“The Role of Saddles in Equitation”
by Evie Stettin and Tad Coffin
The saddle is among the oldest and most vital tools to an equestrian, yet the relationship between it and a horse’s back remains a mystery. It is evident that some saddles work better than others on any given horse, but is not always clear exactly why. It's difficult at best to know what horses experience when being ridden; what sensations they feel in the play between rider, saddle and their back. Many horses are stoic when it comes to back discomfort but others are highly sensitive and express their displeasure through a variety of resistances.
How would the riding experience change for us and for them if a saddle actually helped a horse move and carry himself in an ideal manner? What if a saddle could actually be therapeutic? Is the current norm of saddle design and construction the very best we can come up with, or is there a possibility for something better that might create a paradigm shift in our approach to riding and training?
Tad Coffin has dedicated the last 28 years to answering these questions. He has conducted over 4500 experiments using feedback from a group of horses that are wholly dedicated to saddle testing. These horses live on Tad’s farm in a highly controlled environment so as to ensure the accuracy of his results. They are his insight into the mystery of the relationship between a saddle and a horse’s back. I travelled to his workshop in Ruckersville, Virginia, to learn about his groundbreaking innovations that may one day change the way we ride.
As a young rider, Tad was brought up on a diet of classical riding principles under the tutelage of Raul deLeon, a devotee of Bertalan deNemethy, the legendary coach of the US show jumping team. Raul, a brilliant teacher, would often take his young riders to Gladstone to watch the master work with his Olympic riders and horses; sessions on the longe line working on the basics of seat and position, sessions of flat work and cavaletti followed by gymnastic jumping exercises. Within a few years, Tad would be at Gladstone himself as a young rider, selected to work with the legendary Jack LeGoff, coach of the 3-day eventing team. What an opportunity this was to witness and experience riding at its very best!
Horses, when ridden by these 'riding masters', exhibited a series of qualities above and beyond their way of going even under their Olympic riders. The universal qualities of relaxation, carriage, balance and harmony were so abundantly apparent they would have been recognizable to anyone. What if this kind of riding, this relationship with a horse, was within the realm of possibility for more riders of more average abilities?
What stands in the way of this? Education certainly, but also resistance, that phenomena of non-compliance and struggle that all riders experience. "It's hard to look your best on a horse that's tense or stiff, crooked or inverted" says Tad. "This is especially problematic in the equitation ring. To ride in a beautiful manner, mimicking the 'masters', is so much easier on a soft, supple and compliant partner."
Again, it begs the question: how much of a horse’s resistance at any moment is the result, at least in part, of saddle discomfort? How would we know and how much difference could be made? Could changing what a horse experiences in the back be the catalyst for an upward spiral in overall performance?
As a young man, Tad quickly rose to prominence in the Eventing world. He won two gold medals at the 1975 Pan American Games in Mexico City, then went on to win two gold medals at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal-- all at the age of 21. His involvement with saddles began after the Olympic games, when he developed a sequence of his own saddles that were manufactured by an English saddlery. The first of this sequence, an all-purpose saddle, fit many different types of horses and was a resounding success, as was its successor, the Equilibrium jumping saddle.
For a variety of reasons, Tad began investigating the inner workings of his saddles; the tree and panels specifically, the event he cites as the beginning of a long and passionate career as an innovator. “One of the first things I realized when I began tweaking the inner workings of my saddle was that a seemingly miniscule change could make my horses go very badly. This prompted the obvious idea that perhaps a different series of adjustments could help my horses go very well.”
According to Tad, there are two styles of conducting research on elements of nature: the Newtonian approach and the one adopted by Jane Goodall in her study of chimpanzees. “The Newtonian approach is to take the subject to a lab, run tests on it, and study it in controlled environments. Jane Goodall's approach: spend time studying the subject in its own environment. Try to really understand what the subject is telling you through its natural behavior.” Though he has frequently collaborated with engineers in order to explain and advance his findings, Tad’s personal research has consisted mostly of the latter. He rides and analyzes the performance of his test horses to determine their response to changes in the saddle. “I let horses in their work tell me whether they’re happy or not,” he says. “Horses lead the effort.”
This has been his attitude since 1992, when he first began his research. In 1997, 5 years later, he manufactured the first saddle under his own label. At no point, however, did his research come to a halt. “The process of innovation is based on responding to observations that often unfold over a long period of time. This is particularly true when trying to understand a complex mystery such as the interaction between a saddle and a horse’s back. To get to the heart of a mystery, you have to be in it for the long haul. Revelation happens over time by listening, observing, thinking, and experimenting, over and over again.” All his research and development (R&D) occurs concurrently and under the same roof as the testing and manufacturing of his saddles.
“I am passionate about good riding. I am certainly not an engineer, and when I started, I had no more understanding of how saddles were made than anybody else,” Tad reminded me, “which has been both an advantage and a disadvantage. While there's a steep learning curve in fields outside my area of expertise, I'm also liberated from certain orthodoxies within these fields. This allows me to think differently and to innovate differently.”
From an engineering standpoint, saddle tree and panel design has evolved very little over the years. Tad finds many of these crucial components lacking in fundamentals of ergonomic design and correspondence with the dynamics of horse and rider movement. How do these fundamental inadequacies inhibit our riding experience? With all of our technology can we not do better? What results could be achieved if we poured our time and energy into creating a piece of equipment that causes the horse to feel liberated?
Enter Tad's latest development, called SmartRide Rx technology. Holding the SmartRide Rx tree in your hands, you can literally see and feel the difference: made of a thermoformed acrylic alloy that is tuned and reinforced with carbon fiber, it looks more aerodynamic and is noticeably lighter than a modern steel and wood tree. Tad explains that it contains very specific engineering features that allow it to correspond to the complexity of the movement of a horse's back. The saddle, which he describes as the interface between two sophisticated engineering systems, horse and rider, should be equally sophisticated to allow the best possible interaction between them to take place. In their present configuration, Tad believes that most saddle components are far too rudimentary to be up to the task. As a result, something fundamental is compromised in the horse rider relationship. Tad has spent years studying and evolving his understanding of the material requirements, tooling and shaping techniques and construction processes that raise the level of sophistication in a saddle and allow for a better correspondence between partners.
The current narrative in saddle fitting is the need to customize a saddle to the dimensions of individual horses. Tad, through his research, offers an alternative narrative which recognizes the similarities in the dynamic posture of horses when they're moving well and carrying themselves correctly. He has come to believe that engineering a saddle that corresponds to the needs of this dynamic motion can create an inducement for horses to posture themselves in a more correct manner. This idea is central to his design and engineering and has allowed him to create saddles that without alteration, fit large numbers of horses as evidenced by their improved performance.
“The primary emphasis of our work has been to create a more biomechanically beneficial structure," says Tad. However, the musculoskeletal benefits of the SmartRide Rx are only the beginning. According to Tad, a certain bioenergetic phenomena began to emerge when he began using certain materials and processes in combination in his saddle trees. He began to notice that his test horses demonstrated greater levels of relaxation, improved cardiovascular functioning, pain relief, a reduction in digestive disorders and an overall increase in wellbeing. He confirmed these findings with clients who were using his newer technology.
After a great deal of investigation and consultation with experts in a variety of scientific disciplines, Tad has developed a working hypothesis that explains the phenomena. The combination of materials, geometry and processes is producing an electromagnetic field in the Far Infrared spectrum, which is well known to have wide ranging health benefits. SmartRide Rx technology is now available in every Tad Coffin saddle as well as in a standalone therapy device he calls the Thera-Tree.
Tad Coffin is not simply a saddlemaker; above all, he is a horseman. He has spent his life listening to horses and in turn, they have patiently instructed him in regards to their needs from a saddle. With their help, his exciting breakthroughs are offering a new paradigm of possibilities in the horse/rider relationship.
