Howdy Friends! “Saddle Pitch and Inverted Hips.”
A tipping forward (or backward) saddle will not only hurt the horse, but makes it impossible for a rider to find their neutral seat. That is, the pelvis will tip front, inverting the spine, causing the rider to sit and ride inverted. In a natural attempt to compensate for that, it is necessary to put too much pressure in the stirrups and that transfers negative energy through the rider’s body, and the horse’s. The rider’s inverted posture will cause the horse to go inverted, causing trips, stumbles, loss of focus and soreness and breakdown.
Unlevel saddles can be the cause of a lot of unhealthy problems for rider and horse.
If when riding you feel as if you need to use your legs too much to sit comfortably, if you think you are having a difficult time finding your neutral seat, your saddle is most likely pitching.
It will invert your hips. Your inverted posture will cause your horse to become inverted, and that is really bad for both of you.
Saddle pitching and inverted hips will cause tripping, stumbling, rushing because they are forced onto their forehand by being inverted, and other things such as horses appearing distant, unwilling or sore.
Can you shim a saddle to make it level? Yes, however that should be a temporary fix.
Shims all have a start and stop, possibly causing pressure points, and they can move. It only takes five pounds of pressure per square inch to stop the blood flow to the capillaries in a horse’s back.
It only takes a very small amount of saddle pitch to set up a cascade of bad events, and health. ~ Gitty Up, Dutch.
Saddle pitch and inverted hips
