The Illustrated Guide to Saddle Fitting : An Easy Visual Reference to Ensure Health, Comfort, and Performance for You and Your Horse

An engaging handbook chock full of all the right information for fitting English saddles to both horse and rider, ensuring comfort, health, and performance at a glance. If horseback riders could do one thing that would save them money, ensure their horse''s health and performance, and help them ride better (and feel better afterward), it would be assuring that their saddle fits their horse correctly, and that it is suitable for their own body and desired activities. Unfortunately, most riders don''t have access to or the money to pay experienced saddle fitters, who can analyze their equipment and help them determine whether the fit is passable or problematic. This means that a large number of riders just ''hope for the best'' with what they have, or struggle to grasp lengthy explanations of optimal fit and how to achieve it. And, in the end, a large number of horses suffer the consequences. Beverly Harrison started as a rider herself, and when she opened a tack shop, she quickly noticed the need for someone to guide horse owner''s in choosing a new saddle or refitting an older one. In order to be better informed for her customers, she became a Qualified SMS Saddle Fitter, and she made it her mission to help educate anyone involved with horses: 4-Hers, backyard riders, competitors, veterinarians - you name them, she''s probably taught them. Harrison figured that her educational efforts would benefit from colorful visual aids to engage her students. And so, a handbook full of her own delightful hand-painted illustrations was born. Readers easily gain a basic understanding of the different parts of the saddle, how they work and how they should fit, as well as what the addition of a rider means to it all. Topics include: Terminology and saddle construction; Basic anatomy and physiology of horse and rider relative to the saddle; Safety of materials and condition; Step-by-step evaluations of fit for both horse and rider; Instructions for creating a paper template; Indicat