THE CAUSES OF SADDLE SLIP AND HOW YOUR SEAT CAN HELP

So your saddle is slipping? Annoying, right? Let’s break down some of the possible causes and what we can do about it.

The first and most foremost factors to rule out are unsoundness and saddle fit. Unsound horses may shorten up their stride in various ways and this can lead to your saddle slipping. For example, once shoulder dropping more than the other will cause the saddle to move to one side more than the other and over time during your ride it may start moving in that direction. Once your vet or therapist has checked out your horse, you can start to look further into other possible causes. A saddle that fits your horse well should not slip much at all, however, on very wide horses, even with well fitting saddles, we may see more saddle shifting because their lack of wither allows for the saddle to move more from side to side. In this article I am riding a very wide pony, Danni.

So what are the most common causes of saddle slip? Below I will break down some of the most common causes and give quick tips on how to work on it.

When horses move, their ribcage swings from side to side. As the hind load bearing foot takes up the load and pushes back, the ribcage will swing to the other side. The saddle sits on upon the horse’s ribcage (which is mobile) and the withers are part of the spine (which is relatively fixed).

As the left back foot pushes back as it takes up the load of the stride, the ribcage rolls up and out to the right. You can see the corresponding lift of the right hip of the rider and the right leg pushes out to the side. At the same time in the stride, we see the left side of the horse’s hip drop, which also results in the left side of the horse’s back dropping down. It is to be noted that I am exaggerating this movement with my hips to make the horse’s ribcage swing more.

There may be instances where your horse’s ribcage may swing more to one side than the other. This can be due to unevenness in the thrust of the hind legs and unequal muscle development in the pelvis. This is not necessarily unsoundness, but can be movement patterns that have developed over time. Remember, horses are designed to graze all day and run away from predators, not perform perfect circles without the correct training. Now this uneven muscle development may be due to a phenomenon known as ‘natural crookedness’. Your horse, like you, comes out of a small space in the womb and the way they are curled up in the womb may influence their side preferences. This natural crookedness will mean your horse will have a side they prefer to bend to, and do it well. Now natural crookedness is a very natural thing and is nothing to be concerned about, however, there are things you can do to ‘straighten’ your horse out. Straightness training and good lateral work in dressage schooling can be powerful tools to help even out muscle development, which in turn can help make your horse more symmetrical.

Is this something we can do about uneven or excessive ribcage swing? Due to the fact that excessive ribcage swinging can reduce the power transmission from the hind end, we at times want to be able to use our seat to reduce excessive ribcage swinging. Don’t believe your horse’s ribcage moves that much? Give it a feel! Walk on a nice loose rein and feel your hip bones at the front rising up and down with each stride. This is your horse’s back lifting up on one side while dropping down correspondingly on the other side. You may also feel one hip bone lifts up and forward more than the other one. This may be due to your horse’s ribcage swinging more to that side. Remember we were talking about saddle slipping? This one sided ribcage swing can be one of the factors in saddle slip. Now to control the movement of the ribcage, and the corresponding swing, resist your hips bones lifting up so much with each stride by actively keeping your trunk still and bracing gently with your core.

In this image I am resisting the natural swing of the horse’s ribcage by trying to keep my hip bones level with each stride. I do this by bracing gently with my core and actively to keep my hip bone down when it wants to lift up with each stride. This actively reduces the amount of ribcage swing in the horse.

Ribcage swinging to the left. Note how the ribcage rolls outwards and upwards, which pushes my left leg out to the side. It is important to note that this is a normal movement for a horse.

Now to throw a spanner into the works, a rider can also have a sort of natural crookedness, or side preference. This is not a great predictor of injury for the rider but it can make it more difficult for our horses to carry us evenly. This usually manifests as one side of our backs and hips being slightly shorter and not quite as strong as the other. Now how does this affect our horses? One of my favourite analogies is to imagine carrying a heavy child on your shoulders. Say that child leans heavily over to the right, to prevent both of you falling over, you will have to step out to the right to catch the weight of the child. The same can be viewed in the saddle. Constant leaning to one side can make our horses battle to hold themselves, and us upright. Is your horse cutting the corner on the right rein? Maybe you are leaning over heavily over to the right, unbalancing both of you. In turn, this may also make the saddle slip as well. I usually find there are two type of rider lean in terms of the seat. Firstly, the rider heavily weights one seat bone more than the other, and secondly, the rider shifts the torso and shoulders over to one side more than the other. Some riders do both!

Firstly, lets have a look at seat bones. Now it is important to note that some higher level dressage movements require the weighting of one seat bone more the the other, but for this article we will be referring to basic schooling and it’s effect on saddle slip.

In this image you can see my stirrups are level, but I am putting much more weight into my right seat bone. During a ride, if I constantly sit more on this seat bone, my saddle may start to slip over to the right.

How do we know if we are doing it? Firstly, halt your horse and relax your body position. Do you notice that you have more weight or pressure in one seat bone? This test is more about feel than anything else. If so, try and lengthen the side of your back and drop the seat bone that feels less pressure into the saddle. It may feel strange at first, but keep practicing it. This same exercise can be done at the walk, and at sitting trot can be useful too. You can also have a trainer or friend look and see if your pelvis is level from behind.

Here my seat bones and stirrups are relatively level, but I am leaning my trunk over to the left. This excessive trunk lean will unbalance the horse considerably.

What do we do about trunk and shoulder lean? Again, when riding, some gaits require more lean from the trunk, but we want that lean to be minor, not extreme as pictured above. The easiest way to see your level of lean is to look at yourself in dressage mirror or have someone film you from the ground. Straight to you may not look so straight in the video!

Another way to imbalance your horses to push down on one stirrup more than the other. Your stirrups may be the same length, but it is very possible you are leaning on one more than the other one. This is often a very subtle habit that can be formed.

In this image I am incorrectly pushing down excessive weight into my left stirrup. The horse will likely widen the circle to balance both of us. This type of stirrup weighting usually causes the most saddle slip.

How do we find out if we are leaning on one stirrup excessively. Again, it comes down to feel and possibly feedback from someone on the ground. In term of feel, we want the balls of the feet to have similar pressure on them when in the stirrups. If you feel a lot of weight on the ball of one foot, it is likely you are leaning on it heavily.

This is an example of level seat bone pressure and nice gentle, even pressure on the stirrup. Note my heel is not forced down.

Gentle weight in the stirrups, and relatively level hips. When all these factors come into play, the horse immediately seems to feel more balanced. It is safe to say a lot of imbalance comes from the rider!

Fine tuning your seat has very real benefits and is worth the effort. Your horse will feel more balanced for it, and it should result in a lot less saddle slipping.