Saddle Fit with Jesse Peters

Tuesday I went to a Parelli Saddle Fit and Test Ride at Jesse Peter's place. He lives about 2 hours away, so for a while I was on the fence about going. I have a fluidity saddle, a theraflex, shims, and what I think is a good shim pattern. But, my saddle always splits to the right. If you look at the big shim pattern diagram Parelli gives you, it lists multiple reasons your saddle could slide. I figured it was either me or the fact that Sonny's hips are often uneven. I had the vet (who is also the chiropractor) out for spring vaccines and said Sonny looked fine. Which lead me to believe the saddle sliding problem was me.

I talked to Molly about it over the weekend. She kindly pointed out that if you look down his spine, his right "loin" arena is not level with his left. Go figure, my saddle slips to the right. She mentioned that Saturday night, which gave me the motivation to go to Jesse's on Tuesday. I figured we would use a back shim to get it level and wanted help with that.

When I got to Jesse's, he had my stand Sonny on the concrete and we looked down his spine (well I had to stand on a bucket, of course Jesse was tall enough!). It looked like his entire back was concave to the right. His right hip was lower than his left, his right shoulder was way lower than his left, and his entire back was more hollowed out on his right than his left. Bingo! So to help correct it, he trimmed his left feet up a bit. Looked again and MUCH better!

After that we went to go put the saddle on, but he had me take it back off. He pointed to the spot in Sonny's spine that sticks up. He has had that for two years now, and I have had multiple people tell me that there isn't anything to do about it. Jesse, who happens to be a 'Jesse of all trades', mentioned that it would be good to not take no for an answer and figure out if we can do something about it. Duh! I guess I get sucked into believing everything that other people tell me. Within a few short hours Jesse had taught me differently. Well, except maybe what he says ;).

He brought out his red light and got to work. He ran his fingers down Sonny's spine and red-lighted every place that he was ouchy. It happened to be that he was only ouchy around those 3 vertebrea that were out of place. Hmmm, lick and chew. Once he was done there was a huge difference! Then Jesse put his hand on Sonny's neck behind his ears. Sonny hates that; I have always thought that my friendly game in that area isn't any good and do what I can to make it better but it never gets better. It turns out: the horse's spine is a mirror. If he is sore somewhere behind his withers, he is going to be sore in the opposite location along his neck. WOW! I never knew that! So Jesse pulled out his savvy string and measured the distance from his withers to those 3 sore vertebra. He then used his savvy string from his withers up to his neck, and guess what? Where his savvy string went was the same place that he hates to be touched. Lots of licking and chewing!

So Jesse red-lighted that area and Sonny through a fit. But, in a moment or two he stood completely still and let Jesse put the red light all over. Once he was done, you could see Sonny's brain going 100 miles an hour, ending in a big blow and lick and chew. WOW! I was so impressed!

After that we finally got to the saddle. He told me my shims looked good, but I put my saddle too far back. When I finally got on, it felt better than ever. I felt so secure and exactly where I needed to be. I rode around for a while then took the saddle off. My sweat patterns were too bad, but there was an area that was dry behind his scapula. Jesse wanted me to try the smart pad so I did. I rode around his playground and had a great time working up a sweat. I got to play with the honeycomb, which was great for testing my follow the rail. We walked across the bridge and jumped a bunch of logs. Then when I was done I took the saddle off and his sweat marks were basically perfect. Interesting!

I learned so much in those few hours at Jesses; its much more than just geting the saddle to fit. It's about the whole horse. I now know that I definitely need to invest in a red light. As expensive as it may be, it is going to make a world of difference for my horse and hopefully me, too! I am so thrilled to start riding again now that things are starting to come together!

Jesse, me, and Sonny on the pedestal :)