Saddle slipping back

[Pehsness]

I am SO EXCITED about how my horse is going right now. We’re having a blast.

But again today I noticed my saddle has slipped back a bit after our ride.

I think I have asked in the past about breast plates in dressage and googled to find they’re legal, but not common.

My trainer suggested his lack of “girth groove” is also going to make it difficult to keep a saddle in place.

Should I just get a breast plate and go with it? I’ve tried various pads, a half pad makes it much worse.

The saddle does fit. It’s an older Passier but in great shape and fits him well. Once he’s fit again I’ll have it assessed.

Any thoughts?

[Posting_Trot]

What kind of a girth are you using. Sometimes an anatomic girth does a better job of finding the horse’s girth groove and keeping the saddle in place.

A lot of manufacturers make anatomic girths, and it’s certainly worth a try if you haven’t tried one already.

[JB]

Can you post a picture of the saddle on as you tack it up, then after a ride? Are you 100% certain it’s not sliding back where it belongs?

[Pehsness]

I don’t know if it’s officially called anatomic… but it does have the cutout at the front. But good idea, maybe it’s borderline too big. It meets the saddle pad on both sides and would overlap if I had to tighten another hole. I’ll look in to that.

[Pehsness]

Oh, also a good thought… he does have big shoulders. I will try to get a photo (but won’t be for a bit).

[blue_heron]

I would play with girthing before a breastplate too.

Maybe a neoprene or other grippy material. Mattes makes a girth that is the other direction than your traditional crescent girth that I think is supposed to solve this issue of horses with limited girth area.

[Pehsness]

Thank you! Changing girths never would have occurred to me so I’ll start there.

[MapleFarm]

Changing girths has helped me. I have a very wide horse without much of a girth groove. Mattes athletico girth helped a lot, then I just moved to the wow freespace (there are a few brands with this concept out there) and now I’m getting the least slippage yet.

I tried a dressage breastplate originally, but it didn’t seem to help much - I didn’t like how it got so tight on the shoulder either.

[Lusoluv]

I have a young, big moving horse and his saddle did slip back a bit when I got him 5 months ago. I didn’t want to overtighten the girth, or adjust the saddle since I know he is still developing and the saddle does fit well overall. I’ve been trained in saddle fitting. I borrowed an Acavello lightweight half pad from a friend. It is very squishy with geometric gaps to allow airflow. If a friend didn’t have this to loan me, I would have bought a pimple grip shelf liner sheet from Home Depot for $10. This has solved my minor slip issue!

[Pehsness]

Interesting! I tried a half pad and it made it worse, but it isn’t squishy. I wondered if his lack of topline was part of the problem.

The main pad I use actually has the grippy bit in the center. I didn’t know why and assumed for air flow, but maybe it’s actually intended to help with this issue. The saddle slips the least when using this pad.

[Lusoluv]

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Con-Tact-Ultra-Grip-Black-Shelf-Drawer-Liner-04F-C6O51-12/100388913

A cheap solution to try?

[beau159]

@Pehsness

I am SO EXCITED about how my horse is going right now. We’re having a blast.

But again today I noticed my saddle has slipped back a bit after our ride.

I think I have asked in the past about breast plates in dressage and googled to find they’re legal, but not common.

My trainer suggested his lack of “girth groove” is also going to make it difficult to keep a saddle in place.

Should I just get a breast plate and go with it? I’ve tried various pads, a half pad makes it much worse.

The saddle does fit. It’s an older Passier but in great shape and fits him well. Once he’s fit again I’ll have it assessed.

Any thoughts?

I would like to see pictures of where it is when you are done riding.

Could that be where the saddle NEEDS to sit? And it just looks funny to you but may be correct?

I have a horse that her saddle tends to look like it is “too far back”. But it’s just her anatomy compared to my other horses. When I first got her, I too thought it was “wrong” but as I tried different saddles, I realized that that is just how saddles are going to sit on her based on her body type.

[outerbanks77]

Does your saddle have point billets? If yes that could be contributing since they are essentially attaching the girth farther forward on the saddle tree. Agree that pics would be helpful!