Comments on: Horse Industry Careers: Saddle Fitter

By: marjorie

marjorie — Sat, 30 Jan 2016 14:27:47 +0000

Hey! I have been looking around and thinking of purchasing a western saddle online. But I’m afraid of getting the proper seat size. I’ve gone to many saddlery seat sizing charts but get different answers to my seat size. My measurement from kneecap to crease is 17 1/2″. Some charts say I need a 14″ seat some say 15″ some say 16″. So I’m Leary on what to do. I’m interested in the King series all around saddle and also some non branded barrel saddles. Can you offer any advice?

By: Sabine

Sabine — Tue, 21 Apr 2015 10:43:22 +0000

This is a very interesting article outlining pretty much everything that we also teach our saddle ergonomists at Saddlefit 4 Life (www.saddlefit4life.com), however, the one thing that wasn’t really discussed was how the issues of asymmetry in the horse (which often causes saddle slip to one side if the gullet plate cannot be adjusted to accommodate the larger/higher shoulder) are dealt with. We have found that many traditionally built English saddles are simply not as adjustable as they really need to be – and this asymmetry is often unfortunately and inadvertently ignored – as is true fit to the rider (beyond the basic seat size, twist, and flap position/length). While the SMS and the QSF designation is definitely a step in the right direction, there should be more dialogue between empirical and scientific theories (including ours!)

By: Galadriel

Galadriel — Tue, 14 Apr 2015 23:53:17 +0000

Fascination.

By: debra

debra — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 18:17:32 +0000