The magic rectangle… What rectangle?

Your saddle maker is trying to help you in most cases.  When they make your saddle, they want your stirrup leather to drop straight down, hanging directly below the stirrup bar.  They then take the average length of a rider’s foot (in relation to the size of the saddle they are building) and put the deepest part of the seat this distance behind the stirrup bar.  In this way, they are making a rectangle, stirrup bar above stirrup iron forming the front line, (pink lines), rider’s hip above heel forming the back line, (green line), and so making the rider’s ear, shoulder, hip, heel line a possibility. (Yellow line).  Simple.

Knee blocks and feathers

Now, all this works really well in theory.  But, we have one more issue to overcome.  As soon as you add big, fixed knee rolls onto saddles, you can run into trouble.  If the knee roll has Velcro and can be moved – awesome.  If not, unless it 100% fits the length, shape and angle of your leg, your going to be slightly compromised.  Let’s take a look at this rider.

She’s in an almost correct place – the green hip to heel line is good.  The yellow thigh / calf line is spot on.   The pink stirrup bar / stirrup iron line, she’s drawn slightly back and her foot isn’t quite how I would want it on the stirrup.  But, what about the coloured ball and feathers?

Cat toys, I’m afraid, nothing too hi-tech!

If we look at this photo – our rider has the top of the thigh block against her thigh, perfect.  But, if she aligns her entire thigh to the entire length of the thigh block – guess what happens?  Yup, her leg will be pushed too far forwards.  So, what she has to think about, is keeping the top part of her thigh on the block, but having a little bit of space – a cat toy amount of space – between the bottom edge of the block and the front of her knee.  

Clear as mud?  Is your saddle helping you, or is it just the wrong size and shape for the length of your leg?