Horse has somewhat asymmetric shoulders. When riding at a marching walk you can see that the wither gullet rocks closer to the withers on the right side than on the left. Saddle may displace slightly towards the left so that right stirrup appears shorter to someone on the ground.
Question: if you were going to play with shims to stabilize this saddle, do you shim the right side or the left side? I’m trying to get my head around the physics.
My daughter had a competitive trail pony whose saddle was always slipping to one side. With our farrier we put the pony on a concrete surface to measure his front legs, one was 1/2 inch shorter. We put a pad under that leg’s shoe to even him out, saddle stop slipping
So for us it was not physics but a mechanical fix
Take a wither tracing and you can tell that way.
Its hard to tell from that description because the rocking to the right makes me think shim the right, but the displacing to the left makes me think shim the left.
its possible you overcompensate for the smaller right side so you put too much weight into your left stirrup, making the saddle slip left. Or it’s possible that the left side really is the smaller side.
Also, sometimes standing behind the horse and looking down will make it so you can tell.
My understanding at the moment is that her left shoulder is carried forward and up, while her right is carried backwards and down. The difference is quite subtle. There is no asymmetry in her back. There is no problem with length of leg.
I thought that her right wither was a bit hollow and tried a temporary shim there that seemed to help but I worried it was making her a bit sore.
My coach and my saddle fitter think it’s the left side that needs raising but the tweak my saddke fitter did to the left side made no difference. My saddle fitter is averse to stuffing a saddle drastically asymmetrically.
My horse masseuse has me doing stretches for the shoulders.
I am thinking perhaps I should again shim the right wither plus under the back on the left. Also I need a real eagke eye on the flocking.
I have heard opposing opinions. It depends on who you ask and what the exact cause is.
I would try all possible options and see which one corrects the issue the most. That’s the nice thing about shimming instead of adjusting flocking.
Good point! I would like to present saddle fitter with my successful shimming project as a diagnostic to possibly reflocking.
So the saddle rocks from right to left and shifts left.
I tried shimming up the left side. It made things worse and we couldn’t even ride out out of the stable yard.
I got off went back inside and switched the shims to the right side.
Saddle was much more stable and horse was very happy. I am going to try extra shimming on that side tomorrow.
My endurance mare had some asymmetrical muscling causing bridging on right, which in turn caused her saddle to slip right. I did shims to fill in the gap on the right and gradually decreased them in thickness as we worked her muscle-wise to even her out. This past weekend, I actually removed all the shims and saddle stayed exactly where it was supposed to (yay!!).
See, that’s how I’d logically expect shimming to work! Saddle slips towards the smaller side which you then shim up.
I am trying to figure out the mechanics of why I have to do the opposite.
I can’t help you with the mechanics, because I can’t ever work it out in my brain, but my first shimming attempt is always on the side of the shorter stirrup. It seems backwards, but a saddle fitter told me that if it slip to the left (making the right stirrup shorter) it’s because the uneven muscling (or saddle stuffing) on the right is causing the saddle to pull to the left. I always feel like the saddle is “tipping” because there’s less muscling on the left in this case, but the real story is that there’s less muscling on the right and that’s what’s allowing the saddle to slip to the left. Does that make any sense?
But yes, it’s usually a very easy test to shim one side and it will usually be much worse or much better. Sounds like you figured it out pretty quick!
It depends on why the one side is dropping. It can be less muscled or the horse could be dropping that side in an attempt to escape excess pressure.
My horse has a low right shoulder. I shimmed that side for a while as I trained him to carry himself properly. He still has a low right shoulder, but in action under saddle he carries the shim free saddle evenly. This, I think, is why saddle fitters prefer not to flock unevenly. Much assymetry can be reduced with proper gymnastic work.
Yes this seems to be the case 
I also think the flocking could be a bit flattened and a reflock is in our future.
Btw here is my homemade shim pad idea. I took some of that rubbery grip stuff they sell for under area rugs and in kitchen drawers. Cut a half pad size length. Took a scholls insole the flat soft kind not a shaped heel bed type. Stitched it lightly to the grip material. Used it over a sheepskin pad.
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