anyone have a horse with high withers?

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Peanot

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I have not long purchased a lovely warmblood mare and I paid an extra £500 for her saddle. It wasnt very old and it looked to fit OK, but I am no master saddler!!
Anyhow, had chiro out just over a week ago and she said that it wasnt a brilliant fit but it wasnt causing any problems through her back but to keep an eye on it. Then I had the Bowen lady out yesterday and she said that she has small lumps where the points of the tree is narrow onto her shoulder. It looks fine at the top and looks like it could do with some padding either side of the withers, but then further down, it is pressuring.
Needless to say, I didn`t want to use this saddle so I used my other horses saddle this morning, and it is a medium fit, whereas the other is a narrow fit, so it is better than the other but I now need to have a new saddle fitted. Just thinking on how to break it gently to hubby.
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I spoke to my regular saddle person and explained to him and he said that a lot of people misconcept this, as they presume that because they are high withered, that they need a narrow but as it goes further down, they need a wider one, and he has dealt with a lot of problems with horses due to this kind of thing. Interesting!!!
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So does anyone else have a horse shaped like this, if so, what saddle have you got?
I need a SJ one.
first, persuade hubby, then off to find good saddle fitter/supplier.
 
My saddler (never going to her again) thought high narrow withers.. narrow medium gullet! Poutu actually needs a medium wide so it was just far too tight around her shoulders. Lovely mare chucked me off to tell me so
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You can get open withered saddles can't you for high withered horses?
 
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i am about to get a saddle co saddle as i struggle with jays withers
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Funny you should say that, the Bowen lady is now a fitter for the Saddle Company saddles, perhaps she was trying to sell me one.
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I have 2 TB's, one who is fairly normal and just has a big wither, the other has hhuuuuuugggeee withers... both are now in Saddle Co saddles, Wintec/Thorowgood couldnt be made to fit and they are both young so I wanted something adjustable... fit a treat and comfy for both me and horse.
 
I have cliff barnsby for my high withered tb but he is also narrow.There are 4 other people on yard who have completely different shaped horses and the cb range seems to come in variety of fittings.We have all been very happy with these saddles.Im sure you can trade your other saddle in then it wont hurt hubby so much.
 
I had the same problem as Izzy - told my new horse which was v thin & in poor condition was a narrow fitting. Of course he wasn't and bucked me off in a medium fitting (i refused to use a narrow as I though t was too small). The problem is is if a well reccommended professional tells you one thing you think 'who am I to disagree'

If your mare has muscle wastage as well as high wthers then once she has a well fitting saddle she may start to broaden out and will need the saddle adjusted/a new saddle if it is not an ajustable one. This may happen in weeks! I now have a WOW saddle and my horse and I really love it
 
Also have a medium Barnsby on my Belgian with high withers. Now the saddle has settled I also use a Mattes adjustable sheepskin pad as it was starting to sit a bit low.

You can see he has had bad fitting saddles in the past as there are a lot of white patches around his withers!

In terms of a Dressage saddle I use an Ideal Jessica with said pad.
 
Yea, mine has stupid withers. The first time i saw him i remember saying to my fiance "I dont envy the person who has to fit a saddle to that". A few weeks later he was ours
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Jack is narrower at the front than he is over his spine but has very bulky shoulders also. He measures in at 16.1hh on his withers and 15.3hh on his back. To add insult to injury, hes very short coupled (and my saddler quoted him as being the most short coupled horse he had seen for his height).

I went for a wow. The gullet in Jack's is a banana shape allowing lots of room over the spine. Comparing the width of his gullet to most conventional saddles is amazing... theres no way i could ever have bought an off the rail saddle and not crippled him. Hes in the equivalent of a wide width head plate now although he started in a medium. Ive never had a problem with a lack of clearance for his withers at all. Due to his very short length, he had to go in a 16 inch seat as anything longer was sat right onto his kidney area (and when we bought him he already had bruising to this vicinity). Thankfully, due to the customization options of the wow, they still managed to accomodate me (im ft 5ft 11 and have a 36 inch leg which is really long from hip to knee)

Initially, he had to have tabs just behind his withers to fill the muscle wastage that had been caused by his previous saddles (otherwise everything you put on him just sank down onto his withers). This filled in a matter of months however and even though hes now been out of work for a couple of months due to us moving house soon, the wastage is nowhere near that seen due to a poorly fitting saddle. The wows tree has a headplate that flexes laterally so everytime the horse takes a stride, the shoulder coming back isnt restrained as the headplate just gives way. You dont feel this at all when riding but it makes a massive difference to the horses way of going and is usually the reason that most horses have a lengthened stride in their wows compared to other saddles.

Ive had absolutly zero problems with his back or his saddle which amazed his previous owner as she went from one nightmare to another with him. Best saddle ive ever sat in for the rider and by far the best choice i could have made for Jack
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Ive changed head plate a couple of times as he's widened with work and both times that has cost me literally 30 pounds for the plate. Ive also had a couple of flair alterations which were negligable on cost but ive now got the air pump to fiddle with it myself anyway.

Expensive saddle but im absolutly sure that if we'd bought any other brand, id be on my 3rd at least by now due to how much hes changed shape.
 
Very high withered horse (tb) but medium gullet as narrow was too narrow lower down. Used a cut back pommel though, and had a Prolite pad before she put on topline.
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