We will come out to visit you and your horse at your barn, it is important that the horse is clean and you are ready to ride. We will complete an evaluation of your horse to check for any soreness and anything that may affect the fit of the saddle.  We take both a static and dynamic evaluation of your horse to check for any muscle restriction or characteristics caused by the fit of your horses current saddle.

 

At this point we will check over your saddle, ensure that the tree is still in good shape and check the balance and structure of your saddle as well as assessing the panels. Then assess the static fit of the saddle on your horse, you will then be required to ride in your current saddle,we will be assessing your saddle as you ride in it.

 

Once this is complete we will be able to provide you with an honest and accurate assessment as to how your saddle fits and what can be done to make it fit better, we can adjust the flocking on site and will then ask you to ride again to ensure that it is fitting well.  If your saddle is foam or cair then she will be able to suggest ways to ensure the best fit through the use of shims and pads or if this is not an option suggest a conversion to wool.  If your saddle simply does not fit well, then we can suggest the style, type and Brand of saddle that would work for your horse.  Louise and Chelsea are independant so we have no brand bias so can help you accurately find the right saddle and help guide you through that process.

 

Palmer Equine also is able to provide long distance saddle fitting and if you were interested in getting some advice about your horse and the right saddle or simply the fit of your current saddle, a good place to start is to send in some pictures of your horse to louise at louise@palmerequine.com. These are some of the types of pictures you will be asked for:

 

 

This side view picture is useful to show back contour and wither. As you can see from this picture this horse has a high wither, with wither pockets and rises to the croup.  Please note that he is standing perfectly square and his head is held at a natural position.  On the left picture this picture displays the balance of his current saddle.

 

        

 

In this picture on the left the horse is standing square and this is taken from standing on a block looking down the horse back. The head is held straight.  Here you can see how he is weaker on his right all the way from the wither to the croup, and we have a loaded left shoulder.   On the right here is is again with the saddle on and girthed, and the far right displaying how many fingers you can get under the pommel