Have your horse stand as square as possible.

1. Position of the saddle: Put the saddle upon the horses wither and give it a slide back to where it sits "at home". This is the correct position of the saddle.

2. Check the tree points: The tree points should be at approximately a 10 degree angle along the resting surface of the horse. The saddle should be approx. 2 fingers (2") from the scapula. The scapula can retract 4-6 inches depending on the horse. Do keep in mind that usually the flap has plenty of give and that the point position is of most importance.

3. Levelness of seat: When the saddle is sitting flat on the horse's back, the deepest part of the seat should appear to be parallel to the ground. If you were to take a pencil or chapstick, place it on the seat of the saddle, it should come to rest in the exact area that your seat bones would be located if you were in the saddle.

4. Adequate pommel clearance: In the past, we have always heard that the clearance needs to be 3 fingers between the pommel and wither. While that is not wrong, it is not always "the word". In some instances, the clearance may be lower and still be adequate or appropriate. If it were higher, it would more that likely indicate too narrow a tree.

5. Panel pressure: Run your hand under the flap (knuckles toward the horse), back towards the stirrup bars (where your leathers attach to the saddle). Is there room to slide your hand in? Or is it too tight, therefore creating pressure? Run your flat hand under the panels (palm toward the horse). In the middle of the panels, is there enough room to put your whole hand in? If so, your saddle is 'bridging.' Is it very tight and allowing your saddle to 'rock' when you put alternating pressure at the pommel and the cantle? This would mean that your saddle is overstuffed. Does your saddle look like it's going uphill? Or, does it appear to be falling onto the wither?

6. Pommel to cantle relationship: As you are standing to the side of the horse, with the saddle in the correct position, the cantle should be significantly higher than the pommel. Even on an all purpose this should be the case.
Pressure test: If you are on the left side of the horse, place your left hand flat on the pommel and your right on the cantle. Gently, but deliberately, alternate your pressure from hand to hand and see if the saddle rocks. It shouldn't.

7. Check seat length: With the saddle in the correct position, check where the panels end. They should not extend past the last (18th) rib. In the loin area, there is no solid skeletal structure to properly support the saddle.

8. Lateral stability: It is necessary to check if the saddle slides side to side. This can be checked with same hand placement as #7 above and the right hand rocking the cantle side to side. The importance of dynamic fitting applies here.

9. Checking the gullet (Channel): As you stand behind the horse, look to see that there is adequate clearance around the horse spine. The saddle should not sit so low as to hit the horses spinous process’ nor should the channel be so narrow that when the horse bends, a pressure occurs on the spine. When through with this observation, take 3 of you fingers and see if they fit comfortably between the rear of the saddle between the 2 panels. When you take the saddle off the horse, take the same 3 fingers, lie them on your horses spine and check where your saddles panels rest.

10. Horses response: This step applies constantly throughout the application of all the above steps. If the horse is chomping his teeth, pinning his ears, trying to kick etc, he is trying to tell us that he’s uncomfortable. Keep this in mind if your horse tries to get away from you as you approach with your saddle.

In checking saddle fit correctly, the saddle fitter should take wither and back tracings for later comparison. They should check the saddle in a static state following all the steps above. Most importantly, to insure a correct fit, the fitter should encourage the rider to be on and make a dynamic assessment.

When the horse is at rest, the back is in a totally different state than during work. What can be observed while the horse is in motion can be invaluable.