Saddle Fit
and the
Baroque
Style
Horse
By Jochen Schleese,
CMS, CSFT, CSE
©2017 Saddlefit 4 Life®
All Rights Reserved
Q
Is there anything I
particularly have to
look out for when
having my saddle
fitted to my Friesian
horse? I know he is
difficult to fit.
A
Friesian
horses
Jane Savoie & Moshi ?
have always been among my most favorite horses, for both their
beautiful appearance and because black horses are just simply
eye-catching. Although the breed’s conformation resembles
that of a light draft horse, Friesians are graceful and nimble. It is
believed that during the Middle Ages, ancestors of Friesian horses
were in great demand as war horses throughout continental Europe.
Through the Middle Ages their size enabled them to carry
a knight in armor. Around the 15th century, Andalusians were bred
with Friesians, producing a lighter horse more suitable for work as
carriage horses. Though the breed nearly became extinct on more
than one occasion, the modern day Friesian horse is growing in
numbers and popularity, used both in harness and under saddle.
Most recently, the breed is being introduced to the field of dressage
and they are once again being ridden.
Friesians are however, as you noted, notoriously difficult to fit properly.
Saddle length has become more of an issue over the past
few years, as breeding seems to have concentrated on making
somewhat more ‘compact’ (i.e., ‘shorter’) horses. This is especially
prevalent in the ‘baroque’ style horse – a category which includes
the Lusitanos, the PRE, the Andalusian – but also Friesians. They
have relatively flat withers and their saddle support area is short.
Riding these horses in a ‘normal’ saddle with a regular panel can
often result in behavior that indicates something is off.
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