Every rider knows that one of the most important aspects of taking care of a horse in ridden work should be that of a correct fi tting saddle. No horse owner should compromise the comfort of their horse as it will not only affect their performance, but can also cause long term non reversible damage, and after all, to most of us our equine friends are just an extension of our family - I know, in my house my four legged stable friend is higher up the food chain than my husband!

Having the correct fitting saddle is reliant on the experience and knowledge of the saddle fitter you use and the saddles available for them to fit. Over the past several decades saddle designs have developed considerably, including the introduction of synthetic materials, adjustable trees, and conformation specific designs, in some cases all three, like those of the Thorowgood T4 and T6 ranges.


Amongst the design objectives of producing quality reliable products, the forefront of every designer’s mission is to produce tree shapes and panel designs that reduced the amount of pressure being exerted on the horse’s back throughout each gait and whilst jumping. Common sense tells you that if you try to run a marathon in high heels you’ll not only look pretty silly but it will exert a lot pressure on specific parts of your feet, where as if you ran it in trainers you’d still be worn out but the pressure would be evenly spread, so would be kinder and easier on your feet.


A saddle is no different, if you have a twelve stone rider’s weight pressing down on the points of the tree the horse will be uncomfortable, the way the horse moves is choked and it is not until the long term damage has been done, and the white hairs appear that it was obvious that the pressure point was there. So other than using the eye and the experience how can we tell if pressure is been exerted by either a poor fitting saddle or the wrong design? Well, welcome to the science of Pliance.


The Pliance Pressure Mapping System is an absolutely mind blowing piece of advanced equipment designed by the German company Novel who specialize in dynamic pressure distribution measurement technology and was founded in 1978. Novel were responsible for developing a system to assess body load for the International Space Station project, so I guess you could say these guys know their knees from their elbows.


So, what is the Pliance Pressure Mapping System and why am I getting so giddy about it? Well Pliance system as it’s known in the trade, measures the dynamic pressure distribution between the saddle and the horse using a thin elastic sensor mat. It actually looks a bit like one of those non slip pads, but this one is far far more expensive and contains 2 x 128 sensors which are scanned with a scanning speed of 20,000 senses per second. The readings can be taken at all paces from walk to gallop as well as jumping. The mat is connected to a unit which is attached to a belt worn by the rider. The unit then transmits the data via Bluetooth Wireless technology to a lap top near by where all the tens of thousands of readings a second are interrupted into 2D and 3D colour pictures.
The Pliance system is accurate and reliable as the sensor mat is calibrated in a computer aided procedure which calculates the calibration curves for each sensor and the calibration remains stable with time. The pictures that are produced have a colour coding system starting at black where there is very low pressure up to pink/purple which are high pressure areas. The system is set up to recognize that the blacks, through the blues, greens and into yellow as the acceptable pressure levels which are measured in PSI (pounds per square inch). All the red and purple readings that appear are those of harmful pressure and arise from a poor fitting saddle.
The system can then give you an average peak pressure picture which can be printed out at 100%
so it can be put on the horse’s back to locate exactly where pressure is occurring. I told you this system was mind blowing!


And just when you thought us riders have got away without it telling us how to improve our riding.....you were wrong. The system also collects data which shows how the rider is sat with an indicator or where the riders centre of balance lies, showing if it is slightly to the left or too far back in the seat. Both these things can affect the way that a horse moves and can be helped by a different depth of seat in a saddle or some riding lessons.

Another amazing addition to the system they have developed is the use of video footage which is synchronized with the pressure readings. This pinpoints a certain fraction of time where a peak pressure may have occurred which could be due to the horse stumbling, flicking their head or even showing lameness in an unsound horse.
One of England’s biggest names in saddle manufacturing, Thorowgood has already laid down the gauntlet by having their saddles independently tested. Confident in their years of design, development and close work with some of the countries leading saddle fitters, they openly published their results which returned a remarkable low average score with no high pressure points, scientifically proves that their saddles are quite literally “kind to your horse”.


Prolite was second to follow demonstrating the effects of using a Prolite relief pad under a correctly fitting saddle by 25%. Under an ill fitting saddle figures of 30% plus reduction were being recorded, and again they were happy to publish the results for all to see. If I racked up impressive figures like that I too would be flashing the figures to anyone that passed. Since then several other saddle companies have followed suit, some keeping results close to their chest and others shouting the results from the roof tops.
I am sure that the system will continue to be used in development for many years to come, making its way into the world of equine physiotherapy and you never know, we can all hope that one day every saddle fitter will have their own kit so you can see for yourself exactly what’s going on under your saddle - I’ll be having some more riding lessons before that day!


Novel has certainly started a new era in the world of saddle fitting using the technology they have developed to fi nally assess quantitatively the interaction between the horse, saddle and the rider giving exact readings that can tell how the rider sits, how the saddle fits and above all how the horse feels. With this technology accessible to the Society of Master Saddlers, who part-own their own system, working in conjunction with England’s saddle makers and qualified saddle fitters it is obvious to see that speculation over treed versus treeless saddles will finally be put to rest.