Traditional English & Western Saddles –

Why am I having trouble?

English Saddles

Weight bearing area too small.  Today’s English saddles have an extremely small weight bearing area compared with English and military saddles of 100 years ago.  The panels underneath are all that transfers your weight and your concussion to the horse’s back.  Even if a lot of padding is used under current English saddles, too many pounds per square inch cuts off circulation to the subcutaneous vessels, sheet ligaments and muscle tissue causing a death of cells (necrosis).  This soon results in contraction of the muscles that are compressed (spasm) causing extreme discomfort, mechanical, and behavior problems in the horse. 

     Saddle “fashion” created this too-small weight bearing area simply because we no longer “trot-trot to London town…” we load our horse in a trailer and then trot him around after we get there.  In short, we don’t use horses for transportation any more, and we don’t see the visible damaging signs created by too many pounds per square inch.

Rigid fork pinches, causes pressure points.  Some say their English trees are flexible.  While it’s true that many English trees flex in the rear portion, most of the damage is done at the wither by the rigid, inverted V-shaped fork at the front of the saddle.  Even if the angle of this fork matches the angle of your horse’s wither, it will pinch if the stuffed panels do not reach into the middle of your horse’s back and help bear your weight.  There is no way to carry weight on an arched surface (the wither) without pinching.  Unfortunately, the majority of English stuffed panels are not stuffed firmly in the center of the saddle and literally have more contact at the fork, and at the rear of the panels with less contact in the middle.

     Since your stirrup leathers are hung from the inflexible front fork of the English tree, all your weight is being borne by the arched surface as it squeezes down over the wither.  Some saddlers say saddles should be straight to cause the horse to raise his back into the saddle.  Unfortunately, when you pinch the trapezius muscle (at the wither) with the fork, the horse automatically raises his head and flexes his back downward, and it takes years of expert training to teach a horse to stretch downward and lift his back despite pinching of the trapezius muscle caused by traditional English saddles placed too far forward.

1. Rider’s weight in the stirrups and seat is transmitted as a downward force on the fork of saddle.

2. The downward force is transformed to a spreading force by the arched shape of the horse in front.

3. Many trees fail at the peak of the arch (fork) because of the tremendous leverage of the spreading force (rider’s weight and concussion).

4. The arched surface of the horse receives Compressive Forces equal to the spreading force on the saddle tree.  In effect, it is pinched by weight carried on the front.

Western Saddles

     Large western skirts serve no saddle fit function; they only cover the tree.  Many people think large western skirts “fit horses better” because they spread out the rider’s weight, but this is not accurate.  Only the wooden tree bars inside a western saddle transfer your weight to the horse’s back.  Why?  Because the leather in the skirts is molded to the shape of the tree bar during it’s construction.  Furthermore, there is only one layer of leather between the bars and the horse.  Skirts appear thick at the outer edges, because filler leather pieces are used around the outside of the skirts to add form and stiffness.  Whether your saddle fits your horse or not depends solely upon whether the shape of the bars of the tree matches the shape of your horse and has enough flare at the ends of the bars to allow for shoulder and muscle movement. 

     Western bars are often too long and too straight.   Western bars are turned out of pieces of lumber on a wood duplicator using patterns that frequently have been in existence for generations.  To make production most economical, treemakers use pieces of two-inch thick lumber for the bars.  Unfortunately, very little curve can be carved from a piece of wood only two inches thick, and likewise very little twist is possible.  The result:  if the horse does not have an extremely straight back, the straight bars will make contact at the shoulders and at the rear of the bars.  Suddenly these long bars are only contacting the horse at four points; on each side of the wither and on each side in the rear, causing the familiar, telltale “dry spots” or white spots at the shoulder from excessive pressure.  The weight bearing area of these bars is reduced to a very small area because of lack of contact.  Your weight and concussion create too many pounds per square inch at these pressure points front and rear.  Even if a lot of padding is used, this excess pressure cuts off circulation to the subcutaneous vessels, sheet ligaments and muscle tissue, causing death of cells (necrosis).  This soon results in contraction of the muscles that are compressed (spasm) causing extreme discomfort, mechanical and behavior problems in the horse.

Rocking R™ Saddles aren’t magic, but a very advanced engineering concept, presenting a tremendous leap from traditional English and Western saddles which splint the horse’s back when the bars are strapped in place on either side of the spine.

Imagine what happens when the horse dips his back or raises it while he’s wearing this “splint”?  What happens when she turns sharply, and her back literally becomes shorter on the side of the turn, while the other side of her back straightens?

Usually he holds back in his performance.  He quickly learns how far he can move and how much he can give before he is punished by the rigid saddle.  Rocking R™ moveable panel systems supports the front and rear of the saddle with greatly increased weight bearing surface, extremely reducing the compressive effects of a typical saddle and gives our horses back their freedom to fulfill our dreams and accomplishments.