Has anyone experienced a piece of tack (saddles excluded) affect your horse’s movement either positively or negatively? What was the item (bit, girth, pad, bridle) and the results?
I’m curious if tack may be affecting my horse’s movement undersaddle to a degree - she has lovely, lofty free movement but loses much of her suspension and stride length undersaddle, with or without a rider. Everything fits and seems well enough liked by the horse (nothing obviously bothering her).
I suppose this is saddle fit by extension, but a breastplate. I was using a 3 point breastplate on my young TB and and noticed that he didn’t seem to want to lengthen or come round. We palpated his back and noticed unusual wither soreness.
Took a look at the tack fit and quickly realized that the 3 point was tipping the front of the saddle down and impacting the wither clearance. Took the breastplate off, repositioned the saddle, and the problem disappeared. Now we use a bridge breastplate that goes to the billets instead of the d-rings up by the pommel.
It’s pretty normal that a horse’s movement will be loftier without a rider, at least until they have the strength and training to develop more suspension and connection while ridden.
With that said, I recently bought my mare a lovely soft leather Schleese girth with a nice wide sternum part. Well, it seems Ms. Princess prefers her sheepskin shaped girth instead. I think the Schleese was putting more pressure on her ribs right at the end of the girth or something, because she was getting touchy around that area. Once she warmed up, she moved fine, but it did not seem to be the optimal choice for her.
Maybe it’s a mare thing. I had an OTTB mare for eventing and on the eve of a big competition decided to ride her in the fancy and expensive real sheepskin girth I’d splurged on for her. I’m riding her in my dressage lesson and my instructor says: something is wrong. She’s too short strided to take to the show. (And she was behaving very strangely. )
In desperation I decided to take off the fancy girth and put on her old, crummy, cheapo fake fleece girth. Voila! Horse back to normal and we had a great competition.
Somewhat embarrassed to say when I bought William Tell I intended to have his saddle fitted (fitter right next to the hunt club). Three years went by and I still hadn’t made it up there. Sent a video to a trainer in NZ during COVID for some work on my 2 point (no one was doing video lessons at that point, many now). The first thing she said was “that saddle doesn’t fit,” I’d circled WT with the video camera so she could see him all tacked up. Then did a w/t/c with him being filmed. I immediately took him to the saddle fitter (yes, broke the COVID rules, but it was an emergency, I felt) --and the saddle fitter agreed with the NZ trainer. The saddle fitter put a couple of different saddles on him, then sold me one for 1/3 what I planned to spend. WT is much happier now --and so am I. He moves much more freely in the shoulders and can really extend his trot without the old saddle resting on his prominent withers.
There have been several studies that bridles affect range of motion of front and hind limbs, and breastplates can affect range of motion in the shoulder and jump trajectory. Both done by Fairfax – and while both are peddling a specific product, the studies themselves are peerviewed IIRC.
I feel my horses go better in a saddle pad with the sheepskin directly on their back, versus a plain regular saddle pad. No scientific data to prove this, just my personal feel when I ride them in different saddle pads.
I also think that bits affect ROM and tension as well. Again, no studies to prove this. Just noticing how most of my horses have a much more naturally collected canter when I am riding them in a halter or hackamore (non-mechanical). My one horse in particular, who is a superstar in dressage, really seems to be much more confident and collected in his body when I school dressage in the La Cense bridle - which is really just essentially a leather rope halter.
I’ve had a very obvious reaction from my OTTB when I try a different girth. He gets a lot more short-strided and doesn’t want to move out. And it was, of course, a theoretically nicer girth.
This is what I was thinking! I knew about the breastplate study. I suppose I was wondering if any one had noticed a trend with certain items, such as your notes about the hackamores/ Equisense bridle. I was thinking there might be a noticeable trend with bits.
LOL. I had a previous WB mare with a couple western trainers. I provided them a cinch with a sheepskin cover, and whenever they thought they could just take a shortcut and use their own cinches, after 10 minutes they were off and changing to the sheepskin. I’m going to need to buy stock in Mattes.
My TB absolutely loves the Mattes girth I finally bought him and, as a result, moves more freely in the trot. He requires an anatomic girth, had a very nice one, and moved just fine in it. It was just every once in awhile he’d react as though something was pinching on the right side, and he wasn’t reaching out as much with his front legs. I sprang for a new saddle, which he also loves, but the addition of Mattes sheepskin girth made all the difference to him. Then again, he’s a VERY SENSITIVE GUY, lol
I have ridden my horses in various half pads that I own (SaddleRight, Thinline with sheepskin, Ultra Thinline, sheepskin) at various times. Sometimes on the same day. Sometimes alternating days. I am testing to see if the horse has a preference at that time and usually they will be more willing and responsive with one pad vs the other(s). This preference can and does change.
Loosening an over-tightened noseband can have a dramatic difference in freeing up a horse’s stride and getting them to swing through the back.
Yes, saddle, bridle, bits, girths, and breast plates can all affect the moment.
A lot of the UK fitters think bit and bridle fitting is the next saddle fitting.
I am thinking that is a great “trend”. Sometimes I see riders/ trainers who place so much importance on saddle fit, which is GREAT!, but then ignore a poorly sized girth or too tight browband/ noseband, etc. I’m currently working on setting up an appointment with a bit and bridle fitter. Partly out of pure curiosity, and partly hoping to see some improvement for my green horse.
I had a mare who was very sensitive to bits. She ended up hanging on the bit I first rode her in (a thick double-jointed snaffle), then hung on the slightly thinner (18mm) double jointed snaffle, then tossed her head and backed off with a thinner snaffle because her fleshy lips would get caught in the hole where the loosering goes through the bit and would pinch and sometimes cut her lip, then objected to a Dr. Bristol with a fixed side because even though it technically fit her, it pressed on her fleshy tongue and she backed waaay off of it and was very agitated… So yes, bits very much affect a horse’s way of going. THAT horse ended up in a german silver 14mm double snaffle with a narrow “bean” in the middle, sized a size too large so the bit could slide in her mouth and not pinch her fleshy lips. She was very happy in that bit and competed through 4th in it.
I use that bit on my current gelding. We’re getting “bit-fit” on the 13th, I’ll be curious to see how he goes in other bits.
Can you share a link for the Equisense bridle? Despite my googling, I couldn’t find anything like you described.
That’s because I am dumb, and called it the wrong thing. It’s a “La Cense” bridle. My bad!
https://www.sagmae.com/product-p/bc160.htm
Thanks! I’m exploring bitless options for my horse (she despises every bit I’ve ever tried), but have never gone bitless before so unsure which one to try first. I have to admit it makes me a little nervous so want to dip my toe in with one that will give me plenty of control.
The breastplate study really intrigues me because it makes total sense that breastplates would affect jump trajectory, they seem quite overused in lower-level eventing, and I’m not sure if I actually need one at Training Level or not. I couldn’t find a peer-reviewed study but there’s a promotional write-up linked on Fairfax’s website that essentially says riders should re-think using breastplates for anything except cross-country (https://www.fairfaxsaddles.com/fairfaxdownloads/fairfax-breastplate-be-01-18.pdf). Even then, if my saddle starts slipping or a billet breaks I’m going to pull up, not keep going and hope my breastplate saves me. If there’s a sudden catastrophic failure (say, of two billets) I’m not convinced the breastplate would keep the saddle in place for more than a couple seconds anyway. I guess the hope is that’s just long enough to pull up?
I also wonder if a racing yoke used as a neck strap has fewer negative effects since it only connects to the girth between the front legs and not to the front of the saddle.
I got a huge fluffy girth cover for my super picky (chestnut) Paint (mare). I though she’d love it. She wouldn’t even walk away from the mounting block because OMG fluff in her armpits. Took it off, all good.
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