| Used saddles has been doing a bit of research and | | | | In an Ideal world we might be able to find the perfect |
| found out that one of the most common saddle fitting | | | | saddle to put on our sway backed horse and if so |
| problem on a sway backed horse is the term that we | | | | these are the things we need to think about. Number |
| call "bridging". This occurs when you put a too straight | | | | one is to choose a saddle with a tree with a rounded |
| saddle on a horse with a curved back. The saddle | | | | shape and padding. When we have found the right |
| then makes a bridge between the end of the wither | | | | model of saddle for our horse we have to make sure |
| and the last rib, causing great pressure zones on the | | | | that we have the saddle width right so that it isn't too |
| horses back. Particularly at the back of the saddle | | | | narrow or wide. Then we have to make sure the |
| leaving an impression in the horses back muscles very | | | | saddle don't bridge. And off we go! |
| hard to cure, if possible at all. | | | | The second option. |
| How to saddle the sway backed horse. | | | | I realise that not every one has the luxury of being |
| On saddling a sway backed horse you have to make | | | | able to buy a saddle to fit on this quite difficult to fit |
| sure you have a saddle that is curved in the shape of | | | | horse and would need some advice of how to be able |
| the horses top line. This is important regardless if you | | | | to apply one of their already used saddles. The |
| are buying new or used saddles. This type of saddle | | | | obvious thing to do then is of course to try to fill the |
| might not always be very easy to find as most | | | | gap between the saddle and the back of the horse. I |
| modern saddles are made for horses with a "god" | | | | would not recomend getting one of those saddle lifter |
| back and not for a horse conformation problem like a | | | | pads as they lift the whole saddle and not just the bit |
| sway back. There are so called real sway backed | | | | in the middle. My suggestion would be to get hold of a |
| horses and horses that have become sway backed | | | | bit of dense mattress foam and cut out a piece that is |
| from age or because of over work or bad riding. The | | | | big enough to fit the gap, making sure that it is thinner in |
| reason for the sway back is less important, what is | | | | the ends making sure that no edges can be felt under |
| important though is that we do the most we can to | | | | the saddle for the horse. Cutting out a circular pad that |
| help a sway backed horse not sway away even | | | | you carv in the edges to make a flying saucer shape |
| more from the pressure of a wrongly fit saddle. | | | | is ideal. |
| The right thing to do. | | | | |