The Perfect Saddle for Your Arabian: Now You've Found It

Intelligence and charisma, grace and performance: the noble Arabian simply shines, in almost every facet of equestrian sport. As born princes and princesses, they are of course excused from log-hauling and cart-pulling, but otherwise they show themselves as versatile as hardly any other breed. Whether racing, endurance riding, show jumping, dressage or Western: Arabians have been and still are successful in every one of these disciplines. But probably even more important are the traces they leave in the lives and hearts of their owners as leisure horses: the Arabian's true calling is clearly that of a soulmate horse.
 
It's also wonderful that these beauties from the land of deserts and fairy-tale palaces are, for all their nobility, genuinely robust and healthy horses. However, this undemanding nature does not extend to matters of the saddle: hardly any Arabian will tolerate a restrictive or pinching saddle without clear signs of vigorous protest. Don't make life difficult for your soulmate horse (or yourself) with an ill-fitting saddle: have the saddle for your Arabian individually fitted!
 
Iberosattel® saddles were specially developed for short-backed horse breeds. They can be adapted to Arabian proportions without any compromise on fit, make the most of the short bearing surface available, and are ideally suited to riding with subtle aids.

As our name says: Spanish saddles and Spanish horses were the starting point of our journey to becoming a saddle manufactory. At our own home stud on the Möningerberg in Freystadt, Bavaria, we breed horses of the Pure Spanish Breed. We feel a special connection to lovers of Arabian horses, soulmate-horse owner to soulmate-horse owner: we know the reverent feeling and gratitude that exceptional equine beauty gives to people.
 
We originally developed our own saddles out of a sense of responsibility for our Andalusians, which are relatively difficult to saddle with off-the-shelf saddles available here. Over the years, fed by our own experience and feedback from our customers, quite an extensive collection of saddle models for different requirements and needs has now emerged. We offer Baroque and dressage saddles for horses with a not entirely usual saddle position.

These include, for example, particularly short saddles with a broad bearing surface, as well as saddles with especially generous wither and shoulder freedom. Alongside Spanish horses and other classic Baroque breeds such as Lipizzaners, Knabstruppers or Lusitanos, our good customers therefore also include Thoroughbreds and Arabian horses.

In addition, our handcrafted saddles offer practical solutions to a number of everyday saddle problems: they can be re-stuffed and re-padded without any trouble, they are adjustable in gullet width, the Amazona solution helps prevent saddle sores, and thanks to Secusad marking, your saddle can always and everywhere be identified with certainty.

Arabians have a fairly narrow back with a pronounced wither, which is fairly typical for sport horses. However, this is combined with a very muscular shoulder area shaped by the powerful trapezius muscle, and an exceptionally short saddle position. Off-the-shelf saddles are therefore typically too long and/or too narrow in the shoulder for Arabians.

• A saddle that is too long presses on the spleen, kidneys and intestines in the lumbar region, as well as on the nerves that supply these organs. The saddle must not extend beyond the last rib!

• Even if the saddle has the correct length (or shortness...), the small bearing surface of short horses like the Arabian results in high saddle pressure. For somewhat heavier riders, the pressure on the horse's back can become quite high even with a saddle that is fundamentally correctly fitted and evenly positioned. This is uncomfortable for the horse and potentially harmful, especially on longer rides. So the available bearing surface should be used as effectively as possible to reduce saddle pressure! 

• If the saddle does not have sufficient shoulder freedom, it restricts the movement of the shoulders: the shoulder chafes against the front edge of the saddle with every step, and as a result, the horse moves stiffly and unwillingly. The saddle must have the correct width and angle in the shoulder area, and the shoulder must be able to slide unhindered under the saddle! 

• If there is not enough wither freedom, depending on the severity of the problem, this leads to more or less permanent pressure on the sensitive wither area, or to sudden impacts between the wither and the head plate when the rider sits deeper. Permanent pressure is painful, and impacts are also frightening. So make sure there is sufficient wither freedom: throughout the whole wither area, there should be two fingers' width of space between the inside of the saddle and the horse's back!

• To better distribute the rider's weight on the horse's back, Iberosattel® has replaced the classic wedge-shaped panels with a relatively narrow bearing surface with a newly developed broad, especially soft saddle padding. The Iberosattel® Comfort Pad makes optimal use of even a short saddle position and thereby crucially reduces saddle pressure, important if you like to take your Arabian on extended trail rides. Most Iberosattel® models are fitted with the Comfort Pad as standard or on request. 

• Besides increasing the bearing surface, the Comfort Pad is also convincing in terms of communication: because the saddle no longer partly hangs in the air, all weight aids act with pinpoint precision, and thanks to reduced padding in the leg area, leg aids are also transmitted especially precisely. 

• We can make our saddles extra short: saddle lengths down to 44 cm are achievable this way. For such saddles, the Comfort Pad is also available in a particularly short compact version. 

• We can regulate and adjust the gullet width of our saddles within a wide range by exchanging the head plate. 

• For horses that need especially generous wither freedom, we developed the EWF saddle tree (Extra Wither Freedom). By integrating the head plate into the plastic of the saddle tree, this a) creates additional space for the wither and b) prevents painful impacts between the head plate and the spine. 

Arabians are also among the late developers: horses of such breeds can still surprise their owners with quite considerable physical changes up until at least the age of six or seven.
 
A sensible and affordable alternative to repeated saddle purchases, especially for late developers, is an adjustable saddle. All Iberosattel® saddles can be regulated in shoulder width and angle via the head plate. Changes to the saddle padding are also easily manageable. This is very desirable during the growth phase, but also throughout the rest of the horse's life: after all, activity- or health-related muscle build-up and loss can repeatedly lead to changes in the shoulder and saddle position.
 
Thanks to the finest leather and conscientious workmanship, our saddles are of course also built, in terms of quality, to last a horse's whole life!