Last week I offered Debbie the chance to see if my old German made dressage saddle would work for her Arab gelding Tercel.  This is an old calf-skin covered saddle I had found in pitiful condition in my feed store almost ten years ago.  It obviously had been ridden by someone in jeans (the leather jockeys covering the stirrup buckles were sadly worn,) and the saddle had obviously not been stored right because there were wrinkles in the calf-skin on the flaps, luckily not where my knees go.  I saw the saddle, asked its price ($100.00 US), realized I had that much in my pocket, tested the tree, agonized over the state it was in, until I finally found the words “Made in Germany.“  I KNEW that I would never, ever find a German made dressage saddle for $100.00 again in my life, so I bought it.  When I got it home I found out one of the billets had to be restitched but that only cost me $15.00.  My saddler looked the saddle over thoroughly and told me that I would have to spend at least $3,000.00 to get an equivalent new one.  When I sat in the saddle on his strong saddle stand he said it fit me perfectly.

I used this saddle some during the years since, mostly on Shannon’s very wide backed horses with the Corrector pad until I got my Wintec Wide and then my treeless saddle, or as an emergency replacement when my Stubben Siegfried had to be repaired.  I suspect that this saddle may have a hoop tree because of the way it sat down on  the wide backed horses.  I tried to Google the company name but there was no web site so I assume the company is no longer in business.  Shannon tore out the knee roll inserts for me since they were really irritating me and interfering with my seat.  It was OK to ride in, but not as much fun as my forward seat saddles!

Since my treeless saddle had not worked out for Debbie I decided that this was the only saddle I had that had a chance of fitting both Debbie and Tercel.  I offered to bring it out on Wednesday so Debbie could try it on Tercel, hopefully during my lesson.  But Debbie had a root canal earlier in the week and did not feel up to riding in the cold wind during my lesson.  I lent her my Back on Track shawl to wrap around her head under her hood so she could give me my lesson on Mick.  When we got back in Debbie decided she wanted to see if my dressage saddle fit Tercel at all, so she groomed his back, got a saddle pad, and she put the saddle on his back.  So far so good!  The saddle looked properly balanced on his back except for having maybe a little too much clearance of the withers, but the deepest part of the saddle was still more of less in the center.  She got a girth, tightened the girth, and decided she was up to riding after all, at least for a short time.  So she put his cross-under bridle on, tightened the girth some more, and got on.

She liked riding in the saddle fine.  As she had Tercel walk and trot around she paid attention to how the saddle was acting with his back and decided that it was maybe a little bit too narrow for Tercel.  I had been worried about this so I had brought out my spare 18” Corrector pad for Debbie to use if she decided to use the saddle but first she wanted to see how it fit without the Corrector pad.  After some thought Debbie decided she would like to use my saddle for a while, using the Corrector.  As she said Tercel’s back is going to change as he gets fitter, and then we could reevaluate the saddle fit.  I have been riding Debbie’s horses for years using a saddle that was a little bit too narrow, and I find that the Corrector pad does protect the horse’s back enough so the horse is still willing to stride out and the horses have never gotten back sore.  This means that Debbie has had years to observe the Corrector pad working to ameliorate the effects of a saddle that is a little bit too narrow.

I really hope this set up works out for a while.  The problem with conditioning the long distance horse is that as the horse gets fitter his back changes, and if you are conditioning for 100 miles in one day you may have to reflock your saddle several times or get a new one.  Debbie desperately needs a saddle that she can use to put the initial long distance conditioning on Tercel, and if she rides him regularly enough for enough miles the saddle may fit him, or it may be obvious that Debbie needs to buy him a properly fitting saddle.

Debbie was greatly encouraged when I told her I had read on the COTH forum that more than one ladies were riding long distance in a properly fitting dressage saddle.  Like me Debbie does not particularly like the high pommels of the Western type endurance saddles.  I see no reason why a properly conditioned horse cannot carry a rider for over 40 miles in a jumping saddle, fox hunters can do it (at least the Thoroughbreds can do it.)  A dressage saddle?  No problem, dressage saddles were descended in part from cavalry saddles, and cavalry horses were expected to go many miles in a day under a much heavier load than an endurance rider.  The panels are a little wider than with a jumping saddle so the rider’s weight is more spread out over the horse’s back.  Since Debbie is a very good rider who knows how to be light with her seat I do not see her having many problems unless she wants to tie stuff to her saddle, dressage saddles are not good for that, alas.

Maybe next week I can see how Tercel moves under the dressage saddle with the Corrector protecting his back.

Have a great ride!

Jackie Cochran