The Saddle Fit Myth: Bridging vs. Full Panel Contact for Your Horse’s Well-Being
It is a common myth that has been circulating that a saddle must bridge to allow the horse to lift the back.
Imagine someone was standing on your back, but instead of distributing their weight evenly, they were digging in with their elbow and knees. Would you be willing to curl upwards and “lift” or would you do what any horse would do and drop/hollow your back?
The belief that a saddle must bridge to let the horse come up is nonsensical. ONLY when the back is relaxed and there isn’t excess pressure on the lumbar, shoulder, wither area, spinal nerves can the horse engage and lift.
What goes up must come down. Imagine the immense pressure on the front and back of a bridging saddle. Now we all know the horses back doesn’t stay up – so imagine the impact from the saddle when the back comes down as the horse moves through the gaits. That pressure will skyrocket and the horse will be less likely with each step, to come up and engage. Instead they will go around hollow with limited movement in the shoulders and hind legs out behind them to avoid the constant pressure and pain.
To add insult to injury, many saddles that bridge will also be too long and sit on the lumbar, as well as on the shoulder and along the spinal nerves.
Unfortunately horses may go “better” very briefly in this fit simply due to the over-padding of the panels (which are typically too soft and cannot support the tree which ends up falling through), but since it goes against what the horse needs based on anatomy and biomechanics, the body WILL begin to degrade. Muscles will become sore or atrophy, the horse will lose the topline, the limbs will become sore from the additional stress, kissing spine, hunters bump, and the list goes on.
There are still a lot of ‘opinions’ on what constitutes a properly fitting saddle, but essentially a large part of proper saddle fit is simple common sense! On the other hand, if it were truly such ‘common sense’ you would think many more people would understand and buy into the facts.
How to Check for Full Panel Contact
When checking your own saddle, once you’ve established that your saddle’s gullet/channel is the correct width for your horse, with the panels resting on your horse’s longissimus dorsi muscles, and not on his spine or ligaments, you need to ensure that your saddle’s panels make even contact with your horse’s back. We want the saddle to sit on the optimal weight-bearing surface of the horse’s back, and to distribute the rider’s weight between the caudal edge of the scapula and the last thoracic vertebrae.
Put your saddle on the horse, put your right hand under the stirrup bar area, gently hold the saddle in position with your left hand, and with your right-hand palm facing up slowly move your hand from front to back – you will feel a lot of contact on top of your hand . Put your hand flat on the horse’s back (you have greater sensitivity on the top of your hand, and feel if there is nice even panel contact from front to back. Check this on both sides. If the saddle sits flush at the front and back and loosely or no contact in the middle, this results in excess pressure at the front and back (bridging). If the saddle is tight in the middle and loose in the front and back (rocking) there is excess pressure in the middle of the saddle.
Some people find it easier to test for even contact by sliding a pen or pencil in between the panel and their horse’s back. Use whichever method (pen or hand) works best for you..
When a saddle rocks, the panels at the front and/or back of the saddle do not make even contact with the horse’s back. Think of the motion of a rocking horse. In this case, there is excessive pressure in the middle of the saddle, and the rider’s entire weight is concentrated in this one area. To determine if your saddle rocks, place the saddle on your horse’s back without a saddle pad. Push down on the pommel. If the cantle lifts up off the horse’s back, your saddle rocks.
Note that sometimes your saddle may be made with panels that deliberately flare up at the very back, so the last inch or so of the panels don’t make contact with your horse’s back. This is done in specialized cases: for instance, when there is a need to accommodate a tall or large rider on a horse with a short saddle-support area. If fitted correctly, this saddle will not rock. This extra room is also important for the back to come up when the horse engages during movement.
Sometimes we hear that a saddle that bridges slightly is actually a good thing, because when the horse lifts his back as he is being ridden, his back will come up into and fill in the space left by the bridge. While this may seem logical at first, in reality, it doesn’t work. The reasoning here is faulty. The back is not raised for all stages of movement in any gait, and as we all know, what goes up must come down and a bridging saddle will come down with additional force on only the front and rear – typically on the shoulders and lumbar with saddles that are routinely too long.
The goal of saddle fitting is to have the saddle distribute the riders’ weight evenly over the saddle support area, and it is important that the saddle neither bridge nor rock (excessively). Most riders would prefer a saddle that doesn’t move at all, however, to maintain the ability for loose, harmonious, and supple movement of the horse’s back and t ensure the rider’s body is in positive tension, the saddle should actually be able to ‘rock’ (very slightly) front to back. Saddles that don’t move at all on the back may actually put too much pressure on the floating ribs and on the sensitive part of the horse’s back outside of the saddle support area behind the 18th thoracic vertebrae.