Equine Symmetry - MSFC Qualified Saddle Fitter

Equine Symmetry - MSFC Qualified Saddle Fitter Master Saddle Fitting Consultant sharing tips on tack fit, horse welfare, equine fitness and management

Invest in quality where it actually counts 👇 some tack certainly is worth investing in. 1. A well-fitting girth: prevent...
25/04/2026

Invest in quality where it actually counts 👇 some tack certainly is worth investing in.

1. A well-fitting girth: prevents rubbing, pinching, and restriction through the shoulders. Also making sure you have the right size. So having a few sizes of quality girths is always good.

2. A safe, high-quality helmet: non-negotiable for protecting your brain (no shortcuts here). I would be careful getting this second hand too.

3. A browband that fits and avoids pressure behind the ears and stops subtle tension and resistance. Most bridles come with browbands too small for the horses they are on. So most people end up having to size up.

4. A good ba****ck pad, improves grip, distributes pressure, and protects your horse’s back. It’s all about make sure there is still decent spinal clearance and ideally breathable materials: Absolutely no stirrups should be allowed on a ba****ck pad. But this is one of those items you didn’t know you really wanted until you had one! Having a good pad is also less about ‘protecting’ the horse from the rider’s bum, and more about helping the ride feel a bit more confident and secure on their ba****ck journeys. When the rider feels a bit more balanced, the horse has an easier time carrying you.

These aren’t extras, they directly affect comfort, performance, and safety. Buy once, buy right.

Tell me your horse had an ill-fitting saddle without telling me your horse had an ill-fitting saddle…I’ll start with a f...
19/04/2026

Tell me your horse had an ill-fitting saddle without telling me your horse had an ill-fitting saddle…

I’ll start with a few:

☠️ You brace yourself every time you tighten the girth like it’s a survival drill

🛍️ You have a tower of gel pads, half pads, sheepskins, memory foam, homemade shims, and anything else you felt could make things ‘more comfortable’ for your horse

🙏🏼Your mounting routine includes a deep breath, a pep talk, and a backup plan (and usually another person or a bag carrots)

🙅‍♀️You avoid transitions like they personally offend you

⚖️You’re constantly adjusting your position trying to “fix” a feeling you can’t quite explain. At this point you are sure one leg is longer than the other!

🪦Getting on without lunging beforehand feels like it may shorten your lifespan

💔 You low-key dread riding… but feel guilty admitting it

🚷 Your horse feels like they’ll move any direction except forward. Sideways, absolutely! Backwards, definetly! Foreward? Not without a few threats and arguments.

⏱️You say “he’s fine once you get going” (spoiler: he is not fine)

We see these behaviours so often, they start to feel normal.
We ride through them. We manage them. We try train them out.

Or we know, deep down, something isn’t right…
but we hope it’s “not that bad.”

So we add a gel pad.
Tighten things here, loosen things there.
Tell ourselves it should be better now.

But discomfort doesn’t get trained away.
It gets tolerated… until it can’t be anymore.

I can talk about this for days, but I only have a few minutes to post about this, so here is the short and not so sweet ...
13/04/2026

I can talk about this for days, but I only have a few minutes to post about this, so here is the short and not so sweet truth about the ‘miracle’ we all believe to be adjustable gullets.

Adjustable gullet does not mean adjustable saddle‼️❗️⚠️

This is where a lot of horse owners get misled

Yes interchangeable gullets can be useful I use and recommend some of these saddles myself

But they usually only change ONE part of the fit: the width at the shoulder angle.

They do not change
The gullet width
the tree shape
the panel contact
the length
the balance
the way the saddle sits on your horse’s back

So if those things do not suit your horse
changing the gullet will not fix the problem

This is where the budget friendly adjustable idea becomes tricky.

It feels like the smart choice.
I will just adjust it as my horse changes.

But that only works if the rest of the saddle already suits your horse.

If it does not you are just delaying the problem not solving it.

My advice, especially if you are on a budget:

🏁Do not choose a saddle just because is marketing team promises you it can be adjusted

If you are going to ride: choose what fits your horse right now
Prioritise all the areas of saddle fit, correct panel contact and balance
AND ACCEPT YOU MAY NEED TO CHANGE LATER

Horses change
Young horses develop
Horses coming back into work rebuild muscle
Even fit horses fluctuate

And sometimes those changes happen quickly

If you know your horse is going through a phase of change

Take a step back

Focus on groundwork
Build the right muscle
Then invest in a saddle once your horse has stabilised

You cannot have it all

You cannot expect a saddle to be
☑️budget friendly
✅perfectly fitting
☑️fully adjustable
✅and conveniently available immediately

Something has to give

It should not be the fit

I would rather see you in a simple saddle that fits well now

And when your horse changes:
sell it or swap it

Or some cases clients do have the budget to buy a similar saddle in the correct size.

It is less convenient
But it is better than riding in a saddle that never really fit.

What is the most underrated tack investment you have made?
08/04/2026

What is the most underrated tack investment you have made?

30/03/2026

Every industry has its good and bad. I think what really blows my mind about the horse world is the confidence in which some stuff is said.

Let me start with this:
Not all trainers are like this. There are incredible instructors who advocate for the horse, encourage learning, and welcome questions and also have a hunger to learn and know more.

But… like in every industry… there are bad eggs and ego trips to contend with. And over time, I’ve heard things from my clients’ trainers (and my own) that have genuinely left me speechless 😶

Not just because they’re wrong…
But because of how confidently they’re said.
And how rarely they’re questioned.

And I’ll be honest, as a saddle fitter, one of my biggest challenges sometimes… is the trainer.

We can spend an entire session assessing the horse, adjusting the saddle, explaining what we’re seeing…
Only for a client to come back and say:
“My trainer said to just ignore that and keep riding.”

And just like that, all of that work, all of that input from the horse… dismissed.

Here are some things I’ve come across. And even though they blow my mind, many are so common to hear:

• “Too much groundwork ruins the ridden horse”. Yes because your horse has excellent ground manners, but displays clear pain behaviours under saddle. Make it make sense.
• “Saddle fitters don’t like foam panels because then you don’t need them to come out” 🤪
• Putting a beginner rider in spurs because the horse is “lazy” 🙀
• “My horse bucks because she’s asking for more work” 🤯
• “Don’t question me, just do it like this” 🚩
• Tightening the flash because “she needs more stability in the bit and opens her mouth” 💀
• “We need to sedate him for saddle fitting” 😐 let’s make it worse. “Don’t worry, the vet will be there to oversee it”.

I am not going to go on the “behaviour = communication” tangent. But please, please don’t be afraid to question things. To ask why? And maybe to understand that horses generally ‘misbehave’ in relation to ridden work because of 3 things:
1. They are confused. Most of us are learning as we go so 99% its a factor.
2. They are uncomfortable. Many things to explore here.
3. They are afraid. Same as above.

Horses were never designed to carry weight on their backs.They evolved to graze for hours, moving in a forward-down post...
29/03/2026

Horses were never designed to carry weight on their backs.

They evolved to graze for hours, moving in a forward-down posture, with their weight naturally on the forehand.

So when we ride, we’re asking them to do something biomechanically unnatural.

For this to be sustainable, the horse has to learn to redistribute weight off the forehand and towards the hindquarters.

But here’s where many people get it wrong…

It’s not just about strengthening the hindquarters.

The real foundation is the thoracic sling.

This muscular system supports the horse’s trunk between the front limbs. If it’s weak or restricted, the horse quite literally drops collapses into itself.

And everything else starts to compensate.

Most horses are compensating. From the happy hacker to the Olympic level athlete. We don’t notice because we see majority of horses now move this way. The wrong way.

When the thoracic sling isn’t functioning properly:
• The forehand becomes overloaded
• The back can’t lift and support the rider
• The hindquarters can’t truly engage

So even if the horse looks like it’s working… the system is failing underneath.

This is where we start to see:
• Lumbar pain
• Sacroiliac joint dysfunction
• Tight shoulders
• Pelvic instability
• Poor topline
• “Behavioral issues” like girthiness or resistance

And what do we do?

We treat the symptoms.
Heck, we even rehab the symptoms.
Call the vet.
Bring in the physio.

But rarely do we ask:
Why did this start in the first place?

In many cases, it starts with the thoracic sling. Either the horse doesn’t know how, something is restricting the lift, or is just too weak. Usually all 3.

If this system isn’t strong and functional, the rest of the body cannot work correctly, no matter your discipline.

You can’t build correct movement on a weak foundation. In fact, this is what gave birth to Dressage. Not the modern dressage we know today. Definitely not that. Very, very far away from that. But the mastery of teaching the horse how to use its body in a way that allows it to carry a rider. If we know how important the thoracic sling is we won’t compromise on poor saddle fit or training.

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