Overfed and UnderworkedThe
British native breed pony in its natural habitat needs to travel large
distances to feed. Their habitat does not contain lush pastures; they
get no hay or concentrates of any kind. They are therefore fairly lean.
By comparison when purchased as a child's riding pony they become a pet
and are generally speaking loved, spoiled and overfed. Because of their
susceptibility to laminitis they are often kept in small paddocks or
stables. Consequently they are almost without exception overweight and
this combined with their natural sturdy conformation means that the
vast majority of saddles need to be extremely wide and because of the
surplus fat carried on their flanks the scapula is buried and the
saddle goes up the neck as soon as the pony is trotted up and certainly
when cantered or galloped. This problem in earlier times was overcome
by the use of a crupper and owners accepted this as a necessity,
particularly in a time when many horses were used in harness where a
crupper is always used.
However, many present day pony owners refuse to contemplate the use of
a crupper and expect their saddle fitter to provide a saddle that does
not move and this is extremely problematic if not downright impossible.
There are of course "impact or stay put pads" which can help but which
are not always successful. Moreover modern saddles are more susceptible
to sliding forward than saddles made in the first half of the 20th
Century.
The typical English hunting saddle does not move at all (see
illustration). It will be seen that this type of saddle is flatter in
the seat and has a very thin hard panel. Conversely, modern saddles
have become much deeper in the seat and with much thicker panels
containing a considerable depth of flocking, which although more
comfortable for the pony is consequently much more unstable than the
older style saddles. It is almost like having a saddle on springs,
which will bounce around all over the place, particularly when new and
before the flocking has compressed. In order to redress this situation
we are now asking saddle makers to flock pony saddles very softly so
that the panel will flatten out and spread over the back as quickly as
possible and we find that when this happens, usually over thirty or so
hours of use, the saddle will become stable when the bounce has gone
out of the panel. To help this process we use point and balancing
straps together with a Stubben 5" wide cord girth that will grip the
belly and stop the saddle slipping from side to side. No rider sits
perfectly central and no horse or pony is perfectly symmetrical and
consequently on round animals a saddle will often tend to go over to
one side or the other but no rider will ever accept responsibility for
this and will invariably blame the saddle, however when delivered the
vast majority of English saddles are symmetrical.
So what is the answer to this problem? The fact is that no one I have
met in the trade seems to know. We believe, however, that a saddle with
a thin half panel stuffed with felt instead of flock, flatter in the
seat than present saddles, fitted with point and balancing straps could
do the trick. We have in fact recently persuaded a saddler to make a
saddle to this design and we are confident that this will be the answer
to the problem
The same problem is often experienced with cobs and we have their
saddles made the same as pony saddles with point and balancing straps
and soft flocking. The reason why the problem is not so widespread is
that cobs are often mainly used for hacking and do not in the main
engage in such active riding as ponies and their younger, uninhibited
riders.
It should also be borne in mind that until the nineteenth century at
least 95% of all horses were working as draft animals and were the only
form of transport man had. Only a very small percentage were used for
pleasure, mainly by landed gentry for hunting.
Nowadays 95% are used for pleasure, many are only ridden a few times a
week and the only horses and ponies that do a day's work are used in
riding schools and it is significant that very few problems are
experienced with school horses.
Consequently the majority of all privately owned horses and ponies are
overweight because of their lifestyles in the same way that many of
today's children tend to be overweight because of their sedentary
lifestyles. We very often find that a saddle which was previously
stable starts to slide up the neck as soon as the horse puts on
condition which often coincides with the availability of spring grass.
Therefore it is evident that if horses and ponies could be exercised
more and fed less saddle fitting would be a lot easier, it is certainly
acknowledged that more damage is caused by over rather than under
feeding, could it be we are "killing with kindness"?
