Very few of us are the perfect weight or shape but the fact is that the fitter the rider is, the easier it is for them to balance in the saddle without gripping.
Our riding community is made up of all shape and size of riders and also those that ride for a living and those that ride in their free time. Some people do no other activity other than riding and caring for their horse, while others incorporate other sports to supplement their riding fitness. Professional riders take their fitness seriously, whether it’s going to the gym, partaking in Pilates or running. These riders use other sports to keep their fitness up and weight down. Each time we fit a saddle we also have to assess the rider’s fitness/ability/effectiveness/skill/aspirations.
Building bespoke saddles for our customers means that life details such as what they even do for a living are equally of importance to us. Whether those riders are sat at a desk for 8 hours a day all week or a nursery school teacher who has physical elements to the job, such as moving equipment or picking up little ones, all help build a picture of the rider’s needs, weaknesses and requirements.
Riding is not just about strength – it’s also about softness and suppleness. If you are riding in a saddle that was made to fit you when you were ten years younger or two stone lighter, your saddle may not fit you any longer. This will not only have an impact on the fit of your saddle for you but ultimately affect your horse.
The Jump Saddle
If you are too big for your jump saddle, the problem for the horse is that you will not be sitting in the middle of the saddle. This will affect your stability, and your horse will have to compensate for your lack of balance as well as his own. You can easily tell if you have outgrown your saddle as you will be sitting on the cantle and/or your knees will be over the front of the flaps.
If you are fit, then you may well be able to ignore the imbalance you are getting from sitting in a too small saddle. You may well be able to ‘hold’ yourself still, and the horse may well be able to perform OK – when compared to the same issue with a rider who is very unfit, especially in their core. However, it will never make your job as a rider easy and will in the long-term compromise comfort and progress for both you and the horse.
Riding in a saddle which is too small for you, means that ultimately the saddle doesn’t fit and this will be reflected in your horse’s back as it will become hard and tense and he won’t be able to perform to his best ability.
If your derriere is ample, then you may find that you now have an extra pillow in-between you and the horse. This ‘cushion’ effect means that you won’t sit in the seat as well and may well tumble off more, so getting a seat that accommodates your shape and size is so important.
The Dressage Saddle
If we are still referring to the same individual, this time riding in their dressage saddle; they will again not be in the middle of the seat but up to the cantle and putting pressure in the wrong place. Invariably this causes them to arch their back to try to maintain straightness, and this closes the pelvis and the knee. All these elements prevent your horse from wanting to go forward softly, supply and correctly.
Also, if you tend to put weight on in different areas of your body, this can also have a different impact on the way you ride or how you fit in the saddle. When we put on weight on our legs, contact with his side will be harder to achieve, so your leg aid effectiveness will be compromised. Also, if we revert back to that bottom again, any extra cushioning means that your knee blocks will be longer on your legs, and you may well find your knee is ‘jammed’ now. All of this will make your saddle become a hindrance rather than a help.
Riding in a dressage saddle really requires riders to be able to softly drop their legs. If the muscle memory in your legs has meant that they are used to being ‘shortened’ to compensate for a saddle which is tricky to sit and balance in, then this will take some time to retrain them to drop down. This again can cause instability and some discomfort for the rider while re-training your body into the classic dressage position!!
In General
One telling sign for saddlers as to whether or not the rider and horse need some additional support is if we see flocked panels compressing quicker than normal and very often asymmetrically (either side to side or front to back). This is normally a sign of imbalance caused by rider conformation or lack of core strength and means that your horse has less protection from you through the saddle. We at Childéric would put extra foam in the panels to ensure the horse is as comfortable as possible, but from a rider’s point of view, if this happens, you need to start focusing more on improving your own core strength and overall fitness
With all this imbalance in place, you may inadvertently be holding onto your horse’s mouth to balance – this again is not pleasant for him and will also confuse him.
If you really clench your teeth together, take a moment to feel how this tenses your back and neck. That’s what your horse will do to try to protect his mouth from heavy hands. The tension in his back then makes you even more unstable, which then affects your hands and so on and so on and the cycle continues, so getting your balance right is an absolute priority!
The Other End Of The Scale
Some riders change shape dramatically at the other end of the scale by becoming sports fanatics and again substantially losing inches off your bottom and legs can also affect how you sit in the saddle and how secure you feel! Also, you need to be building the right muscle in the right way. Riding is a sport which also requires softness, so if you are pumping iron at the gym and becoming tight in certain muscle groups, such as your shoulders, lower back or hip flexors, then that muscle tension will also be reflective in the saddle. Choosing sports which give you all round muscle development and ones which support cardio is preferable. For example, taking up running will require different muscles from, say, Pilates. Some of your fitness is transferable, and some isn’t. So, if you are planning fitness for riding make sure you check you are building up the correct muscles as well as aerobic fitness.
On A Final Note
Ultimately your horse wants you to sit still, quietly and speak clearly and softly through your aids. If your fitness and saddle choice is impacting on your ability to do this, then we owe it to our horses to make a change. Just like our horses, we riders change shape, lose and gain a few pounds here and there so next time you sit in your saddle, and it doesn’t feel like a good fit, then maybe it isn’t!
PROMOTED CONTENT
