If you value your bascule- you better study the back/saddle relationship

A day doesn’t go by when I don’t broach this subject with clients. Lucky I have the necessary experience to back up my convictions.

When I was a working pupil to Ian Silitch (American GP winner) I learnt what a back moving horse feels like, I also leant what a bridle lame horse was, and how to fix it.

Saddle lameness wasn’t something we discussed at the time, it didn’t occur at Ian’s stables, I’ll explain why later.

On my return to the UK, I was working as a freelance rider and problem horses became my bread and butter. It turned out my new found skill as a rider post IMS stables was only a fraction of what I needed to develop in me for the problem solving journey that lay ahead.

I have a quiet demeanour and I’m naturally inclined to try and fix horses, I attracted as clients a very broad mix of owners, most had one thing in common - their horse was broken!

It became apparent that all owners were not the kind, genuine, honest people that you may assume. Often when I walked on to a new stable to meet another new client, I wasn’t told the whole truth, now I know those of you that have been around the horse world awhile will find this hard to believe, but please give me the benefit of the doubt! Sometimes it became apparent that I was being setup.

Now that does seem a rather extravagant claim, I agree, all these years later I think the same. What a journey.

I learnt that often owners were not interested in me fixing their horse, what they were looking for was someone like me to tell them what they already knew, that their horse was broken, it was in no way their fault and there was nothing I could do. How wrong they were.

What happened was that I broadened and honed my skills, I learned not to trust anything I was told. I developed my own program and with each horse, I started at the very beginning.

Please forgive the tangents in this story I hope they will enlighten my tale, not distract.

Early on in this work I’d turn up and ride said horse, shall we call him King? Stable name killer! This was a real horse but this part of the story is general and bare in mind this is before I’d developed my whole program - I’d ride the horse around and absolutely agree with the owner that the horse was a tense and hollow mess that didn’t move forward, with a varying level of danger attached, I’d jump off after 10 or 15 minutes after all my riding skills made not a blind bit of difference, (at this point the owner thinks that they have won the unannounced game) I’d then switch out the owners saddle for one that I’d taken to travelling with -

It’s flat and wide and I’d pad it to suit each horse

All of a sudden the horse started to move again, come up under my saddle and let me ride it, it’s stride length returning along with it’s confidence, and a better attitude. I became expert at this process, eventually not wanting to further waste my time I stopped riding in the owners saddles. I’d learnt from assessing the horses back what the saddle would be like and what at least part of the problem was.

So back to Ian Silitch and my time as working pupil

Ian rode in saddles made by Tad Coffin, most European riders won’t be familiar with them. The basics are that they are flat and wide, the tree has changed since I rode in them to one that is more flexible and I haven’t had the chance to test one. It’s a combination of these saddles and Ian’s fantastic horses and coaching which imprinted in me ‘the feel’ of a back mover.

This was 22 years ago, I couldn’t count the number of horses that I’ve helped since. And the owners? Well, a mixed bag, some people understood straight away, everything I said opened their eyes and relief came to them that they had found someone that could help. And then the others, my biggest problem was explaining to them what they had witnessed; you see they already have their own preconceptions, ideas firmly formed that all the problems lay with their horse, and confirmed by the sometimes numerous professionals they had already consulted, which brings me back to Ian Silitch and the values that were instrumental to his training, and instilled in me, first examine your self and your actions.

Part of the issue for owners was that they had already had their misconceptions formed with the help of other equestrian ‘professionals’ people masquerading as competent. Since I’m writing about the back and saddles here I’ll limit my comments to the saddle industry, although usually it’s a combined effort of several incompetents leading to the horses demise. The majority of these people had been sold saddles by the industry, (qualified saddle fitters) saddles that by dint of poor design, fit or build quality would make my daughter’s rocking horse lame. The majority of saddle companies will spend more on marketing than on the build of the saddle, they make the seat comfortable for the rider and they make it look appealing, and as we say in Birmingham, bugger the horse. So people buy into a brand, they swallow the marketing and they swallow the nonsense spouted by the saddle salesmen. Unfortunately once people have been convinced of a lie (the sales pitch) they are far from willing to challenge it.

But bascule I hear you say, how does all this effect the horses bascule -

While the natural beauty and elasticity of the horses jump is God given or carefully developed through generations of breeding, depending on your point of view! And maybe difficult (see impossible) to improve on, we certainly can cause it harm.

The bascule, the beauty over a fence is the icing on the cake, I watch the rounds from ringside scoring not just the rails that fall but the form of each combination, which horse would I like to sit on? Which rider would I like to emulate? I watch for the rhythm, the speed, the ease of turns the brevity of the rider, the ability of the rider to leave the horse alone, I like the rounds where the rider looks like he has done nothing and the unknowing soul next to me comments what an easy horse that was, and of course the shape over the fence, the bascule.

Whilst there are many ways to destroy a horse, the saddle must be at least equal first on the list.

The saddle must allow the horses back to come up underneath it for the energy to flow from the hind leg unimpinged, the raised back is the essence of the horses bascule over a fence.

When the bascule is diminished, when the back is blocked, where does the energy go?

Several things happen, the horse shortens the stride, the hind leg can no longer step through, it shortens and steps higher, that energy festers in a restricted hind end, the pelvis gets tight. Some of that energy travels up the rider’s spine, what an uncomfortable ride -

When the horse can’t come up through its centre it’s forced to loose its straightness it looses its ability to balance, it comes in crooked to fences, and on the downside, it runs - hollow.

To boot the shoulders are usually restricted and the neck shortened and the mouth - now hard as iron.

When saddles are less than perfect, horses adapt by contorting themselves, in the short term we see a lack of balance, straightness, ‘throughness’ their asymmetry becomes greater our quest to straighten them becomes implausible, as a minimum we see horses not reaching their full potential, but for many eventually this leads to disease and breakdown, a pained existence, a shortened career, an early death.

There are many variables in how the build and design of a saddle can impinge your horse. The tree, its shape, what it’s made from, how it is strained, how it’s dressed, is it even straight when it comes out of the factory? The panels, are they flocked, latex, memory foam or God forbid injection moulded, do they do their job of protecting the horse’s back from the tree? Do they breakdown as quickly as their warranty expires? And when the finished saddle sits on your horse, is it balanced? Does it sit parallel to the ground? Does the depth of seat create a pivot point in its centre? Does it allow you to sit in the middle, or does it tip you back? Is it wide enough in the gullet? This is just a few examples. On the most basic level and to generalise, I see horses that are in saddles which are too narrow, sometimes it’s subtle, sometimes blindingly obvious. Performance of the majority of horses that I see is negatively affected by their saddles.

With big brands becoming even bigger conglomerates attention to detail gets less and less, saddles are made on a production line costs cut to a minimum and the price tags get bigger every year, the saddle seller has become a convenient intermediary distancing the maker from the consumer. Top riders think they are onto a good deal getting free or discounted saddles and might not then look objectively at the big picture.

There are however if you know where to look still stalwarts of the trade hanging on and making quality saddles and amongst them the odd genius lurks that understands exactly what each horse needs. This is where I go to preserve my horses bascule.