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| Its come to my attention that my mare is uneven in her withers. Her left seems to be much larger/stronger than her right. Granted, she does favor her left over her right. She will always take off in a round ring going left and will sometimes fight you to stay going right. She has been vet checked, etc. Her right foot is a little "clubby", we do a little corrective shoeing to help her with that.
I recently got a Double J Pozzi wide saddle which I love, but it doesn't seem to fit her right. In my search to try and help this we noticed her shoulders/withers. It almost looks like she needs the wide for one side and a regular for the other..it sits very much on its front, but if looked at from the left side it doesn't look all that bad.
Has anyone dealt with this before? What exercises did you use to help? How did you handle saddle fitting?
Thanks for any advice!
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 The One
Posts: 7997
 
Location: South Georgia | My mare had this problem. The bodyworker took pictures of it from above, and those pics were shared by a saddle company to give examples of bad fits they sometimes encounter. My mare's issue stemmed from her favoring her right front due to navicular. Her left shoulder was enlarged due to compensation. Bodywork helped. Corrective shoeing helped with the muscling. |
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Veteran
Posts: 138
| My mare has a larger right shoulder, turns out she has arthritis in her left hind hock. May be worth looking at the back end to make sure your horse doesn't have anything going on back there. All horses will be a little asymmetrical, but extreme cases are usually indications of something going on with their soundness. |
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  Whack and Roll
Posts: 6342
Location: NE Texas | CorrecTOR pad, hands down. I've spent a billion dollars trying to find that saddle that fit me and my horses well and finally found the one that I love riding and works for me. I have a mare that is really downhill and all saddles slam into her shoulders no matter what simply due to how she's made. I also always found myself correcting my saddles back to center on her and thought maybe I ride heavy to one side due to an old injury. I'm a saddleright fan and have always used and loved those pads, but recently I traded a new 5 Star for a very used CorrecTOR pad with all the shims and am blown away at the difference it's made in her attitude and my saddle fit. I love the fact you can move the shims around to balance the saddle both front to back as well as side to side and diaganolly. The new pads are SUPER pricey, but you can sneak around and find some older pads in good shape and buy extra shims if they don't come with them. So glad I decided to try it and made the trade even though mine is super used and needs a good cleaning. I'll be buying another or soon! |
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 Expert
Posts: 1584
Location: Central Texas | Herbie - 2018-04-27 8:36 AM CorrecTOR pad, hands down. I've spent a billion dollars trying to find that saddle that fit me and my horses well and finally found the one that I love riding and works for me. I have a mare that is really downhill and all saddles slam into her shoulders no matter what simply due to how she's made. I also always found myself correcting my saddles back to center on her and thought maybe I ride heavy to one side due to an old injury. I'm a saddleright fan and have always used and loved those pads, but recently I traded a new 5 Star for a very used CorrecTOR pad with all the shims and am blown away at the difference it's made in her attitude and my saddle fit. I love the fact you can move the shims around to balance the saddle both front to back as well as side to side and diaganolly. The new pads are SUPER pricey, but you can sneak around and find some older pads in good shape and buy extra shims if they don't come with them. So glad I decided to try it and made the trade even though mine is super used and needs a good cleaning. I'll be buying another or soon!
I've been cosidering one for my uneven mare. Thanks for the info, I'll get one! |
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 Expert
Posts: 1631
Location: Somewhere around here | I had this exact problem last year. Horse has a little bit of a clubby foot but we also noticed that my saddle didn't fit him anymore. Bought a Treeless saddle and never looked back. |
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Porta Potty Pants
Posts: 2600
| Same issue here ... probably explains why my horse seems to like a treeless better. Too bad I don't really care for it. |
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Expert
Posts: 1584
Location: Central Texas | I called Double J, Friday and they build the saddle to fit the wide side and then pad the other side. |
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Unable to Live Without Chocolate or Coffee
Posts: 1841
| Bumping this up! I have a horse that is high/ low and the low side has a bigger shoulder - so we have uneven shoulders. plus he is butt high and he's 18, I'm looking into getting a corrector because I've gone through 8 saddles and can't find anything that "fits"  |
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Expert
Posts: 1584
Location: Central Texas | I struggled with a mare for a few years with one shoulder bigger than the other. Treeless did not work, Double J would stay on the best, but was not a great fit, Double J said they could build one for her with padding and I was going to go that route, but hesitated. I had taken her to several well-known vets, and tried one more last week. Ha, he took one look at her and said we need to xray her feet. We did and she has a probably old injury of a fractured coffin bone! The vet said he usually finds injuries in feet in horses like her. Anyway, she has been declared unsound, so we bred her. Sure had big plans for her, had to change them. So, you might consider the cause is an injury. |
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Gettin Jiggy Wit It
Posts: 2734
| 90% of horses are uneven in the shoulders. It goes back to how they lay in the womb. Also high low syndrome can play a role and also uneven conditioning. I bought a Len brown corrector pad. It has really helped one mare that is down hill and uneven on one side. Love the shims and the pad keeps the saddle back where it should be. |
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 Half-Eaten Cookies
Posts: 2075
Location: Fort Worth / Springtown | I agree with those who posted about the Corrector Pad / Protector Pad. Even if you don't buy his products/read through some of his articles - he really analyzes saddle fit. Some doubters, I know, and understand, but I've followed him for a very long time and what problems I had found on my own with saddles, I later find him discussing the problem on his website - pictures of all kinds of saddle sores, movement/behavior issues. I have a horse I raced for 20 years (would be running right now at 24, if he didnt have allergic reaction to bee/wasp sting 2 weeks ago). He's taught me a lot about saddle fit. Lower on right side shoulder. Saddle then tilts right puts more pressure on left hind. An accuptuncturist pointed it out on my horse - he's probably always been that way. You can exercise posting on off diagonal to make him stonger on left hind. Exercise with right stirrup a little higher than left - that can help you, also, shift your weight if you ride heavier on the right side. How is your first barrel? My horse would get pinched and start to turn the first great, then hesitate coming out of it - he did this bad his futurity year, until I figured out the problem. I also had to make sure I wasn't leaning to the inside, because that would put even more pressure on that right shoulder/tree.
Edited by txbredbr 2020-05-11 7:56 AM
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