The design of saddles is one of the prime causes of a poor seat in riders, who struggle to maintain the desired ear/shoulder/hip/heel line against all odds, fighting the very ‘tool’ that is supposed to be assisting them. The whole system needs reappraisal, because there is a far kinder, simpler approach to riding that everyone can learn. It is not ‘rocket science’, but is based on logical explanation and clear demonstration, so the rider truly understands what he or she is asking of the horse. If the rider is confused, how much more must the horse be?

Heather recalls her early experiences with saddle design:

“When I started my yard in Devon, I tried fourteen different makes of dressage saddle, not finding one that really assisted the rider to sit in the correct balance. I do not expect my pupils to ride well on a saddle that is patently pulling them out of balance, anymore than I would expect a carpenter to make a cabinet with a blunt saw. I set about discovering what caused the problems in the rider. I quit my stirrups, and let my legs stretch down, without crossing the stirrups over.

Passing the mirrors, I was suddenly aware that the stirrup leather hung in front of my thigh, meaning that I would have to move my leg forward in order to replace my foot in the stirrup. I would then have to move my leg back to attain the correct alignment, which meant that I would then have to hold the leather back, under my leg, to an angle of about 45 degrees, thereby constantly having to fight the natural forward swing of the stirrup leather. I realised that the stirrup bars were too far forward. If they were moved back by two to three inches, the leather would hang perpendicularly under the thigh, allowing the leg to stay in place with ease.

In every saddle I examined, the seat was not central to the rest of the saddle. It is widely accepted that the rider should sit in the lowest part of the saddle, which is actually not the area with much padding. The lowest point of the saddle is nearly always the waist, which is also the narrowest part, and the least padded. The seams that attach the saddle skirts to the seat run close to each other at that point, and to sit there means that the rider’s seatbones are directly on top of, or slightly to either side of the seams, on the hard unpadded part of the tree. Consequently, the seatbones move further back onto the wider padded part of the seat, to avoid discomfort, drawing the knees up and pulling the lower legs forward.

I solved the problem by designing my own saddle. I made certain that the stirrup bars were much further back under the riders thigh, so that the leather does indeed hang perpendicularly, and designed the top in one piece to eliminate seams, the whole seat being covered in an inch of special foam which moulds to the rider’s seat. In this way, the seat can be placed totally centrally, on the lowest part of the saddle, without damage to the seatbones, and loss of balance and position.”

All of us at Enlightened Equitation suffer frequent frustration when we watch students at riding schools all over the country, together with very experienced riders, who could ride so much better, and in a way that is kinder to their horse, if they were to pay more attention to their often ill fitting and badly designed saddles. Heather takes up the story with her teaching experiences:

“I now have a tool which assists my students, rather than hinders them. Nothing makes me angrier than to see instructors bellowing at pupils for losing their position, totally ignorant of the fact that if the saddle were better designed, the pupil would be able to maintain it with ease.

I have proven it with my saddle. I can take a rider who sits atrociously, place them on one of my saddles, and the transformation is instantaneous. The rider, and often the audience, if this is taking place at a lecture/demo, cannot believe the difference. I have often been told that this is ‘cheating’, but cheating whom? The opinion is that a good rider should be able to sit well in any saddle, in other words compensating for the design faults, but in which other sport would this happen? If you were to learn to play golf, I am certain that you would not have to compensate for clubs made with the handles bent out of shape, making it difficult to hit the ball. Why then should a rider have to compensate for the saddle, something that seems to be almost taken for granted as an acceptable fact?

What is worse, is the fact that the horse has to bear the brunt of the problem, compounded a hundred fold, if the saddle itself does not fit the horse. If the rider is sitting too far back, the weight will depress the very area of the horse’s back that we want to lift and round, making him hollow away from the pressure, raising his head in consequence. If the rider is also wriggling around, fighting the angle of the stirrup leathers, and trying to avoid sitting too far back in the ‘chair seat’, imagine the discomfort to the horse, particularly if the rider is not absorbing the horse’s movement correctly, and is bouncing around or driving with the seat. The horse will find it harder to balance than when the rider is sitting in comfort and being helped, not hindered by the saddle.

If all saddlers paid this attention to detail, there would be far fewer horses with back problems, and riders would progress much quicker. I know it is possible, and can prove it. I have taught several hundred riders in this way during the last eight years since I developed the saddle, and every single one has improved instantly. I have probably taught several thousand pupils to ride in a career spanning thirty years. I often wish that I had thought about saddle design years ago, because my earlier teaching years would have been much easier!”

Heather has worked with leading bespoke saddler Barry Swain for the last six years. Her designs were made by several other saddlers initially, but Barry solved all the problems that Heather set him. The result is a saddle that is unbelievably comfortable, allowing the rider to sit with total ease in the correct line of balance. The saddles have a wide bearing surface, and we generally advocate a wool serge panel, also flocked with wool, which moulds very quickly to the shape of the horse. Barry uses his patented ‘Holistic’ tree, which allows much more freedom of movement for the horse’s back.

Heather went on to design her own range of treeless and part treed saddles, the Flexion Supreme, the Flexion SBS and their successor, the Fhoenix. Please see the Fhoenix pages for further information.

 

Fhoenix The ultimate in comfort for horse and rider, one size fits all. More details...