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Marilyn Zorn, Charlotte C.H. VA. In her own words;
Hi len I thought I would give you
some feedback on my corrector after using it for a couple of weeks.I must tell you, that when I first saw it, I didn't expect
much change in my horse, but in fact, there has been a dramatic difference in him.
I bought a Meridian saddle some
years ago made for Arabians, but everytime I tried to ride in it, my horse would act like he was being goosed! He is a right
brain horse anyhow, and always swished his tail and looked for any excuse to run off with me. I never used the saddle after
the second time and it has set around for years. I loved the saddle, too-beautiful, well made and very comfortable for me.
Anyhow, I decided to try it with the corrector and see if there was any difference. I couldn't believe it! My Arabian
was moving out as if I was riding bareback. No jumping, no goosing, no tail swishing. I am really happy to be able to use
this saddle as it is my favorite one. I know that my Arabian is happy too. He is much more settled and I am starting to use
him again after 5 years of being a lawn ornament, because he was so unpredictable. I now realize that he was acting that way,
because the saddle I was using was hurting him.
Just wanted you to know how pleased I am to have
a product that really works! Thanks a bunch.
Marliyn Zorn ( a note about Marliyn, she has other horses and has even had another saddle custom built for
this horse, yet she ended up using her other horses, she rides a lot and tells it the way it is.) Len
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SADDLE FIT & Balancing the onesided horse! by
Len Brown
Most horses are left lead horses so what I'm about to
explain is using the left lead horse for the example. Just reverse your thinking when applying it to the right lead
dominant horse.
A left lead horse drops his right front
shoulder while carring the majority of his weight on the right fore. Therefore we can say he's a right-handed horse.
Just like a right handed person carries more weight on their right leg during movement so does the horse, if he's right-handed,
left-lead.
In doing this the saddle drops to the right. The upper left wither catches the saddle from dropping
further. That area gets sore as does the lower right scapula from the extra weight and pressure/impingement from the tree
bar. What most people don't realize is what is happening at the other end of the horse!
Since the
horse operates in diagonals Rt.Ft. vs Lf. R. and Lf.vs Rt.R. we have to work with and consider, the rear as
important as the front. (The gaited horse is treated slightly different in some cases.)
How the saddle
can perpetuate the problem!
Since the dropping of the shoulder in
carrying weight and the saddle then causing pain, the natural reaction of the horse is to pull away from the direct pain.
This means dropping the right shoulder further therefore causing more pain. This is what causes the problem to be magnified!
The problem isn't
helped by the right handed rider. He's sure his stirrups are even as he sits with a stable right leg and at speed, a swinging
left. He carries more weight on that right leg all the time, it feels natural when the saddle is off to the right. If you
don't believe this, watch riders from the rear and you'll swear that the majority have right stirrups adjusted
longer than the left. "EVERYBODYS COMFORTABLE IN THIS SITUATION". Except the
horse gets more sore and more one-sided. He eventually has many problems such as lameness and shoeing. Right suspensory lameness
and a flater hoof with less heel on the right. An excellent concave hoof on the left that's smaller than the right.
Just look at the endurance horse that goes 50 miles at a trot. With 660, 8ft strides per mile X 50 there are 33,000
strides divided by 2. That equals 16,500 strides on a weak diagonal. Now let's look at why that's so important.
The right front favored to carry the majority of weight in the left lead horse means the left rear
doesn't work as hard. He becomes lazy on that left rear. The right rear is doing 50% more work than the left in a well developed
unilateral left lead horse. The gluteals and longissimus are also working harder as they contract to elevate the forehand
and laterally stabilize forward movement more on the right than the left. Why? Because of the lazy left rear and the right
fore is just carrying the weight. It's not being elevated as much and the lateral stabalization that takes
place, as with the left fore, is lessened dramatically.
The legs of the horse are offset from the centerline (spinal column). When pushing off with a weak hindquarter and the
back not working in conjunction with it, the rearend of the horse is shoved the opposite of the hind that pushes. When the
DOMINANT LEFT LEAD horse pushes off with that lazy left rear, the hindquarters are pushed to the RIGHT! The lateral stabilization
of forward movement is not induced by the lessened muscle action of the horse's back on the left side.
It takes a clinic to explain any more of this, I don't expect you to conceptualize all of lateral
stabilization. You can watch a competitive trail rider doing a trot while standing the stirrups and see the fatigued horse's back.
The hindquarters of such a horse look like it's doing the rumba down the trail. Back and forth with every stride of the power
trot, loin rubbing is the result. This only happens when the horses back isn't locked down via pain from excessive pressure at
the front of the saddle. The one sided horse has the rear wiggling to only one side. The lazy loin is the one with
the lessened saddle contact and all the movement. The weight bearing right fore drops the saddle to the right and
the movement of the right loin is little. The right longissimus is contracting full force for elevation of
the forehand and the left lead. Lateral stabilization thru segmented muscle action is complete on the right side. There
is firm contact and little movement, under the saddle, of the right loin in the dominant left lead horse. With this in mind let me tell you how to check any well used horse for his degree imbalance
in a matter of seconds. HorseTrader's are you listening?
Simply run
your fingertips down the horses back about 5 inches out from the spinous process. From front to rear, this is a check for
friction sensitivity (soreness). If the regularly ridden horse is tested in this manner you will get a response. There's
movement of the loin area under every saddle. If the response is greater on one side than the other, that's the
side of the favored lead. Why? Because it's the lazy hind working with the weightbearing front diagonal,
carrying more weight of the forehand than the lead side.
The
degree of difference in reactions to this friction test tells you how one-sided (unilateral) that horse has become. A normal
reaction of the horse to friction in the loin is 1" to 3" dip. A really friction sore horse is going to dip 2 or three times
that. The well used horse that dips twice as much on one side than the other is well developed on the one hind showing
least reaction. The lead is on the side of most reaction. The imbalance is easy to determine without ever getting
on the horse or watching it move. How deeply inset this is, and the difficulties of balancing the horse
thru riding and saddling can be told thru another 8 muscles to be palpated and examining the feet. All this tells a story
of the rider as well but the saddle often limits the riders ability to correct the problems of training, such as bending to
the right and taking a right lead. Most training techniques
for bending to the right are close to teaching to work with pain and pretty sad. Are you listening horsetrainers?
I hope this gives you
a better picture of your horse. Thanks, LEN
Now the Saddling techniques used for
development of the lazy left hind in the left lead dominant horse.
To re-balance your horse you must switch his timing. For the gaited horse
the only means for such, if staying in gait, is what I'm describing thru the mchanical means via the saddle. For
the western riders, learn to post and you can speed up the process.
This horse is burdening his right and freeing up his left for the lead. Even
at a walk and trot the muscle action is not even. What we are going to do is to burden his left and free up his right. Start
by shortening the right stirrup strap 2 holes. Then lengthen the left strap the same. When I tell some riders this
they say "oh I can't ride that way, I'll feel unbalanced!" Wait until we then use a Corrector with all the front balance
shims on the right, none on the left. When a member of Britians Dressage Team (Elaine Wilson)hesitantly mounted
her experienced horse, (that would no longer bend to or use his right fore), she sated " Theres no way I can ride
like this, I'm to off center!" As soon as her horse had taken 2strides at a walk she was completely centered
on this horse for the 1st time in months. He had been dropping the saddle and rider to the right that far,
without the rider, trainer, or saddler catching it. The rider thought she was centered before. In 15 minutes of
riding, the horse was using his right again. There were a number of tears in the eyes of those watching
that had been trying to correct the problems of this horse for months. She and this horse went on to become
members of the national team. That's how fast it can work on a previouly trained horse that's just operating under pain.
Now lets go to the less trained horse that has developed quite one sided thru saddle pain, no use or training in the right
lead, and a less experienced rider.
The saddling formula is the same, but now we have to retrain
the horse to use his lazy left rear. This is something he doesn't want to do. When riding a unilateral horse at the canter
it's obvious that he won't take or doesn't hold a right lead. Riding at a trot and posting tells the rest of the story.
He doesn't like a rider rising to the left diagonal. He will throw them off of it as soon as he can. On some horses it's
hard to stay on it at all, the horse acts like he can hardly trot with you there. That's the very onesided horse. It's
so uncomfortable for you to hold the rhythm, it tortures your lower back. Why would a horse that prefers
his left lead, throw you off rising to the trot on extension of his left leg? Because
your weight will be coming down when he has to push off with his lazy left hind the next stride. It then makes him work with
that lazy left hind as soon as he switches his timing!
That is what you want! Using the KISS method for those of you that can post but are
unsure of which diagonal you're on, JUST POST TO THE DIAGONAL HE TRIES TO THROW YOU OFF OF. After 35 miles of posting, (2
training rides), on a really one-sided foxtrotter I owned, I had to look when I changed diagonals to be sure of which one
I was on. Yes I square trot my gaited horses if at all possible. It lets me even them out. It's the only way they can
compete in endurance. Their gait, other than a pace, will wear them out and there's no way you can do competitive times. The pace
is usually a nightmare for saddling. I can put that same gaited horse back into gait with a snaffle on.
I used to have a stallion out of Walkers Merry Lad. I called him ten speed, I never got him into a square trot.
Mary Koefod rode him in a 50mi. endurance ride and let him rack for 32miles. She thought it was a blast. He
then wore out and did a square trot the rest of the ride. The only time he ever did it again.
For western or english riders doing arena work, post on the wrong or weak
diagonal all the time. Don't start switching until your horse is using his weak hind. In lessons you're taught to switch regularly
and for the turn. You never change the horses habit of developing his favorite side if you do this. Cantering in a right lead
and many other things will develop that lazy rear. I'll leave the rest to you. None of this is complicated once you grasp
what is going on and know how bad it is in your horse, and have a method to remedy. Have fun, Len Ps. You
can pull the shims out of the right side when you have him working on the left diagonal while posting. Once you achomplished
the switch in timing they're not usually needed except for balancing the rider. For the trail rider, keep
them in longer if you just ride at a walk. You may need them until your saddling problems disappear. Then go back to
ft. to rear balancing with them.
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