Saddle Straps

The other thing I need to talk to you guys about before we go to saddle fit is when you put these billets in: in the olden days we used to ride with our saddles much more forward. We didn't know that a dressage saddle had to sit behind the shoulder blade. We'd sort of plunk them down on top of the shoulder blade. So these Saddle Pad straps are too far back. You see, if I go through the strap and I pull it down, the girth is going to end up way too far back. So, the way to work around that is you just put the second billet in. And then you pull the girth forward when you girth it down. It's a really nifty trick because if you only put the second billet through, then this one is free on its own. You can pull them both forward and girth them down and the pad still does not shift back. Now, you do have to put it through one of them, otherwise the pad will shift. Also, with most dressage saddles these days, you can't really use these velcro straps anymore. The block is so big that the strap won't really reach around, so I usually just cut them off. But if you want to tuck the strap under the block, that's fine as well.