Western Saddle Fit - The Basics. A one hour video about western saddle fit by people who understand Western saddles. Not quite done, but getting close!! Subscribe to RSS Feed We keep mentioning the video we are producing on Western Saddle Fit. Many of you may remember last May when a major forest fire ended up burning a… https://www.rodnikkel.com/content/saddle-tree-blog-from-shop-and-desk/video-its-coming-its-coming/
How do you define it, and what do you do about it? Subscribe to RSS Feed For a tree maker, it doesn’t matter if the hip is higher than the wither or not, since we don’t fit either of those. Nor does the… https://www.rodnikkel.com/content/saddle-tree-blog-from-shop-and-desk/downhill-horse/
How straight you sit makes a difference for the horse, but you have to realize you move anyway... Subscribe to RSS Feed Changes in rider’s position with movement One 2005 study (1) looked at the angle of the trunk, the thigh and the lower leg compared to a… https://www.rodnikkel.com/content/saddle-tree-blog-from-shop-and-desk/effect-rider-part-two/
Yup, the rider affects what the horse feels too. It's not all just the saddle... Subscribe to RSS Feed It is the rider who decides almost everything about how the horse is ridden. (The only thing the horse decides is how long the rider is allowed to… https://www.rodnikkel.com/content/saddle-tree-blog-from-shop-and-desk/effect-rider-part-one/
Supposedly, saddles putting pressure on Cranial Nerve 11 is a major problem. Actually, you don't have to worry about it... The Facts that are right There is a Cranial Nerve 11 and it is called the Accessory Nerve. And it does, indeed, innervate the trapezius muscle, part of which is in the area… https://www.rodnikkel.com/content/saddle-tree-blog-from-shop-and-desk/myth-busting-cranial-nerve-11-and-saddle-fit/
The kidneys are well protected. We are no longer building saddle trees. We have two saddle fit videos available on our westernsaddlefit.com website. Western Saddle Fit - The Basics, aimed at riders, is… https://www.rodnikkel.com/content/saddle-tree-blog-from-shop-and-desk/youre-not-hurting-his-kidneys/
Filming a video on western saddle fit takes time, effort, and ingenuity... We spent a lot of time last summer filming, and a pile of time over the winter processing what we had filmed. And then we confirmed what we had wondered about - the first… https://www.rodnikkel.com/content/saddle-tree-blog-from-shop-and-desk/behind-scenes-video/
It seems there is a lot of discrepancy on where people say the cinch ring should lie. But I found one research article that answers at least one piece of the puzzle. Subscribe to RSS Feed From the information in the last post, the green circle shows where they say the cinch ring should go and the red one shows where they say it… https://www.rodnikkel.com/content/saddle-tree-blog-from-shop-and-desk/myth-busting-external-abdominal-vein/cinches-what-more-i-have-learned/
Something we'd like to tell a lot of people... How do you tell someone who has been riding for many years that they have their saddle in the wrong place? How do you explain that putting it up on the shoulder blades damages… https://www.rodnikkel.com/content/saddle-tree-blog-from-shop-and-desk/youre-saddling-your-horse-wrong/
Where is the rider's weight really centered under a saddle? Maybe not where you think... Subscribe to RSS Feed So last fall we had a chance with our pressure mat to test and see where the center of pressure under the saddle really falls. One of the neat… https://www.rodnikkel.com/content/saddle-tree-blog-from-shop-and-desk/center-pressure-under-saddle/
You can't give a single angle to a complex shape like a curve, let alone the complex shape of a horse's back. Some people still try. Here's why it doesn't work. Subscribe to RSS Feed Basically, you cannot measure a single angle off a curved surface. Each of these angles is real, and they all come from the same… https://www.rodnikkel.com/content/saddle-tree-blog-from-shop-and-desk/how-do-i-measure-my-horse-bar-angles/
What does it mean when a saddle bridges? And how do you know if it does? Subscribe to RSS Feed This is a badly bridging saddle tree. It contacts on both ends and has lots of empty space underneath it as well. This is the effect of… https://www.rodnikkel.com/content/saddle-tree-blog-from-shop-and-desk/bridging/
We don't make bars the reverse shape of the horse, and there's reason for this. Here's an example of what we do instead, and why... Subscribe to RSS Feed An example of this the crown shape we put on the back bar pads, which go over the last few ribs and the front part of the loin. For a horse… https://www.rodnikkel.com/content/saddle-tree-blog-from-shop-and-desk/flat-round-and-round-flat-paradox/
90 degrees. It is a set angle, so all trees that are called 90 degrees have to fit the same - right? Wrong... Subscribe to RSS Feed We have written about this before, explaining why the numbers of bar angles are meaningless between makers, but let’s try another way. When we… https://www.rodnikkel.com/content/saddle-tree-blog-from-shop-and-desk/angles-it-just-isnt-simple/
The traditional teaching about saddles needing to avoid the shoulder blade as it rotates back when the horse extends its leg forward is just, plain wrong. Here's proof, plus proof that you need to have your saddle behind the shoulder blade anyway... We are no longer building saddle trees. We have two saddle fit videos available on our westernsaddlefit.com website. Western Saddle Fit - The Basics, aimed at riders, is… https://www.rodnikkel.com/content/saddle-tree-blog-from-shop-and-desk/rethinking-saddle-fit-and-shoulder-blade-movement/
Pressure testing shows that changing saddle position from on to behind the shoulder blade means going from high pressure to low or no pressure. Position makes a difference! Subscribe to RSS Feed Almost a year ago we gave some riders the opportunity to have their saddles pressure tested with our system – English, Western and side saddles… https://www.rodnikkel.com/content/saddle-tree-blog-from-shop-and-desk/position-why-it-so-important/
Figuring out where the shoulder blade of the horse is relative to the bar of a saddle is more difficult than seeing it on a bare horse, because you not only have to figure out the bone under the skin, but also the bar under the leather. Key points to remember in seeing the shoulder blade – the spine of the scapula is pretty much always visible unless covered by blankets, etc. and it is parallel to the muscle… https://www.rodnikkel.com/content/saddle-tree-blog-from-shop-and-desk/position-seeing-shoulder-blade-under-saddle-part-one/
The best way to know how a theory works is to see the results over time in real life. We now have an example of the damage that occurs when the "flare" theory is put into practice, thanks to an owner willing to share her story. A couple of months ago we were discussing this horse with his owner. The history is that this is a 2006 mustang which the owner has had since he was 2 ½ years old. She… https://www.rodnikkel.com/content/saddle-tree-blog-from-shop-and-desk/effects-flare-and-its-not-pretty/
There's normal and then there's abnormal, and abnormal doesn't mean uncommon... Subscribe to RSS Feed In our blog post about normal wither conformation, I kept stressing that the transition between the shoulder blade and the wither pocket area… https://www.rodnikkel.com/content/saddle-tree-blog-from-shop-and-desk/wither-conformation-seeing-damage/
