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Re: Wide backed horses. Maybe the problem with sore knees (besides old knee
injuries) is that the rider is trying to grip with the knees rather than
balance on the seat bones. If the pain goes away by lengthening the
stirrups a bit, as another reader suggested, this might indicate that
gripping is the problem.
A good exercise to learn how to use the legs properly and to balance better
is to two point which is riding the horse with your seat off the saddle,
bearing your weight on the balls of your feet with knees slightly bent. You
can use your hands to steady your upper body, but you should not use your
hands to hold yourself upright -- the balance on the feet should do that.
It's -really- awkward at first, since most riders want to fall forward when
they first learn this skill. Keep trying, but don't rush it -- practice
two-pointing at a walk for only a few strides at a time, then longer as you
learn to balance properly. If you keep at it, you will eventually be able
to two-point without using your hands to steady yourself. It's the same
position that English riders take when they post correctly to the trot --
the bounce up is a two-point position.
Another exercise that I was taught is to rotate the thigh muscles inward
with my hands when I first mount a horse -- if I'm not careful, I tend to
sit in the saddle much like I would sit in a chair, with more of the
bottom/backside of my thighs touching the saddle and the horse's sides. But
it's the inner muscles (touch your knees and thighs together -- those are
the muscles I mean) that must be used to ride well. So I get on the horse,
stand in two-point position with the horse standing quietly, and grab my
thighs and rotate them inward. That also rotates the hips, knees, and
calves inward to a better position for riding. Sounds silly to do this, but
it helps me to quickly regain the feel of what it's like to sit properly
in the saddle, balancing on my seat bones and inner thighs.
Re: Saddle fit. I have a true Sports Saddle (not an Orthoflex) that I
like to use on our Fjords. It has a gel pad in the middle rather than a
fully rigid tree, which allows the saddle to adapt to a wide-backed horse
and is very comfortable for the rider. It's really odd to feel the gel-pad
in the saddle bend as the horse bends!
A saddle with full Quarter horse bars (not semi-Quarterhorse bars) may also
fit a Fjord well. The old style of Quarter horse had a chunky physique,
unlike the Quarter horses of today, many of which have a lot of
Thoroughbred blood in them. I have an old saddle with probably full-Quarter
horse bars from the 40s which seems to fit Sissel fairly well. She has a
round barrel but well-defined withers. It doesn't do as well on Tuopen,
however, who has a rounder torso yet with less definition to his withers.
DeeAnna
