The process involves much more than just throwing a saddle on the horse’s back and checking the points. Anne wants to see the horse move in walk, trot and canter. She walks alongside the horse’s shoulder and feels for pressure before watching the horse and rider trot and canter on a circle.

Once she’s seen if the saddle is balanced, how it sits on the horse and how the rider sits in the saddle, she tries a variety of pad configurations. I was happy to learn that Baleno’s saddle fits him well. We’ll be adding a different pad to relieve some of the pressure on his withers, but otherwise the saddle sits balanced and doesn’t press or hurt him in anyway.

Volare, however, was a different story. Sway-backed with high withers, I’d brought him along for fitting because his back has changed as he’s gotten older. The old KN saddle (bought 20 years ago, used) I ride him in is hard as concrete. I was hoping she could reflock it and check to see that it fits him property.

The saddle is far from balanced. Without pads, the cantle is three inches below the pommel. When I ride I often feel like I’m in a reclining chair. I’ve leveled it myself by padding it up with a fleece and bumper pad to level. Anne told me that the system works well, but that’s a lot of pads and a lot of pressure on the poor guy’s back. Instead, we tried a pad with inserts—a Mattes pad with Velcro pockets to which you can add small pads. Once we’d figured out how many inserts and in what combination, the saddle fit much better and Volare seemed much more comfortable. He moved more freely; his shoulders opened and his hind legs stepped under more actively.

It amazes me that I rode him in that ill fitting saddle for decades before I knew that it didn’t really fit him. I wonder how many horses are going around with a sore back from a poorly fit saddle, and how many people are fighting gravity to get into a correct riding position, as I was with Volare. Anne says you’d be surprised what people don’t know about saddle fit.