Muscle Build up (incorrect)

[Moomoo]

Well to cut a long story short found out my saddle was too narrow for my welsh d, put my trust into as saddler who came out to measure my mare and for a saddle and charged me £900.00. :eek:

Great looking saddle but it keeps slipping to the left all the time (only had it a few weeks) Then she started to get all stuffy in trot and could not canter her for the bucking (she has never bucked before so I new she was unhappy) :(

I wanted a full refund (which they did offer or to make me a new one) But he was saying that my horse must of had an underlying problem and the saddle fits fine. My mare has never had a problem in the two years I have had her and she has always had her back checked every 6 months by a physio.

So they came to see her last night, "oh ye she is very sore isnt she" So We saddled her back up, "oh it fits fine its not the saddle" so we took her in the school and it slipped straight away. I said do you want to see her trotting/canter "oh no no I think we have seen enough" They new it never fitted. He then tried to say is cause she has more build up of muscle on the one side that the other. I said yes I can see that but you should of picked that up from the template you made then stuffed the saddle more one side than the other. He could not ans me. He then offered me flair for the saddle FOC for a few months then he would take it out. I said why did you not offer me that in the first place. Blah Blah Blah Sorry to waffe on very annoyed as they contradicted them selves all the time.

I got my money back HOORAY :) :) :)

But I am now stuck on what to do next.

I am having the physio out and going to have another saddler to look at her and have flair. Does anyone ride in flair?

As every horse has a bad rein, What side of her would the muscle build up on if her bad rein was the left.

How can i correct the muscle build up?


So sorry to waffle on but very annoyed, you put your trust and faith in these "qualified" people :(

[Moomoo]

What saddle would you recommend as she is soooooo wiiiiiidddeeee :D

[No_Angel]

I would recommend treeless! :D Then you don't have to fart around with saddle fitters anymore!

[eventerbabe]

my welsh D has an Ideal Highland and Cob. Our saddler says that she's found them to be the best fitting for welsh D types. failing that and if she is incredibly wide, like my horse, and Ideal Grandee. its a GP/jumping saddle and the best i've ever sat on.

have you thought about riding her bareback for a while?? my mare had a bit of a sore back about 10 years ago and whilst the fitter was trying to get hold of an ideal for us, i rode bareback for 3 months, did wonders for my riding!!

I've seen some horses react badly to flair and it is awfully hard, virtually no give at all.

[Supercali]

Yes we had lots of problems with a saddle fitting as well.

We paid about £850 for a saddle that was too big and out of balance and tipped back! The fitter came out about 10 times and in the end we got our money back. If it was up to us at the time then we wouldn't have realised soething was wrong but the YO pointed out that it didn't fit properly and had to actually show the saddle fitter where it was wrong!

It makes me mad that these people are part of the 'Master Saddlers' and don't know what they are doing. I did email the Society of Master Saddlers and told them what went on. I didn't hear back from them but the saddle company did and thats why we got our money back.

We are very wary now but did find a saddler who was great but now have moved to the other side of the country and will need to find another one.

[shandy84]

I have had a very similar problem with Shandy, the damage was so bad a year on her mental attitude towards riding is still affected, even though her current saddle fits she is not happy in it, so we are going to ride bareback for a while and then hopefully buy a treeless for her, I have had enough of so called knowledgeable people screwing my pony up.

[shirley]

The physio should be able to give you an exercise regime to build up the muscle on the affected side. She will probably know of a reputable saddler who will give you sound advice as well.
You may also want to look at the way you ride as well, we are all rather one sided and this must have an effect on the way our horses go and muscular development etc. So perhaps get your instructor to give some exercises to even you up as well.
Good luck and take your time, better this than ruin your ponys back. If you want to try a treeless Torsion do a 3 day loan for about £50 may be worth visiting their web site and seeing for yourself.

[kedwards]

To add to Shirley's comments, if you find that the saddle is slipping left, then you may be inadvertantly stepping too much into the left stirrup due to her unevenness. You may have to make a point to be sure that you are keeping equal weight in your right stirrup.

I only say this because my horse and I have exactly the opposite problem. He is stiff bending right. It's improved significantly, but the difference in his muscling under the withers was quite visible at one point. It turns out, I had developed some habits in riding him, as a result of his one-sidedness, that made it even harder for me to work him evenly. I started with a new instructor last fall who noticed these tendencies in me and taught me to balance myself, even when he was unbalanced, and it has made a huge difference in our performance and in improving his musculature. In my case, since I tended to collapse my left side, I had to consciously think about keeping weight in my left stirrup and hip and lowering my right shoulder.

[shirley]

Kewards - I also have a rightsidedness, so I will try the info given to you and see how it effects the way my cob goes.