hills went with me!

27/04/2024

Hills Equine Integrative BodyWork Services is well represented at the Jillian Krienbring clinic today!
Abby Hills and myself are in leraning mode!!!