Dressage saddles with semi curved trees

Puddleduck

Puddleduck

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Fitter came yesterday and confirmed my suspicions, in the three months since her last visit my horse has significantly muscled up across his back and our current saddle no longer fits :rolleyes:
Current saddle is a WOW on a curved tree. We have reached the limit of what we can do with head plates and girthing to fit as he needs a seat with semi curved tree which are near impossible to find second hand unless I go for an older resin tree which will be very heavy for me to handle. The panels I have are fine so I could just go for a new seat and second flaps as the current ones aren’t really right for me on this horse either.
Just wondering what other options there may be for semi curved trees before I take the plunge, especially as a more traditional option might open up second hand opportunities. Not been in the market for saddles for years as the WOW has given enough flexibility to fit different horses until now.
Horse is a big moving Warmblood with a shortish back and big shoulder movement. He needs a wide channel and nothing that narrows around the base of his withers so fitter said a Fairfax or K&M (which I have ridden him in) would not work as a long term option as he continues to build muscle in that area.
Fitter mentioned Harry Dabbs might be an option, anyone got any other suggestions?
 
Puddleduck said:
Fitter came yesterday and confirmed my suspicions, in the three months since her last visit my horse has significantly muscled up across his back and our current saddle no longer fits :rolleyes:
Current saddle is a WOW on a curved tree. We have reached the limit of what we can do with head plates and girthing to fit as he needs a seat with semi curved tree which are near impossible to find second hand unless I go for an older resin tree which will be very heavy for me to handle. The panels I have are fine so I could just go for a new seat and second flaps as the current ones aren’t really right for me on this horse either.
Just wondering what other options there may be for semi curved trees before I take the plunge, especially as a more traditional option might open up second hand opportunities. Not been in the market for saddles for years as the WOW has given enough flexibility to fit different horses until now.
Horse is a big moving Warmblood with a shortish back and big shoulder movement. He needs a wide channel and nothing that narrows around the base of his withers so fitter said a Fairfax or K&M (which I have ridden him in) would not work as a long term option as he continues to build muscle in that area.
Fitter mentioned Harry Dabbs might be an option, anyone got any other suggestions?
Click to expand...

I’m selling a wide, black, 18 inch (but feels fairly compact) Harry Dabbs / Jaguar (its double badged). If near Reading / Basingstoke / Leatherhead and welcome to try it if fairly close.
 
Hmm I would say that if your horse has built up that much muscle in the wow that it is obviously working well for you and I personally would be loathe to change to something different.

Semi curved trees are pretty new hence why there are no 2nd hand ones or even ex demo. There are ways around it - using a V headplate and/or a deeper front gussetted panel might work (D instead of an SD or DD instead of a D for ebut these are things you need a bit of trial and error and of course it would mean your fitter having demo panels suitable for trying different things out.
 
Just had an erreplus fitted to Nova. Big moving big shouldered WB with a short back.

Couldn't find anything else that would suit him and me.
 
Wheels said:
Hmm I would say that if your horse has built up that much muscle in the wow that it is obviously working well for you and I personally would be loathe to change to something different.

Semi curved trees are pretty new hence why there are no 2nd hand ones or even ex demo. There are ways around it - using a V headplate and/or a deeper front gussetted panel might work (D instead of an SD or DD instead of a D for ebut these are things you need a bit of trial and error and of course it would mean your fitter having demo panels suitable for trying different things out.
Click to expand...
I’m inclined to agree with you.
We’ve changed the headplate to a V to give it more stability (had previously gone from a U to a W to open up the shoulder more) and I definitely felt it was more stable in the trial ride with the fitter yesterday
It is a short term fix though. The seat and knee blocks aren’t right for me now with this horse so I think I may need to just bite the bullet and change it to what I need.
 
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