Does my saddle fit? To wide?

[jennie1000]

My mare has recently been treated for a bad back. She went from seeming to work ok (although a little reluctant) to half way through the session throwing her head in the air whenever leg aids were applied. The back guy has treated an area of soreness just behind the saddle and expected the one session to sort the problem. He looked at the saddle and suggested I get it checked as it didn't look like it fitted.

My mare had a week off until the Saddlry could come out. Her saddle was previously made to profile by Black Country but she has since lost weight and aged. The Saddlry did the wither profile and said she had changed from a medium wide to medium in her fit. They suggested bulking the saddle out with a prolite pad and reassessing in 3 months. I suggested altering the tree and perhaps trying on some wintec saddles (which they had in the van) although the woman said riding with the prolite would not hurt my horse and to reasses in 3 months time when she should have put weight back on.

I went for 3 short hacks over the next week in the new padded up saddle. Got a small amount of head shaking but much less. Tried to go in the school and the head shaking was worse than ever. Got straight off and ran my hands down her back. Sore spot had returned worse thn ever.

Had her back treated a second time and the soreness was much worse. She had also developed a new sore pay h in the withers. The back person was not impressed with the idea of padding up a saddle..... Far from ideal. He also suggested that if MAY have caused the wither soreness.

Ok..... I was just after opinions as to weather people think its ok to pad out a saddle that's one gullet width to wide?

Also do you think that 3 short rides could really cause that much damage after a Saddlry have told you that its ok to ride in the saddle like that?

I feel totally torn between professionals and just want to do what's right by my horse!

 

[Gloi]

When you say she has lost weight and aged is that all over or just that she has lost weight on her back where the saddle sits. If that is the case it might be that the saddle hasn't been fitting correctly for quite a while and she has been gradually getting muscle wastage in the area.

 

[TrasaM]

Sorry, not an expert by any stretch of the imagination but can give you my experience with horse and saddle problem. Ours was having problems in autumn which were identified as due to his saddle pinching him so we got him a new bigger saddle. We were advised however to give him a couple of weeks off being ridden and to lunge him in order to give his back time to recover. He was sore behind the withers and also about midway along his spine.
He has since lost a lot of weight and the saddle fitter has now reduced his saddle by 5" . Her view was that padding it out until he got some muscle back was not an option as the saddle being too large would put pressure directly onto on his spine and wither area. It does mean that we will have to pay her each time she comes out to adjust the saddle but we have to trust her and hope we are being well advised.

 

[mandwhy]

Not an expert but when I first got my saddle the fitter told me to pad it out as horse had lost weight since original fitting, I got a sheepskin etc and the only way it looked ok was with THREE saddlepads! Horse obviously didn't seem too happy with that, so got him out again, turned out saddle was two sizes too wide (this is an adjustable saddle...) And now is fine. Sometimes professionals talk rubbish but as I had bought the saddle from him I could get him out again on the original consultation fee. I was annoyed as it didn't just not fit, but it slipped wildly, especially backwards (is yours doing this exacerbating the sore area?) And sideways. What if I had been doing XC the next day?!

Does it sit low at the front? I would prefer to pad out with a sheepskin or similar if it is only slightly too wide, as otherwise the horse can't muscle up underneath it and you end up with muscle wastage unless you have the saddler out very very regularly!