06/07/2026
The Great Saddle Slip Mysteryš
Your saddle slips to the left.
So naturally, you buy a new girth.
It still slips.š¤Ø
So you buy a fancy anatomical girth, a non-slip saddle pad, and perhaps a breastplate with enough straps to secure a small aircraft.
It still slips.š
So you call a saddle fitter.
Then another saddle fitter.
Then one recommended by a friend who swears they transformed her horse's life.
It still slips.š
At this point, many horse owners begin to suspect that they're somehow destined to spend the rest of their life searching for the mythical saddle setup that stays exactly where it should.
But before you spend another dollar on tack or lose respect for your latest saddle-fitter, let me tell you about some fascinating research by Line Greve and Sue Dyson.š¤
Because what they discovered put some very important information on the table to consider when you have a saddle slip issue.
The researchers investigated horses with persistent saddle slip and found that many of them had underlying hindlimb lameness.
Now, stay with me if you just rolled your eyes and think this isn't you case because your horse is clearly NOT lame....
The type of lameness identified was not the obvious kind where the horse is hopping around on three legs.
The subtle kind.š¤
The sort of issue that can quietly affect performance, behaviour, balance, and movement long before anyone recognises it as a soundness problem.
Why?
Because horses with discomfort or dysfunction or weakness in a hind leg often alter the way they move. They redistribute load, change how they push off the ground, and compensate through their body. Those altered forces travel through the horse's back and can gradually push the saddle off centre.
This doesn't just apply to horses with obvious injuries. It can occur in horses with mild lameness, asymmetries, weakness, developmental immaturity, or conditions affecting structures such as the stifle, sacroiliac region, suspensory apparatus, or other parts of the hind limb.
Now here's the part that many people find surprising.
The researchers found that saddle slip was actually associated with well-balanced saddles that had even contact and good flocking.š²
In other words, a saddle that slips isn't necessarily poorly fitted.
In fact, if you've had the saddle checked, adjusted, reflocked, replaced, and the problem keeps returning, there may be something else worth investigating.
The most compelling finding came when the researchers identified the source of the hindlimb pain and used diagnostic nerve blocks to remove the discomfort.
The saddle slip disappeared in 97% of cases.š±
Read that again.
Ninety-seven percent.š±
The saddle didn't change.
The girth didn't change.
The saddle pad didn't change.
The horse's movement changed.š¤Æ
That's a pretty powerful clue.š
One of the biggest challenges with horses is that we often focus on the symptom we can see rather than the cause we can't.
The slipping saddle becomes the problem.
The canter transition becomes the problem.
The spooky behaviour becomes the problem.
The horse drifting through the shoulder becomes the problem.
But sometimes these things are not separate problems at all.
Sometimes they are all clues pointing towards the same underlying issue.
So if your saddle consistently slips despite multiple fitting assessments and equipment changes, it may be worth considering whether your horse is trying to tell you something.
And if that saddle slip is accompanied by things like:
- Canter difficulties
- Resistance under saddle
- Reactive or spooky behaviour
- Struggles with engagement
then the possibility of an underlying soundness issue becomes even more important to investigate.ā ļø
One of the most valuable lessons I've learned working with horses is that behaviour, performance, and movement are often connected in ways that aren't immediately obvious.
A slipping saddle may not always indicate a soundness issue...sometimes it can be a YOU issue, but that is for another article another day.
But if it keeps happening despite your best efforts to fix it, it might be worth looking beyond the saddle.š”
Sometimes the saddle is not the problem.
It's the clue.
References
Greve, L., & Dyson, S. J. (2013). An Investigation of the Relationship Between Hindlimb Lameness and Saddle Slip. Equine Veterinary Journal, 45(5), 570-577.
Greve, L., & Dyson, S. J. (2014). The Interrelationship of Lameness, Saddle Slip and Back Shape in the General Sports Horse Population. Equine Veterinary Journal, 46(6), 687-694.
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