We are going to use Montana and Montana’s owners to demonstrate how to do a hip tuck, which is a really good exercise for two reasons.

One is to assess if the patient has a sore back: we are going to trigger a reflex point on her topline and if she resists, swings away, moves into us or acts like it’s uncomfortable that helps us determine that maybe she still has a sore back or croup. What we are actually looking for is a contraction of the abdominal muscles or her core muscles. If she is able to do the tuck, that tells me as she lifts up that she is engaging her core and is able to lift and round and come beneath with her hind end which we can do statically from the ground. This is also of course the …

This is Dr. Joanna Robson demonstrating correct saddle fit on a western saddle. Montana will be our model for a brief discussion on evaluating the angle of the saddle tree.

Montana’s owners had some concerns about her saddle fit and when we placed the saddle on top of her back, setting it back behind her shoulder, what we noticed (which you can see in the video) the little pressure over the horn (the top part of the saddle up here) and the front part of the tree pinches down on top of her shoulder blades. If I bring my hand in at the top, I can’t even get it between the top of the tree and the side of her shoulder blade. This has a potential to do a number of things: It can shorten her stride by literally blocking her …