The Nine Points of Sadddle Fitting
Your saddle affects the way you ride and the way your horse performs. Learn how to evaluate this very basic piece of riding equipment.

By Stacey Nedrow-Wigmore

At the risk of sounding like a school-kid returning to class in the fall, I must say that I went to camp this summer. No, not to learn canoeing, nature crafts, or even dressage. I went to "saddle camp." For the better part of a week, our group of eight, made up of professional saddle-fitters, tack-shop owners, riders, an insurance agent, a college professor and an assistant editor--me--bent over carpet-covered workbenches in a classroom at the Potomac Horse Center in Gaithersburg, Maryland. We used assorted-sized metal "flocking irons" and wooden "smashers" to push and shape soft wool into saddle panels, while our instructor, saddler David Young of Raleigh, North Carolina, looked on. "Put the flocking in there as light and fluffy as possible," he told us. "Don't let it ball up." We heeded his word and worked intently, knowing an intensive five-part practical test and written exam loomed at week's end.

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The course, sponsored by the Master Saddlers Association (MSA), was an education in equine anatomy and saddle fitting. As I realized at the time I enrolled in the course, it's impossible to teach or to learn everything there is to know about these subjects in just five days. But you can take people who already know something about horses and saddle fitting, teach them the basics of what they don't know and give them guidelines for standard saddle-fitting procedures. Going into the course, I knew I was the least experienced member of our group. But I really applied myself, soaking up every bit of information I could, and I passed the final exam--a major accomplishment in my book.

Of all the valuable lessons I learned during saddle camp, the nine points of saddle fitting is the one that I most want to share because it's information that every rider can use. I'm also going to outline some of the details of my final exam to give you an idea of what goes into the education of a saddle-fitter.

Nine Fundamental Points

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Point 1: Saddle Position

To begin our evaluation, Freeze emphasizes the importance of ensuring that the horse each of us is examining is standing squarely on level ground. I check my horse's stance, then I proceed to place the saddle correctly without using a pad: I lay the saddle on the horse's back, slightly forward on the withers. I put my left hand on the horse's neck, just in front of the withers. Then I grab the saddle by the pommel with my right hand and I give it a sharp tug back and down. The saddle "locks in" when it is in the correct position. I repeat the process; the saddle stops in the same place each time.

Point 2: Level Seat

With the saddle correctly placed on the horse's back--and the horse still standing squarely--Freeze now instructs us to look at the lowest point of the seat, which, in most cases, is centered between the pommel (the front of the saddle) and the cantle (the back of the saddle) as well as level. This is the ideal position because it allows a rider to sit comfortably and effectively deliver seat and leg aids without putting undo pressure on the horse's back.

Point 3: Pommel-to-Cantle Relationship

A dressage saddle's cantle is higher than the pommel by virtue of its design, which takes into account the amount of sitting a dressage rider does. For comfort, the cantle conforms to the anatomy of a rider's seat. If, however, the saddle is sitting slightly low behind--and as long as the saddle tree is not too narrow--a saddle fitter may be ale to add flocking to the back of the panel to raise the cantle.

Point 4: Clearance under the Pommel To evaluate pommel clearance when no rider is in the saddle, Freeze now instructs us to first hold one of our hands perpendicular to the ground then to slide it into the space between the pommel and the horse's withers. As a very general rule, two and one half to three fingers should fit into the space without feeling cramped or pinched. Assuming that the tree fits, if there isn't sufficient room, a saddle fitter may be able to add flocking to raise and/or balance the saddle to ensure that it clear the horse's withers.

Point 5: Point Angles

The points of the saddle tree determine the saddle's width, and this is probably the most important aspect of evaluating a saddle's suitability for a particular horse. When the width of the tree is not correct for a horse, the saddle does not fit.