03/26/2026
Its important that a saddle fitter have a thorough understanding of horse and human anatomy. I figured Id walk you through what I see and what can be done about it. We offer this service as an add-on called Postural Reform.
First, lets get a few facts principles mulling.
-We must understand that we should not harmonize with dysfunction. Doing so perpetuates dysfunction. You will never have a straight, round, powerful horse that stands or moves crooked. For these reasons we do not fit trees narrow to atrophy, or adjust trees to asymmetry.
-Saddle slips is caused by horse or rider dysfunction. Until that is addressed, there is no full solution.
- the body is the initiator of locomotion. The legs are amplifiers of the locomotion AND receivers of information to relay back to the trunk.
What you see here I guarantee theres a horse in your barn or your friends barn with similar going on.
Photo 1
In looking at this horse, starting at the head and working our way back we see a clockwise head tilt. A left bend thru C3, and then a Right bend in the mid neck. Withers tilted right, and left shoulder looks steeper, and the right caudal wing of the scapula pokes out. Theres a steeper slope to the thoracic on the right than the left. The left hip is higher and more forward. The body is finding its own tensegrity, albeit crooked and inefficient.
Photo 2
We see a lot of the asymmetry resolved by adding height to the right front. The head tilt is still present and now the neck has been brought right as a counterweight.
Some of what this tells me is the root cause could be in the left hind quadrant. Because the neck counterbalance when the thorax is straight, it could be unloading the opposite hind.
To pursue this hypothsis, the horse could benefit from a flat pad on the rf, or exercised with only a right front boot on,and careful attention to alignment. Exercises to load and strengthen the left hind, like baby shoulder in left at walk, riding squares correctly, hills with the left side on higher elevation, fanned cavaletti to the left could completely reverse most of this asymmetry in 2-3 months.
Here's the thing, it could also be something different, but you have to start doing something based on a hypothesis to learn if you're on the right track.
Dysfunction ≠ Lameness necessarily. It can be from an old injury, birthing trauma, a conformational defect, laterality, theres a long list of things that cause that compensation without it being an actual ouch. I work my horses to the philosophy of - do the exercise, if they stay the same or improve, keep doing it. If they get worse, modify the exercise, and if they still get worse, call in a vet.
Once on a path to straightness, the saddle slip will resolve. And it can then be a key performance indicator to how the horse is feeling and the quality of the exercise being performed.
