Unless you’re planning on riding bareback, saddling you horse is essential to riding it. Here are some basic tips from eHow.com on effective ways to put a saddle on your horse.
1) After grooming your horse, place the saddle pad on the horse just in front of the horse’s front shoulders.
2) Approaching from the horses’ left side, place the saddle in the center of the pad.
3) With western saddles, lift the saddle under the horn and adjust the pad so it doesn’t rub on the horse’s shoulder.
4) Buckle the cinch or girth so that it is snug around the horse’s body right behind its front legs. Make sure that it’s not rubbing or cutting into the legs. It’s also not good if it’s so tight that you can’t slip your finger in between the cinch and the horse’s body.
5) Next you will have to buckle the back cinch in the same way (if you have one). If not, make sure that when you stand in the stirrups, you have two finger widths between you and the saddle. If you have a breast collar, now would be the time to attach it.
Source: eHow.com