Fitting saddles

[hollyzippo]

Just wondered what most people do- I have always had saddle fitted except for 1 wintec that I bought off ebay (having previously tried one the same and had it fitted!)
See so many sore backs in my job following clearly badly fitted saddle- what do you lot think??

 

[dieseldog]

I bought one on Ebay and then a qualified saddler checked it for me and reflocked it. Would have bought one off him but he didn't have what I wanted

 

[lizzie_liz]

We have got all of our saddles from our saddler who is great and they are checked about every 6-12 months. Out of everyone on our yard we have had the least problems with our horses saddles/backs. Certain people at our yard had their saddles checked and told they didn't fit correctly but they didn't want a new saddle and still have problems with their horses backs and saddles.

 

[Tempi]

i have all my saddles fitted by a professional saddle fitter. They get reflocked every 4-6 months. If i have a new saddle its reflocked after the first six weeks (once the initial settling has happened).

I would never ever not have my saddles professionaly fitted, IMO backs and correctly fitting tack are VERY important for the comfort of the horse.

 

[fairhill]

I usually get saddles fitted by a qualifed fitter who comes to the yard. Unfortunately she's been ill, so this last time I took photos of the horse, and a wither profile to her shop, and then took 3 saddles home to try for a week. I ended up trying about 15 saddles before I got one that both myself and my horse were happy with.
It was interesting how my horses way of going changed so dramatically with the different shaped saddles we tried.

 

[samp]

I always try to get a qualified saddle fitter -though when I got my horse I was using a mates saddle for a while before I got a new one

 

[Mellymoo1]

This post just reminded me to get my flocking checked!!

I made a big mistake buying a saddle off of ebay, got it totally wrong, so I only use a qualified saddler. I've not got the experience to fit saddles myself!

 

[the watcher]

a variety of the above..I might try my existing saddles, or buy one in from a saddler or ebay and fit it myself..I will always check the saddle the horse comes with as well, last time I bought a horse I told them to keep the saddle because there was no way it fitted.

I have never used a saddle fitter and only had bad back problems with two horses over 20 years, which I identified shortly after they arrived so I was fixing somebody else's handiwork

 

[Michelle73]

When I purchase a new saddle its either made to measure or fitted by a qualified saddle fitter, however, I have used my current saddle on 5 similar shaped horses without any problems.