Believe it or not you saddle can detract from your performance. I am not saying it may or maynot cause you to win but  a well turned out horse can get you in the judges good books.

Your saddle has to be appropriate for you and your horse. A correct fitting saddle puts you in the correct position to show your horse properly. Seeing a young rider swimming in a ‘big ass’ saddle isn’t good. LIkewise (or even worse!) seeing a too big of a bottom cinched into a too small of a saddle, or not even being able to see the saddle (it’s happened!) is no good either.

Check out this video http://www.schleese.com/9PointChecklist to get a feel if your saddle is fitting correctly.

Use a shaped saddle pad. Please let it be clean and light colored. White is nice but off white is also ok. Have an even amount of white showing around your saddle. Take a look at this http://youtu.be/WkG07waMl0k to see how to fit a pad correctly.

Use a clean, white fleece saddle pad, sized and positioned so there’s 1 to 11/2 inches of pad showing evenly around your saddle, as shown.

Have you seen a saddle which didn’t fit the job it was doing? I know I have. What can you do about it?

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