Maryland Saddlery's Guide to Choosing and Fitting Saddles Issue 1 | Page 4

Saddle Physics

Close Contact ~ All Purpose ~ Dressage
A close contact saddle will put you in the
perfect hunt seat equitation position, you
will be able to basically squat like a chicken
in the saddle. This is called a balance
position, shoulder-hip-heel and knee-toe
alignment. The stirrup bar on a close
contact saddle puts your leg up underneath
your body in a bent position. Creating the
perfect equitation. This may not be the
position you want to be riding in.
Especially if you are going cross country,
jumping larger jumps, fox hunting or
eventing. Close contact saddles are
characterized by a square cantle and the
seats tend not to be very deep.
If you are trail riding and hunting then an
all-purpose saddle may be a better
choice. Because the stirrup bar is farther
from the sweet spot on seat, it causes
your leg to sit more in front of you. Allpurpose saddles are a bit more difficult to
post in so you will have to lean forward
to balance off your leg. The benefits are
that it is harder to fall forward over your
horse’s head, and more comfortable to
ride in overtime, because you are
comfortably seated on your rear and
throughout the ride. The other benefit of
having your leg in front or you for upand-down hills it will tend to give you a
more secure seat and leg. All purpose
saddles are characterized forward flaps,
deeper seats, higher pommel and cantle
and the shape of the cantle is rounded.