ing we can actually affect these two systems. Also, if we damage
these systems we can permanently change a horse’s movement
and conformation.
The first system is the horse’s spinal nuchal/ supraspinous ligament.
This ligament runs all the way from the top of a horse’s
neck down the spine and into the tail. This ligament is extremely
long and helps to hold the suspended frame of the horse. When
the horse’s neck and back li, this ligament supports that collection
and suspension. Now imagine puing a saddle on the
young horse’s back which is too narrow and pinches on this
ligament system. To put it in perspective, if a piano player had
the ligaments in the back of their hands rubbed continually
for 45 minutes five days a week how supple do you think their
hand would be? By the time the young horse is old enough to be
ridden this spinal width is no longer going to change. Therefore
this needs to be measured and the width between the panels of
the saddle needs to be appropriate for the width of the spine
and ligament. Pinching of this ligament can cause a dropped or
swayed back and an unwillingness to bend.
Unfit versus fit horse
Spinal nuchal ligament system
Pinching of the wither muscels
from the ground (distally to top) up, finishing in the spine
(where the saddle sits) when the horse is around six years old,
no maer what breed the horse is. The behavior learned in the
first year under saddle is behavior that he is going to demonstrate
throughout his life. Horses, unlike dogs, which show
specific behaviours towards individual people, do not specify
their behavior specifically individually, so you really don’t want
to enforce bad habits – especially for a horse which may see
multiple owners.
There has been no specific model of saddle that is perfect for the
young horse until now, because though all breeds have basically
the same skeletal and muscular systems, each one (and each
individual!) has a slightly different conformation. That is why it
is so important to work with a saddle fier from the first day of
riding to get something that fits properly. It is also imperative to
have equipment that can be adapted to the horse as the angles
of the shoulder and wither change through uphill development.
There are some DIY (do it yourself) saddles on the market with
interchangeable gullet plates, but these will only change the tree
angle, and not the very important width! A young horse should
be fied at least once every six months in order to ensure that
the saddle is still fiing properly through his changes in shape.
If you want your child to be able to score the winning goal then
they need good equipment. If you want your young horse to
succeed in a positive training environment they need equipment
that fits as well.
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The second suspension system has
a much larger effect on the conformation
of the horse, especially the
young horse. Horses do not have
collar bones the way humans do.
If you look at a cross-section of
the horse’s ribcage you will see the
shoulder connected to the ribcage
by muscles. (See below). In this
picture, the muscles suspending the
ribcage are in yellow. When we ride,
we ask the horse to elevate its head,
thereby shiing the centre of gravity
further back. When this happens, the
muscles (wither/trapezius, shoulder,
and pectoral) will li to support the
ribcage. You can see the difference
in the musculature between the
fit horse and the unfit (or let’s say
young or unridden) horse. In our
ridden horse the withers and ribcage
are higher and the shoulders have
more definition and are wider. From
the side you will see how much further
up and back the shoulder blade
comes.
If our saddle pinches on the muscles
of the wither, the opposite develop-
ment can result. If the trapezius muscle of the horse is pinched,
the horse reflexively hollows the back, lis the head and rotates
the pelvis forward. (This is where the stallion bites to mare
to get her to stand still during mating. So - if a young horse’s
saddle pinches here you have a contradictory indication for the
horse. Although the rider’s hands, seat and legs are telling the
horse to engage and move, the saddle is telling the horse to stop
and drop its back.
If a young horse is fied properly through his development we
can keep pain to a minimum and allow for positive development
of muscle. A horse’s back is not built to carry the weight of
a rider (there is a ‘safe spot’ – the saddle support area - that can
actually carry up to 250 pounds for up to 8 hours) and through
proper fit we can keep the saddle from causing discomfort. A
few things to remember are that a horse’s growth plates close
58 www.EliteEquestrianMagazine.com
EE
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