Buying first saddle, some advice please!!

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amanda1788

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Hi

I am looking for a new saddle, but need a bit of advice as haven't bought one before. I would like to get a throwgood GP saddle, preferably a second hand one from ebay which I can then have fitted. My question is I have a 14.2 cob type. He is welsh D X fell and I don't know if I should get the T4 GP cob or the normal one. How do I know which one? He isn't really wide at all, but is roundish on his shoulders and doesn't have a lot of wither. But am worried if I get the cob one it will be too wide. Any advice appreciated.
 
tbh you won't know unless you get a good fitter to take a proper template for you. for you horse's sake it's worth it, even if it does cost you £40 or so for their time and work.
have you ridden in the thorowgood gp on that horse? are you sure it fits you both properly?
 
He has a thorowgood maxim at the moment, and it use to fir really well but he's a couple of years older now ( was 4 when got him) so has changed shape and its got tatty so need a new one. The other option is a local saddler fits and stocks the thorowgood, they are roughly £375 new and they charge £35 for fitting, which means it can be done all at the same time. Does anyone know what the wintecs are like? Are they better than the thorowgood? Thanks for reply.
 
Have just bought my first synthetic saddle as a last chance for a horse which is virtually impossible to keep happy in an english saddle (american quarter horse, not that wide for her breed but massive powerful loins and flat back coupled with a decent wither and big shoulders
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She's really happy and comfortable in a Thorowgood - BUT I have had it fitted and then checked after 3 mths by an excellent master saddler.
I bought the T6 cob because I wanted something smart enough to show in - the cob saddles come in medium wide so will fit horses that aren't massively wide. They just seem to accommodate big shoulders well and don't get thrown around too much by a horse that has quite powerful movement once she gets going!
 
For the shape of your horse, a wintec wont fit.

I would look at the cob version - designed for rounder horses with no wither (tree is flatter). If you look on the Thorowgood website they have copies of the templates so you can take a template of your horse and see approximately what width to try (make sure you have the correct seat size as well). Then you can ask a saddler to check it for you - be prepared for it not to fit though.

If you look at the newer models they have FISH (shims that adjust the widnth) as well as changeable gullets and changeable girthing arrangements so much more flexibility in fitting the saddle. It may be that your saddler just needs to adjust the flocking (I find the Thorowgood flocking goes very flat very quickly and needs a reflock quite soon after it has bedded in).
 
OP you really must get a saddler fitter out to ascertain the size, width etc that will suit both you and your horse. You definately need a cob version, be it T4 or T6. You don't want the GP version.
 
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