Because endurance horses are often ridden in the mountains and because where we train seems to be mostly either up or down, all the horses wear breastplates to help keep the saddle in place. On horses where the saddle slides up over the withers, a crupper is added. My Standardbred needs a crupper, but since he was a former harness horse, he was used to it. You want to prepare your horse, looping a soft cotton rope around the top of his tail, tugging gently. There's always a potential for nasty crupper reactions, but I have never seen one. Even the most reactive mare I know (gorgeous Anglo Arab, Seattle Slew grandaughter) just flinched a few times when she felt the crupper. Nancy
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