Not a saddle suggestion, but my mother has MS and through the MS society cooling program was given a cooling/ice vest.
I rode in it last summer, I was on meds that let me be more active BUT made me stop sweating completely, and it did help with the overheating (along with spraying myself down with a hose before getting on lol)
I’m in Florida and the ice packs did melt and turn to room temp squishy bags by the end of a 30 min lesson, but they’d also ridden from home to the barn so I’d say they stayed cold a good 2 hours.
They also offer a neck wrap with ice bags that really helped keep my heart rate at a tolerable level, along with cooling.
I specifically rode in “Women’s Fashion Cooling Vest with Kool Max® Packs” people said it just looked like I was wearing a saddleseat academy outfit lol. Right out of the freezer the bags are kinda awkward if they didn’t freeze straight, but by the time I was ready to get on they’d melt enough to be comfortable. In the beginning 6 icepack were too heavy on my shoulders but they’re all in individual pockets so customizing it was easy.
I did fall twice wearing it and besides a square shaped hip bruise it wasn’t painful and there was no popping of gel bags!
Yep, I have been using an ice vest for a few years.
My problem with them is that before my effective medicine my muscles spasmed a lot, often from no identifiable reason.
I had luck a few decades ago with a medicine using quinine. Then they took THAT medicine off the market because drug pushers were using it to give heroin extra body effects. I cried when I was taken off of it.
I will just have to play it by ear when I get back to where I can mount a horse.
I tried to order the bitless “double bridle.” I could only use PayPal so I asked my son to order them for me. When my son finally got a message from the store about postage it ended up being over 50.00 US. That makes each bridle over $200.00 US.
I am going to try using my new leather bit from Fager. When I tried it on MJ by itself it was like he had never had a bit in his mouth ever in his life. What is this? Why are you moving it in my mouth? You actually expect me to OBEY it?
Yeah, I can do the Forward Seat with loose reins, the basic level of schooling in the method. Maybe my body will recover enough so the horses do not think that I am cruelly torturing their mouths.
Maybe I will end up with a “double bridle” using the leather snaffle as the bridoon and the Light Rider bridle as the “curb”.
Jackie, I’m late to the party but I’m very sorry to hear about your fall! I fell not too long ago too and probably have a meniscus tear but I haven’t done much about so far.
I hope you did go see your doctor! You should- not sure if there is anything else they can give you for pain.
I had some positive progress today–I was able to get into and out of the bathtub this morning, the first time in two weeks.
Not only that but my joints and muscles are not hurting as much. So far no Aleve today, and the last many days I was taking 3 a day and I still hurt. Part of the reason I hurt a lot less is that there is no rain predicted for most of this week, so my body-as-a-barometer has calmed down.
I still hurt too much to mount or dismount from a horse. Any odd movement of my left hip sends sharp spikes of pain down my butt muscles, then I need my cane or I have to support myself with my arms so my leg does not collapse under me.
I am gradually finding stuff I need on-line, yesterday I found a brown (!!!) Micklem bridle that I can use as my second snaffle bridle. The Sure-Win bit holder is on its way. When these finally arrive we will have enough to see if Shannon can get her TWH mare to finally stop automatically putting her tongue over the bit as fast as possible. I told Shannon I was hoping that this complete change, starting with the leather bit, would not trigger this mare’s automatic response to a bit in her mouth. We can dream.
Next I want to buy “wintec webber type” stirrup leathers. My hope is that they will allow my thighs to be next to the saddle without any gaps. I will need to buy 3-4 pairs of these, for my riding saddle, for the saddle I use on my Home Horse, for my dressage saddle Shannon uses on her TWH mare, and for a future hopefully more secure saddle. It might also do me good to buy a new pair of the silicon grip full seat summer weight tights, maybe they will grip a little bit better. I also dream of being able to afford more good safety stirrups, but I will probably be able to handle using the much cheaper S-sided safety irons.
It gets expensive to equip myself with more safety gear for riding. I will be spending most of my spending money on stuff like this most of this year.
As for preparing for when my MS medicine runs out I have 2 Light Rider bitless bridles coming, it just takes a while to get here from New Zealand. Hopefully we will be able to gear these up as double bridles, with the Light Rider as the “snaffle” and the Fager Adam leather bit instead of a Weymouth curb. They will look odd for sure.
I just want to tell you how much I admire you, many people would give up riding and give in to the disease but you don’t give up on your life and passion, you rock! You have to be patient, hip injuries are painful and nasty and there is less you can do apart from giving your body the time to heal
Jackie I am so sorry I missed this thread. What about the little handles that the correct connect system has? I know they won’t hold you in but they might give you some additional purchase should you have another spook. I know how much you value your soft hand-connection. There are lots of spanish style saddles out there - that saddle appears to be a portugese style saddle for riding young horses.
Please persist in getting checked out. They initially thought I had bursitis as well and it has been a rocky road to get a real diagnosis. hugs I know how important riding is to you, so make it a priority and get on those docs! 
I obviously made a mistake climbing in and out of the bathtub yesterday morning. My hip muscles decided to send me pain signals again. Before bedtime I took my only Aleve of the day, and then I had a serious bout of insomnia.
Whatever got injured obviously needs more time to heal. Right now I am assuming that the 6 week no riding at all method is probably the method that will get me back riding horses faster than any other method/treatment.
At first there was heavy apprehension from the Emergency Room and Primary Care Physician, that I needed my hips replaced anyway though the X-ray did not show any breakage or cracking of the bones in my hip joint. The orthopedic surgeon, older therefore with more experience and knowledge of human hip joints, basically told me my joint was fine as far as the bones were concerned. I am glad I got to a surgeon who had a lot of experience with hip joints. He agreed with my method of moving around within the limitations of my pain when he prescribed keeping on moving around and continuing the anti-inflammatory Aleve.
When I get the portero saddle I realize that it will force me back into the original “seat” I had riding the trails in South America. I did that in an old English saddle (not a jumping one), pure chair seat. The best description of this seat I have found in the Equestrian literature is “Ride American” by Louis Taylor. It is the seat I fall back into, the original way I learned to ride a small horse, and the seat that disturbs hunt seat instructors.
But when I have difficulties dismounting it really helps to have something sort of solid to lean on with my hands so I can us my arm strength to help get my pelvis completely OUT of the saddle. I own a super secure A fork hard seat high cantle saddle. The last time I rode in it I had great difficulty dismounting because I could not push down with my hands to help get my seat high enough out of the saddle so I could swing my right leg over the cantle. However the previous ride that saddle kept me on my horse’s back when a gravel road maintenance machine roared past us. Hat Tricks did a very quick 180% and I stayed secure in the saddle.
Thank you all for all your caring and excellent suggestions.
Yep, I won’t be able to ride a correct Forward Seat in the portera saddle, but I will be able to use my arm strength to help my body get off the horse safely. This is a time of “correct riding” being inimical to the healing process of my left hip.
Yep, six weeks of not riding or doing much toward keeping my riding muscles fit seems to be the most realistic treatment. I WILL get back up on a horse with the help of my wonderful riding instructor who gives me my “weekly” lessons. Because I ride horses I am still able to walk and go to the bathroom by myself, though right now I am doing it more 4-legged by using my canes for support and weight bearing.
The Freedom saddle looks more interesting to me now, at least if the portera saddle does not work out. With this saddle riding a proper Forward Seat at the walk and slow trot looks possible.
At least it does not cost as much as many Hunt Seat saddles.
I am feeling somewhat better. The Aleve did help control the inflammation that felt like it was inside my hip joint and now I no longer feel like crying from the pain when I walk. Right now I am giving my body a rest from the Alevel
Now it is just the bigger muscles and tendons around my hip joint and my butt that still hurt when I walk. I still NEED two canes to walk safely, I need them because sometimes my left leg threatens to buckle under me when those muscles get into a spasm. I can get up from sitting without leaning on the canes but I seem to need one so I can straighten my back all the way after I get all my weight onto my feet. Aspirin is helping me with the muscle pain IF I take great care when I slowly walk, planning every single step. I am SLOW.
My left hip muscles are not recovered enough to even think about mounting a horse or to get up onto my Home Horse. I do not know if I would be able to dismount without a hoist. I do not think my left leg would support me when I have to swing my right leg over the cantle down to the mounting block.
I didn’t read each post – I’m nannying again this week and grabbing time…
But it looks like the western option “sure grip” with the velcro is a reasonable compromise, and you could probably make it work with an english saddle, too. It will hold some and then it will let go.
I have a sheepskin seat cover and it’s very helpful. So another vote for that, but a full saddle cover is expensive, unless you can find one used, or get a friend to make you one.
Hoping you heal fine, Jackie, and are soon back at it.
Here I am, a full month after I fell off the horse.
I just ordered the “Sure Grip” by phone. The lady I talked with was very sympathetic AND was willing to tell me where her knowledge ended. She did not seem to have any doubts that this would help me not fall off the horse at a walk.
I think that Debbie, my riding teacher, has a spare Western saddle or two floating around her barn. If not I am pretty sure we can figure something out to get it to work on a jumping saddle. This is for just the beginning I am sure, but until my central nervous system gets back into the horseback riding mode I need help.
I still hurt. I am taking 3 Aleve a day, and I wish I could take more. Without the Aleve I hurt a LOT and I can barely walk with 2 canes, one a quad cane. With the Aleve I can creep around on my feet, leaning on my canes a bit, and I have to take great care. I have to walk SLOWLY. If I have to carry something I have to use my wheeled walker.
Unfortunately these pills only seem to give me 6 hours of pain relief, then the pain comes back especially the muscles over my sacrum. Any sudden move, especially from side to side, can cause these muscles to spasm painfully. One thing that has helped my back is my DH getting me two quad canes that I adjusted to be as short as possible, with one on each side of my commode. Using both of these and pressing lightly against the walls I can usually get up off the commode without wrenching my back.
Next week I will finally see my PCP. Two weeks later I will finally see my neurologist, luckily he had a cancellation. Neither doctor has seen me this bad. Before all this I could walk around my house without canes most of the time, now I HAVE TO use my canes to walk. My top walking speed now is probably less than 1/4 of what it was before I fell.
The COTH Forum has helped me keep sane through all of this, thank you all!!!
Glad you posted again, though the update isn’t “I’m dancing in the streets.”
I admire your determination. I’m sure you are stuck in that awful slough of knowing more physical movement will help keep you fitter, at the same time that more physical movement hurts a lot. If you were a horse on stall rest, you’d be a grumpy one.
Stretches, I have found, have helped me in the past during lay-up (not that my lay-ups are caused by the same thing yours are.) But stretches expand the body more than simple movement will. They still hurt, obviously, but when everything hurts? Stretches.
Tell us how the Sure Grip functions when you get back going again.
Hang in there!!
I had to share this story that popped up on FB about an adaptive saddle for a teen paralyzed in a farm accident. It’s western so not helpful to OP, but thought the design was interesting and it’s a nice story. 
The news story link isn’t working very well, here’s their FB page with info and pictures: https://www.facebook.com/EmmetSaddlery/
The team at Emmet Saddlery got a request late last year from a mom hoping to get her daughter back in the saddle. Sydni Mell suffered a spinal cord injury two years ago, leaving her paralyzed from the belly button down. The challenge? They said they didn’t want the saddle to look like a wheelchair on a horse. The result? Owner Jon Rafel calls it “real cowboy stuff.”
Yes, there are answers out there.
I find that I am extremely reluctant to wear a seat belt on a horse, because horses. Even angels have odd reactions that can end in disaster. Sometimes a quick exit is the safest alternative.
I know that there is no way that I can ride a pure Forward Seat for a good long while. I think the only seat my body can adapt to right now, since I am so weak, is an educated chair seat ala Louis Taylor’s “Ride American”. Hey, riding in South America taught me a very elementary chair seat and my Stubben Siegfried sort of encouraged it too.
My problem seems to be that one to two more pairs of muscles in my upper thigh just do not act like they used to in reaction to the horse moving sideways. What used to effectively stabilize my seat there is totally absent now. This is not because of pain, it is because my nervous system is not triggering these muscles to do anything. It is like they are not there at all.
I have hopes for the velcro thing when it comes. It may give me a chance to re-activate these muscles. At the least I can work on strengthening the other upper thigh muscles that also help with my stability in the saddle.
Then will come the challenges of mounting and dismounting. Oh vey!
My well has started to act up at a very inconvenient time. I had been planning on trying out a Total Saddle Fit Squish pad and their slim webber type stability leathers which have a chance of helping me, but they are pricey and paying for work on the well would come first.
I know how discouraging this is, so I just wanted to send some hugs. I don’t know Louis Taylor’s book, is it more of a saddle horse style?
Yes, Louis Taylor really liked ASBs. However he has also wrote a book about Western riding too. His method of riding is very different from the athletic Forward Seat and it is also very different from the dressage seat that has the rider’s butt in the saddle at all times. “Ride American” is a book about the way that most American’s rode when he wrote it, but at a higher level than just rocketing around at a gallop or slouching like a sack of potatoes since he preferred riding ASBs over all other horses.
Over the decades my feelings about Louis Taylor’s books have undergone a big change. When I started riding with a double bridle on multiple horses every ride I appreciate what I’ve read about them in his books. His book on bits “Bits their History, Use and Misuse” is excellent, particularly his statements that a rider needs to find a bit that works with that rider’s hands, and if it works with that rider’s hands it will probably be sufficient with most horses. He prefers riding with the double bridle, and now that I have actual experience with them I agree with him, me a Forward Seat rider who has no desire to ride Saddle Seat. Of course when he wrote the bit book all of these specialized bits made of obscure alloys did not exist. The bit pages of the hunt seat/dressage leaning tack shops had the normal single jointed snaffles, with the less common Mullen mouths and Dr. Bristols bits, then the French link snaffles came. I remember when Stainless Steel was the advanced material for bits as in it was much better than the common Nickel.
I wondered, it’s one I don’t have and there’s precious little written on the saddle horse seat (I have every book I could find on saddle horses and saddleseat riding). I too am a forward seat rider, although I have done dressage, western riding, and saddleseat and I always come back to the forward seat. However - as I undergo my own physical problems, I’m wondering if a saddleseat type of seat is going to be more appropriate for my body as I go forward (I know dressage and western riding are out) - so I keep it in the back of my mind and learning Thank you! I’m always looking for new equine books and perspectives - my poor husband!
Louis Taylor’s book “The Horse America Made” is about the ASB, riding them and showing them way back when. I don’t exactly know where my copy is now but reading that book several times has taught me what a treasure the ASB is as a riding horse. Reading this book almost converted me from Arabians, and if I wanted or needed a taller horse I would look for a decent not-good-eough-for-ASB-shows ASB over TBs and WBs, but Arabians will always be my first love among horse breeds.
I love Arabians too - I’m just too tall My favorite event horse when I was a kid was an Arabian. Cutest little fireball, but so smart. Sadly, I grew so I need the over 15h horse to actually put a leg on them enough to balance out my long torso. I make the 16h horse look small.
My addiction to the Arabian breed makes me really glad that I am short.
