Q: I purchased my Thoroughbred gelding when he was 5 years old. Within the next two years we were doing really well at entry level dressage. He looked and behaved fantastically.

Then the problems started. As I ride on my own and hadn’t had this problem before, it took me a while to figure out that his refusing to go (forward), bucking, and general naughtiness was not disobedience at all, but serious pain from a saddle that was a bad fit. It seemed to be blocking his shoulder movement and extending the pain right through to his hindquarters.

We trekked five hours down to Johannesburg for a new, properly fitted saddle, X rays of his spine, and physiotherapy.

I changed his routine completely from mainly arena work to mainly trail riding, and I just didn’t feel he was getting much better. It was on my fifth saddle fitting with the same qualified saddle-fitter that she noticed his spine is skewed to the left