Many riders believe that by swapping out a poorly fit saddle to one that fits well, their horse will be good as new.
But if your horse’s body is used to moving in a compromised way, it will need help changing back to a more natural, efficient, optimized way of moving.
Upgrading to a saddle that fits your horse is the first step on the healing journey. From there, that journey needs to be supported to ensure that the patterns and problems created by the poorly fit saddle don’t persist with the new saddle.
Residual tension and compensatory movement patterns will need to addressed through supportive care such as massage, KT tape, targeted exercises and a focus on groundwork.
Why should massage be your next step in the healing journey?
Massage relaxes and balances muscles and fascia so that your horse can begin to develop more comfortable, efficient movement patterns.
Massage followed by targeted exercise can help interrupt habituated movement patterns and help to develop new, healthier ways of using their body.
Massage stimulates nerves that report proprioceptive and kinesthetic information to the brain, helping to raise awareness of the potential to use new, healthier movement patterns and catalog them for future use.
Massage increases blood flow, delivering oxygen and nutrients to tissues to help your horse build new muscle that supports the new way it can use its body.
Your new, well fit saddle and all your supportive hard work will allow your horse to move its body more freely and build muscle where it was previously restricted. That means that you will need to keep up with regular saddle fittings as your horse’s back changes and grows.
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