Look at top of wither - see the white hairs? This is due to a saddle being too low on the horse and the saddles gullet clearance DID not clear the wither but sat on it! You can so terribly hurt and injure a horse with a saddle that does not clear the spine by an inch or two!

Close up of wither.

Nice back but the saddle bars had too much rocker for this horse and is soring the horse.  You can see the white hair and injury happening.

A short back, prominent withers, sharp rise to the croup and a dippy back.  Horse is symmetrical.  Will need a saddle that conforms to this horses back or use corrective padding to make sure the pressure is even through out the horses back allowing the 2 inch spine clearance.

A straight top line or what is called a mule back with no wither

See the with sore.  This is from a saddle that has too much rocker in the bars.

Hollow behind wither.  You can also see white open sores due to the saddle bars having too much rocker or cure in them.  This saddle fell into the hollow and then wore holes into the horses hide. HORRIBLE.

Rump high, saddle making a dry spot behind shoulder.

Rump low.

Balanced narrow shoulders, very short back, slightly rump high and roached backed. One hip lower than the other. (We simulated this by having horse stand with hind leg cocked - this is what you would see if you had a horse standing square in the rear - that had one hip lower than the other).

Sway backed, croup high - short back, pot bellied and slightly rump high.

Colina age 3 at the start of the riding season.
 Then below that, is Colina again after five months of riding and

maturing. Look how her top line and withers have changed.

(This photo is flipped "mirror image" so you can see her pointed the same direction at the first one.  It is the same horse.)

Wide withers and wide tubular back

Widest horse I have ever worked with. "You can set a full course meal and never have your plate fall off". 

You can see a sore from an ill fitting saddle on the upper near side (left) shoulder of the horse.  This may or may not go away.  But you must always check the fit of your saddle.  Even if a company says it fits a wide horse.  Check it for yourself.  With a rider in the seat slide your hand under the front, middle and rear of the saddle, walk with the horse.  What you feel is what the horse feels.  Remember a horses shape constantly changes.

More broad shouldered - wide - big horses that are well balanced (Friesian crosses)

The dun mare (Mita) is 10 this year.    The bay mare (Reyna) is 9 this year.   And the black mare (Ria) is 3 this year.    Photo's taken February 2007 - northern MN  

High wither, roach back.

huge shoulders - short back

This horse is rump high, has a sharp rise in the croup. 

Notice the 5 inch dip. 

The Hill View Farms ® Evolutionary saddle without the use of center shims was able to fit this horse and the rider and horse are both now very happy!  If you have a traditional saddle you will need center shims

Prince and Sue Mundy are VERY happy and contrary to what one Vet said, this horse DOES NOT have to be put down, as he can be ridden happily with a saddle that fits!

A totally even sweat pattern WITHOUT SHIMS using the Evolutionary saddle by Hill View Farms.

How do I use Shims?

Shims come in sets of three for each side; they can be purchased for the front of the saddle, the center or the rear, each designed to help certain conditions. The front shims are designed to allow you to raise the front of your saddle (if your horse is rump high), to fill in a hole behind the shoulder blade, or to balance your saddle from right to left. How do you do this? First get yourself a helper. Next, square your horse up. Have your helper hold him, squaring him up with his front feet even. Have your helper move his mane out of the way so you can clearly see his shape. Then stand behind your horse and look over his rump to his shoulder and withers area. Look at his shoulders. Is one side significantly larger than the other? If so, you need to put front shims in on the smaller side. While your helper holds them (the largest shim always towards the horse), you will have to sculpt the low side to match the high side. Now that you know he has a weak side you will need to post off of that diagonal, encourage him to take that lead and lounge him in the direction to use his weak side, building up that shoulder muscle. You also will need to check him monthly, because his shape will change, especially if you are riding him in a flex-system saddle. If you don’t check his conformation, you won’t know when he no longer needs the shims. You could be adding bulk where it isn’t needed and cause dry spots and white hair. If your horse has a hollow behind the shoulder, you will need to fill that in to make a level saddling area. The flex-panel system saddles will flex and will "fall" into that hole and the panel will be flexed up so that it is "bottoming" out on the hard saddle tree itself. If this happens, all of your saddle’s suspension has been used up (similar to filling the back of your trunk with concrete blocks and bottoming out the shock absorbers). You will need to fill in that hollow behind the shoulder so that does not happen. The hollow usually is caused by muscle atrophy; as I mentioned earlier, his shape will change so you need to check his body monthly. If you do not, you will could more harm than good. The center shims are used to fill in the dip on a sway-backed horse and to help get excessive pressure off of the front and rear of the saddle, depending upon how they are placed. Lastly, the rear shims are used in raising the rear of the saddle or in eliminating loin rubbing. For more on loin rubbing go to the horse-related questions that were answered earlier. * Note: I recently discovered that many of the new saddles that are being marketed with the Delrin panels are not constructed to fit a wide range of back shapes, (excluding the System 7 flex-panel saddles.) I have seen and fitted these saddles. The simple act of girthing up the saddle on the horse will bottom out the panels. You must check this while someone is in the saddle. Walk your horse around slowly and observe the panels. They should NOT be banging or hitting the bottom part of the saddle. If so, you will need a special pad that has a "full length" pocket, using shims to help restore your saddle’s suspension or you may need to get an entirely different saddle. Do not ride in a saddle that has no suspension. You may sore your horse.  When shimming for panel saddles, treeless or traditional hard tree saddles always remember to SHIM AWAY from pressure.  This is where you will feel (WHEN SOMEONE OF YOUR WEIGHT IS IN THE SADDLE) by sliding your hand under the front, - way up under the saddle, then behind the riders leg in the center of the saddle, and lastly the rear, - do this on both sides,  feeling for pressure.  You can also have the rider with your HAND still under the saddle walk the horse and move in a figure eights so you can feel everything as the horse is even turning.  Do this for BOTH SIDES.   In the area of least amount of pressure that you will need to add shims, thus creating equal pressure throughout the length of the panels or saddle bars.   You must make sure your saddle distribute your weight evenly.  Besides the saddle offering the rider support a saddle was developed to distribute the riders weight. So that in mind, with a rider in the saddle (that has no pad under it - or use your current pad to see how it is performing)  slide your hand (which can be difficult and the horse may get squirmy - so with out a rider in the saddle do this test as to desensitize him before a rider is in the saddle) under the front, center (going in behind the riders leg) and rear of the saddle and feel just how well the pressure is being distributed at both standing and then moving the horse forward as you are walking beside him. Then from that test you can adjust your pad and shim accordingly and retest checking how the corrective pad/shimming helped.

For more on shimming click here and for a on line Video Click here.

Here is a horse that has been perfectly squared up.  We have the owner holding the horses head straight and the other holding the mane out of the way.  This horse has been looked at by a veterinarian who felt that the horse had suffered shoulder trauma at an earlier age, thus causing the lack of shoulder development.  I also noted that this horse had the hoof associated with this side, was smaller by one size than the other.  I gave the owners exercises that are needed to help build muscle but even with rehabilitation exercises this horse may always have a shoulder and back that dips lower on the one side.

To balance a saddle the owner will need to use one or both of the following. 

• Shims - full length covering the entire saddling area and in this case with additional front shims to build up the shoulder so that it is even with the other side. 

• Adjustable System 4 - Raising the front of the saddle, the owner can eliminate the need for the shoulder shims.

The owner will also have to have a special pad with a full length pocket to hold shims. Or use 2 way sticky carpet tape to hold the shims in place.

The photo to the left shows the saddle using the adjustable system 4 to balance the saddle, eliminating the need for the shoulder shims, but we still needed the center shims.  If you do not have the Adjustable System 4, you can balance your saddle using the front  and center shims achieving the same effect.

With the horse perfectly squared up, this photo shows the saddle from the rear.  We had the owner ride this saddle with the adjuster out but did not put the full length shim or a center shim in the pad.  After riding the saddle, with this adjustment, we realized that we needed the center or full length shim on the low side. We made the adjustment and rode again.  The fit and sweat pattern was perfect!

All riders MUST know their horses confirmation and LISTEN to what they tell you.  It is so refreshing working with owners who address and know their horses.

Shown here is another example of a horse which has a dippy, short back with a high rise to the croup. 

As wonderful as the panels are (System 7) saddles are they sometimes will need help curving down into a back of this nature.  Therefore we must fill in this hollow with some shims to bring up the level of the back for even weight distribution and to avoid the loin rubbing, from  excessive rear pressure.  Using a pad that has a full  length pocket and two full length shims and or center shims placed in the pocket maded for the correct fit on this horse.

Checking saddle fit first without the shims and then with the shims comparing fit will make both horse and rider  happy.  What is really wonderful is that with these panel saddles as your horse's back changes or if you change horses, all that is needed to remove the shims and off you go again with the same saddle!  Absolutely remarkable.

Here is a horse that is Rump high with a very short back.  Full length shims may be necessary for the panels to evenly float on her back if you have long panels, or have panels that are not system 5 or 7.  Or if you are using a rigid tree saddle, you will need to level her back out and remember to always shim AWAY from pressure.

Also in the photo to your left, you can see that one hip is lower than the other.  This is because this horse is standing with one rear leg cocked.  BUT some horses are like this  when standing straight.  I had a customer, who called saying that she and her horse did a  3 hour ride and the horse was so sore in the one loin area on one side that she had to leave early and was not ride the following day.  Naturally I was very curious as to why?  So I drove 90 miles one way to see this horse.  Unfortunately I did not take my camera, but the photo to your left, shows how this horse looked.  If you have a horse like the photo with one hip lower than the other, you must use rear shims to bring up that low side.  It is rare to have a horse with one hip lower than the other but they are out there.  After a corrective fitting he had no more back/loin issues and we tested this fit a week later doing  horrendous 5 hour - up and down - fast and slow - killer ride. (I like to max out the performance of equipment and the stamina of a horse, what can I say...)  After the ride I asked the owner to palpate as she had done weeks earlier and then again the following day, (I too palpated but more fully)  and found that the horse and his back condition fantastic!

Here is a horse that is elevated in the front.  Many dressage horses are elevated in the front end and may need a rise in the rear of the saddle for achieving rider balance.  Use center and rear shims to accomplish this.  Remember the largest shim toward the horse and then tapering up to the saddle.

An example of loin rubbing and not a saddle bottoming out causing this problem.

This horse has a short back and sharp rise to the croup in relation to the panel length.  The saddle is a 17 inch saddle with 28 inch panels.  Because of the combination of this confirmation the saddle has caused loin rubbing.  If not corrected this will cause extreme discomfort and eventually sore the horse.  Shims are needed to raise up the front 2/3 of the panel to help remove the excessive pressure that is now digging into the horse's coat.

 LOIN RUBBING?

I have also found that by using COWBOY MAGIC applied ONLY on the rub area makes and allows for the pad to slide as if on oil across this area thus actually alleviating or even eliminating this condition.  PLEASE only apply this product to this area, for if it goes off the target area you and your saddle will SIDE off your horse.