JUNE/JULY 2011 THE RIDER /57 Saddlefit 4 Life Saddle Fit and Common Misperceptions
By Jochen Schleese, CMS, CSFT, CEE
By Jochen Schleese
I’d like to comment on a couple of articles which recently appeared in various other equine media (not “the Rider”!). The first one was about “weekend warriors” and trying to avoid battles during your horse time. According to the dictionary, this phrase came into being in 1981 to reflect the average person’s increasingly hectic lifestyle. Free time has felt increasingly compressed, with the result that on the weekend you hit the ground running to get the most of your horse time.
Often you pay the price on Monday morning with a litany of physical complaints – but horses pay the price as well. Unfortunately, if they have been standing in their stalls for most of the week, they will be either a) stiff and needing a long warmup time or b) so eager to run that they will be difficult to handle. (of course, hopefully, they will have had turnout dur-
www.saddlesforwomen.com Ride Pain Free. For You. For Your Horse.
ing the days you haven’t been able to ride!) However, I would just like to make the point that sometimes (unfortunately more often than I’d like to see!) we have clients who have a saddle fitting appointment (at least they recognize that perhaps some- thing is off here) who do only ride their poor horse once or twice a week, and simply cannot get him to piaffe or passage as beautifully as they’d like. (Okay, I’m being a bit facetious here). The problem is not only is the horse ‘out of shape’ (per- haps the rider as well), but the expectations are way too high, the tack is not fitting properly because it is the least of the rider’s worries, and the whole thing ends up being more of exercise in frustration than fun. It doesn’t have to be that way. The inability to bend and ‘be supple’ is not necessarily only due to the inactivity of the prior week; it could also be that the saddle simply will not allow it, and to ensure that this is not part of the problem, it is sug- gested that you do the simple diagnostics of our “9 points of saddle fit” which were recently published in The Rider. Without going into the specific details of this, you can quickly determine if the saddle is too long, sits on the shoulders, sits on the spine, impinges the withers, etc. In a second article about wolf’s teeth, the question was: Do you have a horse who refus- es to turn one way or the other? Does your horse consistently fall off the lead behind after a reluctant lead change? Do you know a horse who carries his head too high or too low? While all of these symptoms may actual- ly be characteristic of wolf teeth, they are also indications of poor saddle fit. Again, this possibility is easi- ly diagnosed one way
Asselin and Gabriel Win SSG Gloves Bonus Money at Thunderbird
Langley, BC — Ben Asselin and Isabella Gabriel were the first two winners in the SSG Riding Gloves promo- tion running throughout the 2011 competition season at Thunderbird Show Park in Langley, BC.
Asselin, 17, of Calgary, AB, won the $25,000 BC Timberframe Grand Prix on Sunday, May 29, while wearing SSG ‘Digital’ Riding Gloves to pick up a cash bonus of $1,000. Asselin qualified two horses for the jump-off, Magic Man and Lolita, with Lolita taking the win with a clear jump-off ride in a time of 41.17 seconds.
“I think it is a great way to get people wearing the gloves,” said Asselin of the SSG ‘Go Clean for the Green’ promotion. “I don’t normally wear gloves, but they give a good feel and the grip is great.” While Asselin was the winner in the show jumping ring, another 17-year-old rider, Isabella Gabriel, won in the hunter ring. Gabriel topped a starting field of 16 entries to win the $1,000 Cobblestone Hunter Derby on Saturday, May 28. Gabriel was wearing her SSG ‘Digital’ Riding Gloves to earn an additional $500 bonus. “I bought the gloves for the promotion here at the horse show,” explained Gabriel. “They are really nice, and they give you the right amount of grip.”
Gabriel was riding Ismael, a 23-year- old chestnut gelding that she has been leas- ing for the last year and a half. Hailing from Salem, Oregon, Gabriel trains with Akiko Hamanda at Stellar Sport Horses. SSG Riding Gloves awarded a total of $9,000 in bonus money through its ‘Go Clean for the Green’ promotion at Thun- derbird Show Park.
or the other (check his teeth, obviously), but usually are seen as being the result of poor sad- dle fit and nothing more! These specific symptoms are especial- ly easy to diagnose: the saddle pinches the shoulder (usually the left), twists to the right, and is too long. All of these issues will result in a horse who hol- lows his back (and thus carries his head higher) because of the saddle either being too long and/or pinching at the withers (the vice grip of the saddle – and where the stallion bites the mare in the trapezius to ‘immo- bilize’ her during mating – again the back hollows and the head comes up).
Another on-line article was written by a well-known dres- sage rider (not saddle fitter!) who went to great lengths to express her opinions on saddle fit issues. Many of the points made were not generally accept- ed even by the ‘lay’ riding audi- ence and could be considered somewhat controversial, even counter-logical to presently accepted norms of saddle fit. Readers should keep in mind that such articles are only the opinion of the author.
Anyway, all I’m saying is that there are many of these kinds of articles written by vari- ous equine professionals who make a definitive statement about a probable cause, when often the issue can be easily attributed to something as seem- ingly simple as poor saddle fit and the solution is much more easily remedied than through invasive or medical procedures. This has been my experience and I have many clients who
have said to me things along the line of “I have spent so many thousands of dollars on vet bills, or chiro bills, or whatever – when the solution could have been as simple as buying one saddle that actually fits and could be refit.” Sorry but that’s the truth of the matter. Jochen Schleese, CMS, CSFT, CEE
www.saddlesforwomen.com www.saddlefit4life.com
www.saddlesforwomen.com ‘courtesy and copyright of Saddlefit4Life’
Biography: Jochen Schleese, CMS, CSFT, CEE
Certified Master Saddler, Saddlefit Technician, Equine Ergonomist
Mr. Schleese is a former member of the German young rider’s Three-day event team, and graduated from Passier Germany as the youngest- ever Certified Master Saddler at age 22. He came to Cana- da as the Official Saddler for the 1986 World Dressage Championships. Schleese has made the trade of saddlery registered and certifiable in Ontario as the only autho- rized training facility. Schleese has 60 employees and agents worldwide. He developed the Saddl-
Jochen Schleese, CMS, CSFT, CEE
als are protecting horse’s and rider’s backs. Jochen states, “Horses should not suffer for the ignorance of the rider, nor should they be farmed out, or put down because of severe,
irreparable damage resulting from poor saddle fit.” Jochen’s passion and life mission to edu- cate is improving the well being of horses and riders worldwide!
efit4Life® philosophy and diagnostic system. Saddlefit 4 Life® is taught worldwide to DVM’s, REMTs, DCs, Train- ers and Saddle Fitters. Through sharing expertise Saddlefit 4 Life® profession-
Helping riders enjoy the process... not just the result! Technical skills + the science of how
horses learn = fun and success! Ask about lessons and clinics.
Hoosier Horse Expo. Indianapolis 2011.
Can Am. London, 2011
“Practical training for horses and riders.” Orangeville, Ontario
(519) 938-8815 •
www.lgrice.com
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