Saddle Fit - The Role of the Tree in the English Saddle

When you get your first horse the euphoria is only slightly overshadowed by the worry about tack. Everyone wants to do their very best for this usually long awaited addition to the family. Sadly the first force driving the selection of suitable tack is very often one of limited funds. Second hand saddles are very appealing at this time.

They tend to be cheaper than new but it has to be said that they are for sale for a reason. That reason is that someone else no longer wants them. If a saddle is comfortable for horse and rider it is usually not for sale.  People do not simply change their saddle for a newer one unless they are unhappy with it. Yes, it may be that the seat is too wide for a narrow pelvis or vice versa and your anatomy might better fit the bill. In this case you may be lucky. By far the most common reason for Icelandic horse saddles to be offered for sale second-hand is that they have proven to be a poor or bad fit for the horse and the novice owner who bought it has learned a bit more.  Of course it could be that the previous owner has simply stopped riding.

So, buying a second-hand saddle is very much caveat emptor. Many saddles do not provide a comfortable fit for ANY horse. Do you find that hard to believe? It is a fact proven by the number of horses who have exhibited white hairs, lumps, bumps, haematoma and even open sores before their owners learned the hard way.

This article aims to expand on the Trapezius Saddle article to show the role the tree plays in the fit of the saddle to the horse.  I will also try to show some of the outcomes of using pads and wedges to alter saddle fit. Although I demonstrate with photos of English saddle trees the same principles can be drawn with other saddle types that are built on trees.  Treeless saddles are not without their own special considerations. However they are not within the scope of this article.

The trees in the following photos are called 'rigid' and 'spring' trees.  (The Americans use the term 'flexible' tree for spring trees).  The rigid tree is the original design.  Spring trees were introduced later and are so named because of the two steel strips, or springs, in the seat area.  These are designed to make the saddle more comfortable for the rider by providing a yielding surface to sit on.   Since the introduction of the spring tree new materials have come onto the market, which can be used to provide a more comfortable seat for the rider without the use of these springs.  The main point here is they do not improve the comfort for the horse.

The term 'spring tree' does suggest a more acceptable type of tree than 'rigid'.  'Flexible' tree sounds even better.  In fact these terms only refer to the seat for the rider and these trees are certainly not better for the horse than the older rigid trees.  In fact I much prefer the rigid trees both from the point of view of fit to the horse and as a stable platform for the rider.  As the rider aims to sit still in relation to the horse it is easier to achieve this stillness if the saddle also stays still.  Remaining still on a spring tree saddle is more difficult for the novice rider to achieve because of the trampoline effect of the springs.  In the majority of cases the springs do not cause a problem for the horse, however it is possible that they could cause pressure sores if the saddle construction was poor.

The purpose of a tree or frame in the construction of a saddle is to provide a stable platform for the rider.  The ideal saddle should allow the horse to move while providing a steady seat which allows the rider to sit still.  The saddle should stay still on the moving horse while allowing the rider to feel the movement. 

         Photo 1. The basic rigid tree

The tree on which the saddle is ultimately built is crucial to the fit and comfort for the horse. The front forks should splay outwards as they follow the contour of the horse’s muscle. If the front forks are too narrow or too straight they will pinch the muscle and cause pressure sores giving discomfort to the horse and ultimately leading to muscle wastage.  This is the most common problem in saddle fit.  It is crucial that these forks are wide enough to allow the muscle to work underneath.  If the horse has already sustained muscle wastage and has therefore developed hollows in the area under these forks it is vital that the saddle is not fitted into the hollows caused by muscle wastage.  The front forks must leave room for the muscle - even when the muscle is wasted.  This is one of the most common mistakes in saddle fitting.  The saddle is all too often fitted into these hollows thus making a bad situation worse and causing more muscle wastage.  The pain caused by this sort of muscle pinching commonly leads to napping and even rearing.  Even when the saddle is removed the horse will feel discomfort from the damaged muscle. Poor posture will also follow on and this in turn could lead to lameness in a limb.  The effects of badly fitting saddles are long ranging.  The good news is that in the majority of cases the muscle will regenerate given the correct rehabilitation and a correct fit of saddle as long as the condition has not been too longstanding.

The bearers should lie flat along the length of the back muscles so that they provide the frame for the weight-bearing surface of the saddle.  The ideal is that they should provide an even pressure along their length.  You might feel that is pretty obvious but I am sure you would be amazed at how few saddle trees actually conform to this basic ideal.  If they only touch the back in a small area then they will exert pressure on too small an area regardless of how much padding is placed under the tree in the finished saddle.  This can eventually lead to pressure sores depending on how much the horse is ridden and how heavy the rider is.    Saddle trees that provide a deep seat for the rider, with a high head and a high cantle, often achieve this shape by putting a curve into the bearers.  Thus the bearers only contact the back for a short distance under the rider's seat before rising steeply forward to the head.  These really do cause pressure and pain at the back of the saddle.  If this shape of tree is accompanied by front forks that pinch then the horse will be quite uncomfortable, to say the least.  Again this discomfort will manifest itself in the horse's uncooperative behaviour which may be as little as shortening its stride when being ridden downhill.

The cantle is merely there to provide shape to the back of the saddle for the rider and does not affect the horse. The fans at the back of the saddletree above are a hangover from the old military 'trooper' saddles. The fans were designed to provide a frame for the trooper’s bags to hang on. These fans were then shaped so that they swooped up off the horse’s back to prevent the trooper’s bags from causing the horse discomfort. These fans should not touch the horse's back.  There is really no advantage to having them nowadays and they should be cut off the tree above before the saddle is made up.  There are still many Icelandic saddles around which have these fans.  If you are considering buying one please do make sure that they swoop up away from the horse and are not in contact with the horse's back with a rider onboard.

The head in the above tree is fashioned to be higher than the cantle in the finished saddle. Thus this is an excellent shape for a horse with a low wither or one that is croup high. This might lead some people to dismiss the saddle as unbalanced as they wrongly compare the height of the head with the cantle to assess the balance. It is important to assess the seat where the rider actually sits when assessing saddle balance. In some saddles this might be a three or four inch span. It is this area which should be horizontal with the ground. It is clear that the above tree would provide a balanced seat for the rider given that the subsequent leatherwork does not spoil the balance.

It should be obvious that if the front forks are too tight for the horse no amount of padding will make that situation better. Padding in front to alleviate pinching will raise the front of the saddle and tip the balance backwards. Thus pressure points will also be created behind. This will probably give the horse temporary relief and so appears to work. However after a time the discomfort will return even if the pressure points have been moved around.  The horse may give you behavioural clues like refusing to stand still to be mounted, reluctance to canter on one lead, bucking in canter, difficult to get 'on the bit', carrying the head too high.  Tightness in the front forks is the most common reason I have seen for horses carrying their heads too high and therefore being strapped down with martingales and draw reins.

Photo 2 – Rigid tree with front pad.

This is the same tree as above but with a pad of neoprene under the forks.

The neoprene pad above is only one centimetre thick yet it is obvious how great an effect it has on the balance and fit of the saddle when it is placed under the front forks.  The situation above would lead to pressure sores both in front and under the rear of the saddle if the horse was ridden regularly.  This is really like riding the horse with chair legs under your seat as there are four definite pressure points which will lead to sores.  Such pressure sores can be seen as fluid filled lumps about an hour or so after the horse has returned from a ride.  These lumps will subside by the following day.  If the horse is only ridden on alternate days, if the rider is a light weight or if the horse is ridden for less than 20 minutes at a time, these lumps may not develop. That does not mean the horse does not still feel the discomfort.  

Another fashion that seems to have sprung up is one for putting a wedge under the back of the saddle to ‘balance’ the seat for the rider. Why would you do that? I think the reasoning is rather faulty. The most common reason for the saddle to tip backwards is that it is too tight in front. So, raising the back will alleviate the backward effect for the rider but it will seldom improve the fit for the horse, as the tightness in front remains the same.  Other reasons for a saddle to tip backwards is faulty tree design or faulty stuffing.  If the cause is faulty stuffing then the whole saddle needs to be restuffed, or 'reflocked' as it is called.  Placing a wedge under the back for the sake of the rider's comfort is an act of gross selfishness, in my opinion, as it leaves the horse still burdened with the problem.

The following photo shows the back of the saddle raised to give you an idea of the effect on the balance of the saddle and the pressure in front.

 Photo 3. Raised behind

I hope I have convinced you that the tree is crucial to the comfort of the saddle for horse and for rider. The tree is there for the rider’s benefit. It presents a fairly rigid structure for the rider to sit in and maintain balance on the moving horse. It should spread the weight of the rider over as much of the back muscles as is practical.  A well fitting saddle should allow the horse to move freely without pain. 

You may have noticed that all of the trees depicted have a definite channel along their length where no part of the structure touches the horse's spine.  When the saddle is made up this channel should be maintained at around 3 inches, give or take a little.  The width of the channel should allow room for the horse's spine.  In my opinion it is a mistake to make this channel too wide.  The back muscles are strongly attached to the spine and the saddle needs to take advantage of this strength.  So the channel should certainly allow room for the spine and the saddle should not touch the spin, however the channel should not be so wide that it sits more on the downward slope of the back rather than on the flatter area close to the spine.

 One mistake a lot of people make is to place the saddle too far forward on the horse in the mistaken belief that it is vital to sit over the horse’s wither. Unless you are a racing jockey this is not true. The saddle should be placed far enough behind the tip of the shoulder blade such that it does not interfere with the rotation as the horse walks.   If you are unaware of how much the shoulder rotates, take your horse out for a walk without the saddle and walk beside the shoulder. Pay particular attention to its movement when going down a hill.  Placing your saddle further back will not ‘bruise the kidneys’.  The kidneys are protected by a very thick layer of muscle and will not be bruised by a saddle.

Pain in the muscles in the loin area is a very real possibility. This is usually caused by pressure points. This could be due to the saddle being too tight in front and tipping the rider’s weight onto a small area at the back of the saddle as we saw when we placed the neoprene pad under the forks. 

When the saddle is built the weight-bearing surfaces, at either side of the channel created to clear the spine, are commonly stuffed or flocked with wool.  These are called 'stuffed panels'.  Saddles can also be built on flexible panels and these are slightly different.  My article 'Trapezius Saddle' goes into more detail about flexible panels.  As the majority of saddles are built with stuffed panels (which originated in France) I will concentrate on those for now.

If you can enlist the help of a friend it is useful in assessing saddle fit. With a person sitting on the saddle on the horse you need to feel under the weight-bearing surface to assess the contact along the length of the panels.  For safety the girth should be done up but not so tightly that you cannot get your hand under the saddle.  Standing at the side of the horse if your hand slides easily under the middle of the saddle then it certainly needs reflocking. The flocking in a saddle should be firmer in the middle of the weight-bearing surface (roughly under the rider's seat) than at the front forks or under the cantle.  The saddle should feel slightly softer at the front and at the back.  It is very common to see the opposite, where the saddle is softer in the middle than at either end. These saddles commonly cause discomfort. The flocking should also be smooth and not lumpy.  If the flocking is at fault you need to enlist the work of a good saddler to rectify the situation.  If the tree is at fault then there is no remedy.  With some practice and thought about the principles I have described, you should be able to judge whether a poor fit is likely to be due to the tree or the flocking. All it takes is some practice and also some confidence in what you are seeing!

While sitting in the saddle slide your hand under the front fork. Can you keep it there in comfort while the horse walks? If not the horse will also feel discomfort. Try to work out what is wrong. It could be that the stuffing is just too bulky or too hard. It could be that the forks are too narrow for the horse. The former is fixable – the latter is not.

As the majority of modern saddles are built on spring trees it is worth taking a look at some pictures of them.  These trees are shown with stirrup bars attached. These can also be a source of pressure points if they are angled inwards too much towards the horse. If they are angled outward they interfere with the rider’s leg, causing bruising to the inner thigh. It is therefore safer for a saddler to angle them inwards as the horse is not the one buying the saddle – although he often pays for it in pain!

The length of the stirrup bar affects the seat of the rider. Too short and the rider will assume a chair seat. This is actually the most common scenario, especially in Britain! Compare the length of the stirrup bars in the following photos.

Photo 4. Spring tree with ‘GP’ positioned stirrup bars.

Photo 5. Rigid tree with extended stirrup bars

Photo 6. Spring tree with ‘General Purpose’ stirrup bars.

All of the above saddle trees fit the horses very well. The stirrup bars are also neither angled inwards nor outwards so they will hurt neither horse nor rider. The ‘springs’ are steel bars in the seat of the tree, which are designed to give the rider a springy seat. Personally I dislike spring tree saddles and find I can sit far more still and with the horse on a rigid tree.  Whereas in the past the rigid tree was uncomfortably hard to sit on, the advent of modern materials such as neoprene and other dense foams mean that the seat can be cushioned without resorting to springs.  Again, the springs should not directly affect the horse and they are seldom a source of problem in terms of pressure points.

Photo 7. Spring tree with ‘GP’ stirrup bars. 

This is a little tight in front.  The forks need to be splayed outward before the saddle is built.

In assessing the fit of a complete saddle it does help to imagine the shape of the underlying tree. Of course the tree should also be symmetrical. To check the symmetry of the saddle lay it against your legs with the cantle against your knee and the front forks on the ground. Now look down the length of the saddle and compare one side with the other. It is amazing how few are actually symmetrical especially at the front forks.  Stirrup bars may also be asymmetrical and you should have a good feel from the under side to ensure that they are not likely to dig in to the horse.  If you ride your horse in an asymmetrical saddle you will both become one sided and you may both develop back pain. Many instructors look at this scenario and tell the hapless pupil that it is all his/her fault when in fact the asymmetry in the saddle was the underlying cause! What can be done to fix this? Nothing. This asymmetry started in the tree and it cannot be corrected.

So far this has all been bad news. The good news is that a really good saddle, made on a correctly shaped, symmetrical tree will actually fit a high percentage of riding horses so it could carry you through your riding life. If you find the right saddle, of course.  There is really no black art in the assessment of saddle fit.  With some confidence and an open mind even a novice around horses can fairly quickly pick up the major points of construction and fit.  You do need to spend some time looking at saddles on horses.  Do this with an open mind.  Do not accept another person's opinion on fit if you are not completely convinced.  Watch the horse's behaviour.  Examine the horse's back.  Look at the sweat marks after a ride.  As discussed in the previous article there are many clues to incorrect fit.

Most saddlers will allow you to try a saddle on your horse before you buy it.  This article has given you the background to understand how the tree affects the saddle fit.  We have not discussed the weight-bearing surface of the panels.  That is another story, and I address that in the article about the Trapezius saddle.