Saddle adjustment

Today I had an appointment with my saddle fitter.  I really like my 17" Frank Baines Wide LDR Enduro saddle.  But I noticed that my horse was getting white hairs on her back, first on the left side and then on the right side, just under my stirrup bars-I seem to be "falling" to the right when I ride so pressure on the left occurs as the left side "holds" on.   Zoe has no back pain from these marks.  So before I obsessed about saddle pads I thought I'd get the saddle looked at.  

Good thing because my saddle needed a flock adjustment.  Susan from Saddles that Fit said that the flocking had settled in alot.  And under the stirrup bars was too much pressure.  So she added more flocking to pick up the front again.  (She originally added more to the front because my horse is "down hill to the withers" so that would help alleviate pressure on the shoulders.)  She also added more on the left to even out the saddle.  That seemed strange because I thought it would make me fall even more to the right, but it didn't.  It really helped even out my riding.  AND I learned that Zoe likes to push me over to the right.  All theses years I thought the whole leaning to the right thing was all my fault, but maybe it is a combination of me and Zoe-what a thought!!!   Susan also added more flocking to the back and up high on the seat.  But she left flocking "holes" where the white hairs were to relieve the pressure in that area.    

Reflocking saddle-what a job!

We also talked about saddle pads and decided that the work on the saddle should fix the problem therefore the 2 different pads I was using were just fine.  She said that I might not need the scrim pads underneath the saddle pads.  I will try riding without and see what happens.  She also thought that I might not even need a crupper.  We'll see.  Apparently white hairs occur when a horse had been ridden for 2+ hours with "something wrong" going on.   Sometimes it is from just 1 ride or can be an ongoing "something wrong" going on as you are on shorter rides.  Hopefully this will help.  I probably won't notice the white hairs going away until the next shedding occurs in the spring.  I hopefully won't notice white hairs increasing-that would mean I still have a problem.
Well I feel like I got a "tune up" done on my horse...the feet issue was taken care of and now the saddle problem fixed.  Hopefully all done now and off and riding....