The horses back has a natural curve. Some horses seem flat as a board (donkey/mules) and some are dramatically curved even sway backed. You have to take into account the rock of the horse when fitting your saddle to the horse.
There are special measuring tools to get exact measurements of the horses back that can be tracked quantitatively. We use the Equiscan system (Book an appointment HERE)
Rock Changes as your horse ages, with different training styles and with variable weight. This is why it's very important to factor in the saddle rock. Using a saddle that is too flat will cause bridging. This is where the saddle rests on the withers/trapezius and the back of the ribs only. Having pressure in the withers and trapezius is very painful for horses. In nature stallions will bite that area of the mare to get them to stop moving their front legs. Pressure near the last rib, or worse, past the last rib will cause pain down the loin, hip and hind leg. Using a saddle that bridges will cause the horse to move in a way that avoids the pain and they will have altered stride, develop compensation muscles and several develop bad behavior.
There is a lot of debate about saddles with too much rock. The general goal of a tree and panels of a saddle is to distribute the riders weight over the majority of the weight bearing surface area of the horse. However avoiding the scapula and loin are also very important when using a saddle (Read more HERE). Excessive weight in a small area will cause pain to the horse so putting a heavy rider on a saddle with a lot of rock to make them fit on a smaller horse is not an ideal situation. This is why it is important to discuss your horse with one of our trained saddle fitters that can teach you what to feel for.
How your horse engages it's core and back muscles will affect it's topline in motion. You are riding your horse in motion, so this is a very important part of saddle fitting to take into account. Having a high quality flex tree can help adapt to your horse's natural movement and engagement. While a fixed tree with the incorrect rock can inhibit proper engagement of the horses hind end, spine and core.
The horse shown below is not in training and not started under saddle, they are showing natural engagement of the abdomen, hind end and topline compared to standing still. They are not weak in the back or aged and have not been trained to alter the way they carry their body so this shows how important it is to have the correct rock when starting a horse, riding a horse and maintaining a healthy horse.
There are many exercises that you can do with your horse to "build their topline". It involves engaging the abdominal muscles to life the back to work the muscles over the top of the horse. These exercises can help change the rock of the horses back. This is why training affects the rock your horse needs in a saddle.
With the DP Ultra Flex Adjustable Saddles the Rock changes to fit the horse in a few ways.
First: A rider applies pressure to the saddle with the girth and the weight of the rider. This will push a factory flat tree down towards a curved back of the horse. Saddles with a lot of thick leather, like a standard western saddle will take longer to move because the leather itself must also move. A saddle with thinner leather, soft flocked panels and less bulk will move faster. This also works in reverse when the horse pushes up on the saddle. (Read more HERE)
Second: The most impressive way that the DP Ultra Flex Adjustable saddles change the rock is with the adjustment tool. The simple 10 mm hex ball Allen wrench not only adjusts the bar angle in the front but it also adjusts the rock of the tree. No other adjustable gullet plate system does this. The unique engineering of the DP tree and gullet system makes this possible.
The photos shown have a flat metal plane fixed in the center of the tree in the center of the channel. As the saddle is adjusted from narrow to wide the rock increases. As the saddle is adjusted from wide to narrow the rock decreases. You can see the distance from the flat plane to the saddle seam at the edge of the tree. Yellow lines were drawn to help you see how it changes. Model shown is the Majestro Dressage. Other models vary in how much the rock changes as it's adjusted.
Let our trained fitters help you get the right saddle for your horse and teach you how to fit that saddle to the horse as it changes, or to the many horses you may ride.