having a saddle fitted to a youngster - your experiences pls

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Blondie1

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Hi there,

About 2 months ago i had a saddle company saddle fitted to my 4 year old, by a saddle company fitter. At that time my mare had not been backed so could not ride her for the fitting but the fitter was pleased with the fit with a view to have it checked in about 3-4 months.

Now i have backed her and am able to ride her happily in walk and a little bit of trot i feel that she needs the saddle checking again. This is because when we have asked for canter on the lunge with saddle or ridden she is bucking. Lunged her last night without the saddle and although she was very unbalanced doing short bursts of canter she didn't buck!

My question is can saddle fitters obtain a good fit just from seeing me ride her in walk? Or would they be able to tell from watching her and saddle being lunged. I'd be interested to hear others experiences of how you've had saddle fitted to youngsters please?

Thank you.
 
I can only answer from my point of view, my experience of fitting. With an unbacked youngster I can only do a limited fit - seeing the saddle ridden in at walk trot and canter really is crucial for a proper fitting. BUT it is possible to choose the right tree for most horses without seeing the horse ridden, certainly in my case where I fit mainly wide and flat natives and cobs and where I am very familiar with our "small" range - the flocking WILL need tweaking once the horse is being ridden and the tree may well need adjusting as well. Width is slightly harder to judge so I recommend getting me back out once the horse is trotting solidly, and ideally can pop in a few strides of canter or sooner if there is movement in the saddle once a little trotting is accomplished.

Trotting can really tell you a huge amount - a saddle that is too wide or too curvy in tree or panel will lift at the back in rising trot so this is always the most important pace. In walk all you can see is whether the saddle is laterally stable, or whether it might move forwards or back, but both of those can happen in the other paces as well.

Seeing the saddle on the lunge tells the fitter very little - they are designed to operate under a substantial weight :).

I would advise that at least 3 fittings may be needed in the first six months, including the initial one.
 
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Thank you for your reply, that's really helpful.

We can comfortably trot with me on board whilst being lunged, do you think that a saddle fitter would be able to work from that or should i wait until we have trot established?

Thanks.
 
If it's a brand new Saddle Co saddle, and you've only ridden in it a few times, it will be sitting high still as the flocking will not have 'bedded' down.

If you are in doubt at all, you should ask your fitter to come out and check it for you :)
 
Blondie1 said:
Thank you for your reply, that's really helpful.

We can comfortably trot with me on board whilst being lunged, do you think that a saddle fitter would be able to work from that or should i wait until we have trot established?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

It will indeed help a lot but especially if you can also have the lunger take you down the long side a little as well - going from a circle to straight helps show if the saddle is going to go to the outside - if you stay on a circle it is almost impossible to judge where the saddle is laterally from behind as the horse is curved and the viewpoint moves so quickly!

And yes flock does take while to settle enough to be stable but a usually only a couple of hours riding. Beyond that the flock can compress too much and the saddle may fit too wide, hence the importance of that first check within the first couple of months or so.
 
I had a fitting once our mare was walking and trotting with me on board. Before that I'd bought a Wintec 500, put in the white tree and was happy that it generally fitted her. The saddler saw it on her, saw me on her in walk and trot (we don't have a school but she was happy to see trot on the road), and she made a few minor adjustments. I haven't had it re-checked as the mare is now turned away until next spring.
 
Thank you so much everyone for your replies. You've all been a great help. Think i will get the saddler out soon to check and see what she can do.

xxx
 
I had my saddle co saddle fitted a while back then re fitted just before backing and checked again after the flocking had bedded in (roughly 3 hours in total riding time) we walked and trotted for the saddler in straight lines and circles and all 3 of us were happy (me, saddler & horse) that's the beauty of saddle co you can have it checked & adjusted (if needed) as many times as you like
 
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