dumb question??

Saddle question - if a horse is hard to keep cantering around turn - he always breaks when when asked to circle at a canter and but will canter a 20 m circle in a different saddle, is it possible a poorly fitting saddle is the reason? Can it make that much difference?

When we first got a horse, my friend who turned 50 this year gave us her saddle that she used as a teen in 4H. I used it for awhile until I got a 15" wintec FQB for Christmas and now Tazzette has the old saddle. Tazz is really hard to keep cantering. She used my saddle Sunday morning and wow, he was perfect. Now this was a onetime thing, haven't had a chance to recheck to see if a fluke or not, but it was a huge difference. He was far more willing and picked up the canter quickly and easily. Even cantered a 20 m circle several times :-) We will hopefully go look this weekend at a saddle, she's been saving all summer. I think the old saddle is full bars, 14".

not such a dumb question.......it could very well be......

Saddle fit can be that huge a difference, I've had horses with bucking or other issues and sometimes just re adjusting or changing tack the problem disappears. Some of the new full qh trees are super wide and only fit the roundest heavy built QH types, average built well fleshed horses are usually more regular QH tree and your narrower breeds, STB, Arab, TB and light build crosses should be semi qh tree, but even then each saddle manufacturer may have slightly different specs for what they call semi, full or regular and even worse gullet width doesnt always indicate tree size, sortof like having a size 8 boot, but is it wide, narrow or extra wide, flat insole, raised insole, narrow toe, square toe, round toe. Still size 8 boot but will all fit different depending on what type it is.

Not tooo complicated.

I printed a couple templates and checked the old saddle it was probably a semi which is sort of stretched a bit. Tazz from what I could tell from the template is a full quarter. He has high withers but he is a pretty solid boy. He says hi, he really loves his new girl. It is so lovely to watch him follow her around our little ring when she puts one of her little cousins on him for a pony ride or when she is over there cleaning up etc. And watching them canter the other day was just beautiful. :-)

SEE.......Told ya.......hahaha......LB is much better at explaining than I am......... :cowboyhound.gi

Saddle plays a HUGE role. My mare was a lady slipper before I found the right saddle for her. She was always pissy and threatning to eject you. Pinned ears, tight all over, and just angry. Loping was dangerous and she bucked everytime she was asked.

I tried numerous, quality, treed saddles and it was always the same response. When I finally took the plunge and went treeless, she was a new horse. She's so much happier and loves to lope now. The difference was instant.

I can't help adding my two cents worth too.........There are no dumb questions here and there are lots of savvy horsepeople willing to share their knowledge. Win/win situation! :-)