alternative ideas to saddles for fat cob mare

dalesslave

dalesslave

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My dad is looking after a fell freisian cross 15hh ish mare after her owner died. We've battled with the severe lami she had when we took her on and her feet are now upto a little work, which should hopefully help the continued battle with her gastronomic weight, but saddles just dont come wide enough for her barrel like shape that my dad finds comfortable.He finds the current wintec wide (in its widest gullet)and the previous two xxwide saddles we have tried push him off her back to far for his comfort i can cope in the wintec but i'm alittle more supple than he is. He is fairly old school and at the minute is riding on a hessian sack with no saddle at all and although she is quite a dependable sort he could do with some thing a little more stable i think he has ideas of some sort of cowboy and indian style adventures around the farm where the mare lives! Any not too costly ideas please? including any informative pros and cons to western or treeless saddles
 
When i was thinking about backing my (very wide) highland several people recommended using a western saddle initially. I didn't go down that route as the Thorowgood cob in xxw fitted him well. I don't know how you would find a decent second hand one and I have no idea about fitting them but it sounds like an option work trying. Hopefull someone on here will be able to help.
 
http://www.barebackpad.co.uk/

What about a best friend bareback pad? Ive heard good things about them and they are nice and cheap.
Especially if she is currenly loosing weight as if you buy a saddle which fits her now it may not fit her in a few months time.
Thorowgood Cob T4 & T6 are good too, but if the wintec wide with its widest gullet is still too narrow I doubt the Thorowgood Cob would fit.

ps any pics of the horse? I own a friesian and a fell so wold love to see them crossed :)
 
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Little hard to tell due to lack of punctuation, but the problem seems to be the saddle not suiting you're dad, rather than problems fitting the horse?

Ditto the Cob Plus saddle: thorowgood do the synthetic version and K&M the leather version. They have a decent twist to them so don't feel too wide, have slimmer panels so closer to the horse, are well designed for the wide flat back, and have a changable gullet for her loosing weight and getting narrower.

Unfortunatly anything wide enough to be comfortable for her is going to feel wide to sit on, so you'd dad's just going to have to take up yoga ;) Many guys are very inflexible throught the hips and stretching does help.

Treeless' feel just as wide, if not wider, than tree'd saddles. Some are awful to ride in if you struggle with width: I don't generally have a problem but there's a couple I can't ride my flat cob in without getting sore hips.

He could also try a Heather Moffet Hip saver? (second one down). It will make any saddle feel narrower and can be used on tree'd saddles.
 
I ride in a cashel soft saddle, {just google them} i love it, my horses love it, and its really comfortable, you do need a good seat to ride in it, but if he is riding bare back thats part way there, my friend has one for sale {the seat is to large for her small bum }
 
I have a new Barnsby Highland/Haflinger? and cob saddle for my hippo shaped cob. I am very pleased with it and it doesn't feel loke its dislocating my hips like the Thorowgood xw I tried before. It is an xxw and VERY wide.
Google Lavinia Mitchell saddles too, she is/used to be with Balance saddles and her saddles work on the same principal too.
 
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