© Antti Walnestedt
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If the
horse's level of flight is already trained, the saddle should not cause any
problems. The horse does not care about the weight of the saddle, he reacts to
the girth being tightened. The horse must not be saddled for the first time in
a narrow box or in the aisle. The girth is only fastened so much that the
saddle doesn't slip, is there a second girth it can be pulled too, as much as
it normally is pulled, which is the horse can move his ribs without problem but
his legs must not get stuck in a hanging girth. Many old riding horses show that they don't like being saddled, some try to bite the person who is putting on the saddle, it is almost always because the girth is being pulled too hard. A saddle must never fit so badly that it's only the girth that keeps it on the horse's back. The horse is let loose in the round pen, if he is a weak character it is best to keep him on a lunge to start with, so he can be stopped if he gets completely blocked and looses contact with his surroundings. Many times the horse does not move, and has to be started. Normally he bucks when starting to canter, so he has to be made to canter if he doesn't do it on his own. When the horse has stopped bucking and shows that he understands that the saddle is staying on his back, you can start riding. The same thing goes if the horse has been saddled on the lunge.
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Mounting is
normally no problem but the horse also has to be trained in letting his rider
dismount when and how he wants to. With the horse loose, the rider mounts and
dismounts from both sides of the horse, he must not react to the rider getting
up or down. He must allow the rider to poke him by mistake. It is not the
rider's weight that disturbs the horse but the instinct tells him it is unsafe
with something on his back If the horse trusts his rider on the ground, he should also trust him on his back, if it doesn't work there are holes in the earlier training. If the horse has not been fooled or briebed into submission the actual riding is not dangerous, but there are situations where the horse reacts, although he seldom tries to get rid of his rider if he has not been wrongly treated. Even the best rider can fall off if the horse does something unexpected, so do the training under control and don't do anything the rider can't handle. The saddle is there to help the rider and must not bother the horse.It must allow the rider to sit astride in balance, the legs must hang completely loose along the sides and be able to move without resistance, the saddle must not tip the rider forwards or backwards. The seat must be so wide that the rider doesn't have to lift his weight out of the saddle so his seat bones don't hurt. Most cheap saddles have a badly constructed seat, many people get sore without complaining, but it is not right. The saddle has to fit from the beginning, it does not have to take years of suffering before it is changed. It is easier to ride in a saddle that is too big, than one that is too small. The tree must fit the horse, there are no excuses for damage on the horse's back because of wrong pressure, there must not be any white spots on his withers. The tree must be wide, to spread the rider's weight as much as possible. |