Saddle Fit - JD Wing

Howard asked J.D. Wing in an interview years ago whether or not it was important to think about your horse's comfort when selecting your equipment.   "Absolutely."   "I was guilty of it as anyone when I was younger and didn't have a whole lot of money, and never really worried about how my saddle fit my horse or anything like that. And then I had all these issues coming up. My horse would quit stopping."   "My horse would get hot in the box. My horse would duck in the arena. And once I started really spending time to learn about what a proper fitting saddle was, what the correct bridle was, how to properly adjust my tie down, that fixed a lot of the problems I was having in horses."   "It wasn't a training issue, it was a comfort issue. How many times do we go to a U.S. roping and put $2,500 up in fees, and our horse ducks or breaks a barrier or gets mad and puts us in a bad situation where we don't have a chance to win? We're just throwing money out the door, going to a roping with an ill-fitting saddle. You invest that money into a good saddle or into a good bridle, and now you're investing in your future."   "When we have a chance to run at a quarter million dollars at Vegas, to me that's a good investment."    Horse trainer, J.D. Wing, in an interview with the late Howard Hale.    That's going to do it for today's Horseman's Corner.