Widgeon
Well-Known Member
I thought I'd share this as I've chipped in over the years to many threads on saddle woes - my horse and I are a tricky combination to fit, for a number of reasons. I have long thighs and he has a short back and fairly poor posture (which I'm working on, now I know what's going on), so most saddles tend to slide into the dip behind his shoulders and sit there. That drops me forwards (ouch) and can't be too comfortable for him either. That said, I've never been comfortable, on any horse, in conventional treed English saddles, but because it's always been that way I sort of thought maybe it was....normal?
Having spent the five years since buying this horse working through a number of saddles that I'd rather not disclose (incidentally, by far the least worst was a £100 Wintec Pro dressage) I came across Ghost when @sbloom started stocking them and talking about them. I stalked her and the brand for a while before deciding that the component based approach seemed really clever, and (critically) I could actually afford a new one, made to my requirements, because they're not that expensive. We saw Steph for a fitting earlier this year and after a few weeks of chewing it over I ordered one. We mostly do lots of hacking, chilled stuff at home and longer, faster more adventurey scrambles on the NY Moors which are on our doorstep.
This is the saddle after my second ride on it. I'm still faffing with shim placement because his shoulder issue is fairly nightmarish and a difficult one to resolve, but the saddle is really comfortable. I was expecting it to feel more "perched", as others seem to have struggled with that, but it didn't. It's a little bit higher than my old Wintec, but the built in thigh blocks of this design, plus the short flap, mean that I can wrap my leg around the horse in a way I've never really managed before. I bought fenders because I am a slob who likes to ride in trainers in summer without having my legs bitten by the leathers, plus I like the look of them.
So for anyone who is interested, this is a Piccolo Ferrara in black oiled nubuck, with leather girth straps and long (rather than regular length) fenders. There's a butterfly shaped shim between the seat and the base, plus shims between the base and the panels, to mitigate the joint issues of all saddles sliding behind his shoulder, and me pitching downhill. We haven't fully cracked the former issue yet but I'm confident Steph will improve on it when she's next up here in person. There's only so much you can do over FB Messenger! The stirrups are my cheap Shires Compositis with cages on, and the girth is my existing Le Tixerant dressage girth (which I would also recommend to anyone who finds their saddle is moving. It's a great girth). Saddle pad is an Edix roundskirt with sheepskin, size Small. It takes felt shims in six pockets but I'm not currently using any.
And finally, please excuse the breastplate over the saddlebags. I need to get my sewing machine out and modify the bags so they sit a bit further down.
.....I think that's everything! I know people are always interested in saddle options for tricky to fit combinations (which we are!) so I thought I'd share. I can keep this updated as I ride on it more and perfect the setup.
Having spent the five years since buying this horse working through a number of saddles that I'd rather not disclose (incidentally, by far the least worst was a £100 Wintec Pro dressage) I came across Ghost when @sbloom started stocking them and talking about them. I stalked her and the brand for a while before deciding that the component based approach seemed really clever, and (critically) I could actually afford a new one, made to my requirements, because they're not that expensive. We saw Steph for a fitting earlier this year and after a few weeks of chewing it over I ordered one. We mostly do lots of hacking, chilled stuff at home and longer, faster more adventurey scrambles on the NY Moors which are on our doorstep.
This is the saddle after my second ride on it. I'm still faffing with shim placement because his shoulder issue is fairly nightmarish and a difficult one to resolve, but the saddle is really comfortable. I was expecting it to feel more "perched", as others seem to have struggled with that, but it didn't. It's a little bit higher than my old Wintec, but the built in thigh blocks of this design, plus the short flap, mean that I can wrap my leg around the horse in a way I've never really managed before. I bought fenders because I am a slob who likes to ride in trainers in summer without having my legs bitten by the leathers, plus I like the look of them.
So for anyone who is interested, this is a Piccolo Ferrara in black oiled nubuck, with leather girth straps and long (rather than regular length) fenders. There's a butterfly shaped shim between the seat and the base, plus shims between the base and the panels, to mitigate the joint issues of all saddles sliding behind his shoulder, and me pitching downhill. We haven't fully cracked the former issue yet but I'm confident Steph will improve on it when she's next up here in person. There's only so much you can do over FB Messenger! The stirrups are my cheap Shires Compositis with cages on, and the girth is my existing Le Tixerant dressage girth (which I would also recommend to anyone who finds their saddle is moving. It's a great girth). Saddle pad is an Edix roundskirt with sheepskin, size Small. It takes felt shims in six pockets but I'm not currently using any.
And finally, please excuse the breastplate over the saddlebags. I need to get my sewing machine out and modify the bags so they sit a bit further down.
.....I think that's everything! I know people are always interested in saddle options for tricky to fit combinations (which we are!) so I thought I'd share. I can keep this updated as I ride on it more and perfect the setup.
, glad you're getting on so well with it and I'm sure we can improve it even before I can get to you (which shouldn't be long, watch out for an email).
), but she put me in touch with a lovely lady up in Scotland, who helped me find the right combo. Looking forward to finally meeting Steph when she next visits. 
. I will help remotely in time, but doing hands on saddle checks is really critical, imo, to be able to later offer remote saddle checks, as I'm sure you can understand, and those take a little longer to come through.
