RIDING ON SCIENCE

Exciting innovations in saddlery over the past 15 years have dramatically lifted horse riders' expectations and revised concepts about what a saddle should be.

For thousands of years saddles experienced gradual change, driven by the need to adapt for specific purposes and cultural influences as evidenced in the distinctive styles of the Australian Stock and American Western saddles. Pride in workmanship and tradition placed a handmade saddle on a pedestal but as the standard of competition increased, so too did riders demands for performance capabilities from their equipment, driving manufacturers, designers and innovators to keep up with a dynamic and evolving sport. Brian Triglone, Managing Director for Saddleworld, has been a rider, retailer and fitter of saddles for more than 30 years so is well positioned to speak about the changing face of saddles.

Brian immediately identifies the most dramatic change in technology, and single most influential one, as the Changeable Gullet System invented by Bates Australia in 1996.
Influential for a number of reasons, not the least of which was that assessing a horse’s shoulder and wither for gullet plate selection led to an increased awareness and knowledge of saddle fitting principles within the horse riding community. The ability to choose from five widths and change them within minutes became a highly sought after feature.

Previously, the gullet plate in a saddle was fixed – a customer could purchase a saddle in a specified width, to fit a specific horse and it could often be a task to find a saddle that suited both horse and rider. A saddle purchase was frequently driven by the arrival of a new horse, one to which the current saddle did not fit.

The gullet is an important part of the saddle fit as, simplistically speaking, too wide and the saddle will tip forward, throwing the rider’s weight onto the horse’s shoulders and in some cases actually applying pressure to the wither and spine. Too narrow and the head of the saddle will pinch the wither and shoulder while lifting the pommel, again altering the balance and throwing the rider back onto the cantle. A well balanced saddle is required to distribute the rider’s weight in an even manner.

The horse’s ability to move with ease and fluidity is impeded upon with both the too wide and too narrow gullet and these can cause injury or unsoundness. The amazing new flexibility of the Changeable Gullet System allowed riders to change the saddle to fit not only a change of horse but accommodate the changes in back shape as the horse built muscle or lost weight. As Brian points out “gullet width is only one third of the saddle fit process but it revolutionised the marketplace and other manufacturers now have similar systems”.

For example, the Anky Dressage Saddles endorsed by Anky Van Grunsven, Olympic and World Champion, also has a changeable headplate/gullet similar to the Bates system, which is available in their Jessica dressage and Pessoa jumping saddles.

Kieffer, one of the most prestigious brands, and for many years the ‘saddle of choice’ for leading riders, utilizes a unique machine to thermally adjust its Polypropylene tree. The whole saddle is fitted to a machine and over 50 minutes is heated with an Infrared treatment. Without damaging the leather, it actually becomes hot and pliable. It is then moved and locked into a cradle, set using a gauge to shape and hold the heated tree to a wider or more narrow fit, then left for 24 hrs to establish in the new fit. Kieffer claim their Polypropylene tree is infinitely adjustable and can be changed as many times as required to fit different horses or those that change through work. From a retailer and fitter’s point of view the ability to adjust the heads of saddles offers Brian enormous flexibility “Nine times out of 10, a customer can now select the saddle that is right for them and have it changed to fit the horse with ease” he says. “Ron Bates can be credited with the three major technological advances in saddles over the last 15 years” says Brian “the changeable gullet, the synthetic tree and synthetic outer”.

Previously, trees were made predominantly from laminated wood and steel so producing the tree required one skilled individual. This still occurs of course but the majority of popular brands now use synthetic trees manufactured with a higher level of production and vastly reduced costs.

DESIGN YOUR OWN
Anyone who has ever gone through the saddle shopping process and thought ‘I like this feature in that saddle and that in another’ and wished they could design their own, can now do exactly that. The WOW Competitor, created by First Thought Equine in England, is completely modular. The rider can pick and choose the design features desired; seat, flaps, knee rolls and thigh blocks, panels, channel widths, head-plates or gullets, and girthing options. The saddle arrives flat and locks together.

Pioneering WOW options, include the double stirrup bar offering two positions on the one bar (forward for jumping or stability on a young horse, or back for a dressage leg position) or the ability to angle the saddle flap ie: forward for the rider with a longer thigh or back for a shorter one. Eleven different gullet/headplate widths in steel or light weight magnesium alloy and panels that are flocked or have the air panel system, FLAIR, continue the choices. Previously, fitting a saddle was a fairly static exercise but now with the ability to fit them better than ever, innovators are looking to create saddles that accommodate and work with the horse’s movement.

SADDLES THAT MOVE
Lateral Flexion is now being incorporated into saddle trees. David Kempsell from First Thought Equine explains “as a horse moves, its shoulders need to find more room as the scapulas (shoulder bone) rotate so the answer is to let the head of the tree swing from side to side as the alternate shoulders rotate back under the tree – so a saddle that is longitudinally (from front to back) rigid and laterally (side to side) flexible.”

The easiest way to demonstrate, and again simplistically, is place your hand on the horse’s back just behind the shoulder where your saddle panel would sit. Have someone pick up a front leg and extend it forward – just as the farrier would do – and you will feel the back drop as the shoulder moves forward. What Lateral Flexion in the head of the saddle will do is allow the saddle panel to remain in contact with the horse’s back and flex with him.

Wide flat panels are desirable to maximize the bearing surface for the air panel systems using the four airbags around foam.	The saddles lateral flexibility allows the horse’s shoulders to find more room as the head of the tree swing from side to side as the alternate shoulders rotate back under the tree.

FLEXIBILITY AND BODY BEND
The WOW tree is based on a Carbon Fibre ‘Y’ bar framework that allows the saddle to move with the horse, not against it. With this concept in mind, a number of saddle makers are utilising a ‘Floating Panel’ such as that in the Santis Dressage saddle. Deirdre Hill from Euro Saddle Imports tells us “the panel is fixed to the saddle at just three points – at the front, rear and under the knee roll.”

“The floating saddle panel allows the horse greater flexibility in its body bend, and lateral movement as the panels are not fixed, or sewn, to the sweat flap as in a traditional saddle. The floating saddle panel flexes and adheres to the movement from the horse’s back” Deirdre says. Bates Australia also believes in this concept and incorporates their own Elastiflex Tree. Emily Bates discussed how the Saddle Industry has moved away from its strong grounding in heritage and tradition towards an increasing focus on the horse. Innovations in production emerge in the search for scientific data. “Riders and Saddlers are, finally, seeking to understand how a saddle impacts on the equine back through the use of pressure reading equipment and thermography” says Emily “and we employ outside expertise in areas of physics, engineering and independent testing.”

The results of such research have produced many internal changes, in saddles, ones she believes have radically improved their performance for horse and rider. In Emily’s view AIR panel systems such as CAIR (in Bates) and FLAIR (in Barnsby, Horobin, Jeffries, Schleese, Ideal, WOW to name a few) out-perform any traditional wool, or foam filled saddle panels. FLAIR was the first of the air panel systems, introduced in 1999. FLAIR is four airbags around a foam insert which makes the air displace in such a manner that the saddle panels maximize their bearing surface on the horse’s back. Wide flat panels are desirable. Think about how much easier it is to carry a heavy back pack if it has big wide straps. The wider the area across which the rider’s weight is distributed over the horses back, the greater the degree of comfort for the horse.

FLAIR is adjustable by rider or saddler via two valves hidden under the saddle flaps. This system enables fitting the saddle to a horse with uneven muscle development with adjustment to follow as the shape of the horse improves. Once adjusted, it does not need to be changed unless the horse changes shape.

CAIR panels have two air bags on each side of the saddle – one each front and back. These air bags are sealed around an open cell foam through which the air in the bag moves freely. If you push the heel of your palm into one part of the panel you can see it bulge as it displaces the air in the bag. The concept is that displacement of air will negate a pressure point. “That said, no one, including myself, could predict the profound difference this simple system would make to both horse and rider’s performance. It is always important to note, however, that saddle fitting is paramount to performance - if the saddle does not achieve an optimal fit for the horse there is no amount of technology, or improved design features that will enable the rider and horse to perform to their maximum potential” she concludes.

The modern saddle is now constructed with radical new materials and use of computer technology has produced irrefutable evidence to support sound fitting principles that aid the longevity in the horse’s working life while achieving a heightened level of performance.