saddle fitting woes

A recent blog entry by Cyndi Bird of www.opengaits.ca inspired me to write this post. Cyndi is an Equine Sports Massage Therapist and has been Prowler's massage therapist for the past 4 years. She's witnessed the challenges I've had finding saddle that work for both me and my horse. 

Anyone else hate saddle fitting? I SURE DO! I've bought and sold 7 saddles in the 7 years I've had my old gelding Prowler. 

My first purchase was a Aussie saddle that was terrible because I didn't know how to properly measure his withers. That one went back right away. I tried a couple of western saddles but they bridged or fell on his withers.

Then I bought a Parelli Theraflex Pad and Thorowgood Saddle (in above photo), made for thoroughbreds with high withers. I never really got used to the Theraflex pad. It made me feel al little 'swimmy' up there. Prowler seemed to like it though and moved out more. The saddle actually fit him fairly well but something still didn't feel quite right. I felt very far away from my horse, which seemed counter to learning to feel what his body was doing so I could refine my riding and influence him with my body and minimal aids.

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