Beach

16.3hh IDxTB

Original Saddle - Narrow fit

When I took on Beach he had extremely bad atrophy to his back. He was fitted in a narrow treed saddle and was a nightmare to school. I didn't know what to do or what was best for him and me.

The scientist in me said " Research" so that's what I did. I was not impressed with some of the information Saddle fitters were giving me and I was extremely concerned with their lack of general muscle development.

Beach's back was terrible. I realised it was his saddle that was the problem when he would go tense at the time of placing the saddle on his back. I only ground tie Beach and it got to the point he would would see the saddle and run! Something was not right and he was telling me.

I spoke with Heather Moffett about her new Fhoenix saddle (now the Fhoenix Standard) as Heather claimed her saddles were good for atrophied horses. The more I read and discussed the saddles with Heather and other people on the Enlightened Equitation Forum the more I understood, it was making sense.

This was Beach's back in 2005

In the above picture you can see where the saddle has caused muscle atrophy behind the shoulder blades. The saddle has been fitted to his shape which is incorrect.

In this picture is is possible to see that the neck breaks just in front of the wither (1) there is also very little topline. Toward the base of the neck the muscle underneath has become over developed. This is as a result of bracing the neck and throwing the head when being ridden due to discomfort from the points of the treed saddle when asked to lift the back and work in an outline(2)

The above video was taken during our Fhoenix Saddle Consultation. Beach was not long out of his old treed saddle and his movement was stiff and slow. He was 16 when this video was taken and people said he moved like this because he was old!

He started to settle and move better once he got used to the feel of the Fhoenix but he still threw his head trying to evade the pain he expected as a result of his narrow treed saddle. Once he realised he could move and lower his head without pain, you can see him improve slightly.

We received our Fhoenix in March '06 and this footage was taken in April '06. The difference in Beach was amazing.

We had not started our EE lessons at this point but I had started implementing methods discussed in book Enlightened Equitation by Heather Moffett.

I hope you can see the difference in Beach!

Click on the picture for full size image

I will try to get some new pictures as Beach's back has changed enormously since these were taken.