systems we can permanently change a horse’s movement and conformation. The first system is the horse’s spinal nuchal/supraspi- nous ligament (illustration A). This ligament runs all the way from the top of a horse’s neck down the spine and into the tail. This ligament is extremely long and helps to hold the suspended frame of the horse. When the horse’s neck and back lift, this ligament supports that collection and suspension. Now imagine putting a saddle on the young horse’s back which is too narrow and pinches on this ligament system (as in illustration B). To put it in perspective, if a piano player had the ligaments in the back of their hands rubbed continually for 45 minutes five days a week how supple do you think their hand would be? By the time the young horse is old enough to be ridden this spinal width is no longer going to change. Therefore this needs to be measured and the width between the panels of the saddle needs to be appropri- ate for the width of the spine and ligament. Pinching of this ligament can cause a dropped or swayed back and an unwillingness to bend. The second suspension
A B
system has a much larger effect on the conformation of the horse, especially the young horse. Horses do not have collar bones the way humans do. If you look at a cross-section of the horse’s ribcage, you will see the shoulder connected to the ribcage by muscles (illustra- tion C). In this picture, the muscles suspending the ribcage are in yellow. When we ride, we ask the horse to elevate its head, thereby shifting the centre of grav- ity further back. When this happens, the muscles (wither/ trapezius, shoulder, and pectoral) will lift to support the ribcage. You can see the difference in the musculature between the fit horse and the unfit (young or unridden) horse. In our ridden horse the withers and ribcage are higher and the shoulders have more definition and are wider. From the side you will see
C 46 November/December 2017
how much further up and back the shoulder blade comes. If our saddle pinches on the muscles of the withers (illustration D), the opposite development can result. If the trapezius muscle of the horse is pinched, the horse reflexively hollows the back, lifts the head and rotates the pelvis forward. This is where the stallion bites the mare to get her to stand still during mating. So if a young horse’s saddle pinches here you have a contradictory indication for the horse. Although the rider’s hands, seat and legs are telling the horse to engage and move, the saddle is telling the horse to stop and drop its back. If a young horse’s saddle is fitted properly through his
D
development, we can keep pain to a minimum and allow for positive development of muscle. Remember, a horse’s back is not built to carry the weight of a rider (though there is a “safe spot”—the saddle support area—that can actually carry up to 250 pounds for up to eight hours). Through proper fit, we can keep the saddle from causing discomfort. A few very important things to remember in terms of
training and saddle fit: A horse’s growth plates close from the ground up (distally to top), finishing in the spine (where the saddle sits) when the horse is around six years old, no matter what the breed.
The behavior learned in the first year under saddle is behavior the horse is going to demonstrate through- out his life.
Horses, unlike dogs who show specific behaviors towards individual people, do not specify their behav- ior specifically individually. So you really don’t want to reinforce bad habits—especially for a horse that may see multiple owners.
Though all breeds have basically the same skeletal and muscular systems, each one (and each individual!) has a slightly different conformation. That is why it is so impor- tant to work with a saddle fitter from the first day of riding to make sure the saddle fits properly. As far as I know, there has been no model of saddle specifically designed for the young horse until now (our Remonte saddle previously mentioned). It is also imperative to adapt the saddle as the angles of
the horse’s shoulder and wither change through uphill devel- opment. There are some DIY (do it yourself) saddles on the market with interchangeable gullet plates, but these will only change the tree angle, and not the very important width! A young horse should be fitted at least once every six months in order to ensure that the saddle is still fitting properly through his changes in shape. If you want your children to be able to score the winning
goal, they need good equipment. If you want your young horses to succeed in a positive training environment, they too need equipment that fits and supports them as they work and grow.
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