Now we checked our saddles for balance, straightness and tree angle (which is making sure that the saddle has the matching angle to the horse’s shoulder), so now we are going to talk about tree width. Saddles come in different widths and it’s important for the horse’s shoulder to go through. As riders, we want horses to move freely in the shoulders without the saddle being in the way.
Let me demonstrate how the horse’s shoulder moves. When I lift up the horse’s leg and pull the leg a little bit forward, you can see how the shoulder moves. The shoulder goes upwards and backwards to the stage. Using a piece of chalk you can find where the shoulder is right here now (shown in video). Now when I put the leg down, you can mark where the shoulder ends and also where it starts. So the tree width is important so that when the horse performs this action it is free and won’t restrict the horse’s movement.
Let me put a saddle on and show you how your horse’s wide shoulders matches the tree width of your saddle. Put your saddle on your horse’s shoulder and slide it back into place. We can see that the pipe matches the shoulder angle, as we checked earlier. We can see we have 2-3 finger clearance all the way around the withers. We have a saddle with a very wide tree width which is deceiving because if I looked just at his withers and how narrow he is, I might say he needs a narrow tree width. Keep in mind that this area where my hand is, the shoulder would rotate like a piston upwards and backwards. This is the area that I am trying to free up in movement. So that is why this has to be very wide because his shoulders are wide.
Let me put a saddle on that is too narrow in the tree width. I put the saddle on the shoulder and slide it back into place. First look is not so bad. The pipe is almost in the same line as the shoulder blade, we have clearance but not enough. If the shoulder wants to go through here (as shown in video), there is no way. You can see how narrow this is, which guarantees that the saddle will move back and forth. I might put a brass plate in to hold it in place, but it would put a lot of pressure against the shoulder which would really limit his freedom of movement.
We just finished the 9 steps of saddlefitting, thanks to Ted here who was a good partner. I hope these videos helped you a lot to protect your horse from long-term damage which you can’t fix. A lot of behavior issues are caused by ill-fitting saddles. I hope you don’t lose your friend, buddy and partner like I did through ill-fitted equipment. Today we have enough technology to protect our horses: thermography, fiber optic cameras, and computerized saddle pads. If you are looking for help, we at Art2Ride Saddlery and Schleese Saddlery Service do all over North America. We do on site barn visits where we can repair saddles on site! Schleese Saddlery Service has the patented adapt tree which makes it able to fit and adjust the saddle to all horses and riders! Please give us a call so we can help you and your horse!