Jean Luc discussion with others in the IHTC group(Private group for members taking the IHTC course) During the international conference, Dr. Betsy Uhl clearly explained the dead end of current veterinary education which focus on the lesion and attribute lameness to the lesion without concentrating on the source of the kinematics abnormality. Based on such thought process, the belief is now that better results can be achieved by improving the diagnosis tools. There is an element of true but they still miss the fundamental principle which is unless one identifies and correct the source of the kinematics abnormality, recurrence of the lesion has to be expected. However the thought process is deep and within this thought process theories are created and strongly defended. Saddle fitting went in a direction that is essentially stationary and advanced theories have been developed form this perspective. The problem is that most theories sound good but they do not fit the horses locomotion. The discussion are useless since most saddle fitters think in a specific direction and the knowledge of equine locomotion evolves in a different direction. What is alarming is that new saddles are often worse than older ones and they start to hamper the riders skill. I rarely see a saddle fitting the horse properly as they create sharing forces during different phases of locomotion. I often see saddles trying to place the rider in a good posture, which of course is a very wrong posture. It is difficult to do not put weight on the back of a deep seat saddle. Therefore, it is difficult to have a properly neutral balance in a deep seat saddle. The riders body weight is then constantly disturbing proper coordination of the horses main back muscles and the horses education and soundness is altered. The culture of irresponsibility encouraging the rider to believe that the saddle will place them properly instead of working for the acquisition of a good seat, is having detrimental effects. I sea riders deteriorating their seat as they purchase a well fitted saddle. The main problem, beside the deep seat, are the knee pads. These ridiculous knee pads are making riders lifting their knees into the pads and consequently loosing their ability of remaining balanced over the seat bones. The enormous knee pads are placing riders off balance on their glut and once again, their body weight is acting back to front on the horse main back muscles hampering the horse ability to properly coordinate the longisssimus and multifidius muscles and hampering the riders ability to remain in neutral balance. Those are the criteria that the rider needs to verify before buying a saddle. First, do not try the saddle on a rack. They all fit the standing rack very well but not the moving horse. Ride a horse with the saddle and try to achieve neutral balance with your vertebral column and pelvis and upper thighs and glut and psoas and abdominal and transversal spinalis muscles. Then slowly face right and face left with your pelvis. If the deepness of the seat does not give you complete freedom of your movement, dont buy the saddle. If the knee pads limits your lower thighs above the knees as your pelvis is facing right or left, dont buy the saddle; it is not a dressage saddle; it is a dressage wheel chair. As you know, I have elected to stay away from the subject because the theories are fancy but unrelated to proper vertebral column mechanism. I talk about it now because While advanced in scientific knowledge in equine locomotion and performances expose the importance or riding about energy produced within our body by nuances in muscles tone instead of using muscles contractions to create gestures, The stability that is necessary for the rider is seriously hampered by the designs and redesigns of the saddles. JLC
Posted on: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 18:54:56 +0000
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