How many people fit their horses saddles themselves?

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Oldenfelle

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As title really. Just wondering who dares to buy saddles from places such as ebay and use their own judgement on the fit. I struggle finding a fitter where I am at the moment, as whilst studying, do not know anyone around the area I am keeping the horses.

I did use a local fitter I found through the internet. I was after a new saddle as my current saddle was definitely too narrow on my old horse, but she realised she was going to be tricky to fit so she said my saddle was actually fine (it really wasn't). Put me off greatly and struggling getting hold of anyone else at the moment.
 
Personally I'd never fit a saddle myself as although I know how a saddle should fit I am certainly less than qualified to actually fit a saddle. If I was new to the area I'd get a recommendation for a saddler from someone at the yard, or maybe post on here to see if anyone can recommend a good saddler in your area. Unfortunately there are a lot of inadequate saddlers around.
 
No way would I - having learnt the hard way - taking advice from an experienced person. I always have a master saddler out as my Haffy is really hard to fit, one master saddler just said she couldn't fit him.
 
God no! :eek: I can tell if it's a really bad fit but that's about the extent of my "expertise" ;) My saddle fitter came out and surprised me with how narrow my lad is, I would have thought he was a medium width just by looking and that's not even taking into account the little adjustments needed to make it fit like a glove.
Feel for you, finding a good saddler can sometimes be hard! My mum had her boy fitted and the saddler was trying to pass off something that obviously didn't fit for a quick sale :( You've gotta wonder about some people :(

P.s where are you based? Someone may be able to reccomend you a good saddle fitter :)
 
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Several tried to fit my mums arab with saddles that were worse than what she already had too! I am waiting for a fitter to get back to me, if not I have someone else in mind who can come out in two weeks, but this means a new saddle. One of their saddles is on ebay and I'm biting my nails on risking it as the width can be adjusted... However it will just have to go back on ebay if the tree is wrong. Who knows?! Would be easier if could wait till I move home in the summer, but it's too long to wait with current saddle.
 
Cobiau Cymraeg Nadolig said:
Romany you are not too far from me, who have you got coming out, I would love a recommendation for a good fitter. PM me if you prefer. Thanks!
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Hi, I am having chester saddlery , I normally use David at village, but he has quite a wait list, so chester were recommended by another livery. I am looking to get a thoroughgood t8 . And get horse fitted for a stock saddle for Polocrosse, as being an ex polo horse she didn't even come with a headcolar never mind any wardrobe!!
 
Phil had his saddle for 5 months without it being checked.

I've tried to learn as much as I can from photos, popping saddles on horses backs, responses etc. I felt confident enough that Phil's saddle suited his shape, was the correct length and gullet. I also do not trust many 'professionals' in this area regarding saddle fit. I'm not saying it's correct at all and I certainly wouldn't suggest it, but I had a saddle fitter out in March who confirmed everything I thought about the saddle, did a bit of re-flocking (pony slightly built up more on one side than the other) and was very please with saddle fit.

He has a t4 so I checked his gullet size and had tried both normal and cob versions on him to check tree shape.
 
ROMANY 1959 said:
Hi, I am having chester saddlery , I normally use David at village, but he has quite a wait list, so chester were recommended by another livery. I am looking to get a thoroughgood t8 . And get horse fitted for a stock saddle for Polocrosse, as being an ex polo horse she didn't even come with a headcolar never mind any wardrobe!!
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Lovely, thanks be great to hear your feedback if you get a chance....hmm horse without wardrobe = whole new shopping opportunity!!!! :D
 
I do *dons tin hat* ;)

Did have a a saddle fitter once years ago.Pony was an awkward shape and wanted a template done so could find her a decent second hand saddle in my own time,but other than that have always fitted my own.Not had any issues yet.

It's not exactly rocket science to fit a saddle TBH,you need some knowledge obviously but IMO it is made out to be far more complex than it often is.

Back in the day there was no such thing as a saddle fitter,and yet we all managed.I don't recall legions of horses and ponies with sore backs,not any more than now anyway (in fact seem to be more now if anything:confused:).

I'm not suggesting saddle fitters aren't necessary,indeed for some horses (and owners) they are most certainly needed,but I don't see any problem with confident and competent owners doing it themselves.

*prepares to be labelled as the devils spawn*:p
 
I'm with devonlass.

Not to mention the problem that our saddle fitters in the area don't want to come out unless there's at least 4/5 of you! There's also been various controversy about their expertise. When I got mine out the last time he told me my pony could take a bigger size seat than he actually could. I'm afraid things like that to me should be easy to comprehend before they've even got down to anything else!
 
I wouldn't fit my own saddle, as others have said - I can tell if it's obviously not right, but prefer to use a saddler who fits saddles all day every day! I wouldn't forgive myself if I got it wrong and caused my horse pain.
 
devonlass said:
I do *dons tin hat* ;)

Did have a a saddle fitter once years ago.Pony was an awkward shape and wanted a template done so could find her a decent second hand saddle in my own time,but other than that have always fitted my own.Not had any issues yet.

It's not exactly rocket science to fit a saddle TBH,you need some knowledge obviously but IMO it is made out to be far more complex than it often is.

Back in the day there was no such thing as a saddle fitter,and yet we all managed.I don't recall legions of horses and ponies with sore backs,not any more than now anyway (in fact seem to be more now if anything:confused:).

I'm not suggesting saddle fitters aren't necessary,indeed for some horses (and owners) they are most certainly needed,but I don't see any problem with confident and competent owners doing it themselves.

*prepares to be labelled as the devils spawn*:p
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This^^^ But not everyone is experienced, so it depends really on how confidant you are in your own abilities. There are some good instructional books on the subject which are interesting; even if you're not happy to do your own it pays to know the basics. There are constant threads on here about so-called Master saddlers making a hash of it.
 
I've done it in the past, but don't tend to now...obviously got wise to it being not the best idea.
It's just not worth the risk IMO.
 
Good lord people; saddle fitters are a relatively recent phenomenon - what do you think it was like in the dim distant past? I never saw a horse with a sore back 20, 30 years ago, and there was no changing saddles every few months because the horse "changed shape". Maybe you needed a thicker numnah every now and again, but generally a well made saddle fit the horse for life. And horses, if anything, went better than they seem to nowadays.
 
Cortez said:
Good lord people; saddle fitters are a relatively recent phenomenon - what do you think it was like in the dim distant past? I never saw a horse with a sore back 20, 30 years ago, and there was no changing saddles every few months because the horse "changed shape". Maybe you needed a thicker numnah every now and again, but generally a well made saddle fit the horse for life. And horses, if anything, went better than they seem to nowadays.
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How true.
Back in the day,a wire cost hanger bent over the withers,and off to Catlips or Coleman Croft we went. You just put thick or thinner numnah on as required by shape of horse.
Do not recall anything like the problems we now seem to hear about.
Am happy to fit wintec type saddles as you can adjust the gullet. I do use a saddler for some saddles now,though not all.
 
Last (large) yard I was on, an owner 'found' a saddle fitter on face ache ;) who promptly turned up on yard with a clip board and a saddle catalogue.
You know how these things go.... «ooh whilst your here, could you just check mine.....» ( @ £50 a time!!)
Strangely, she advised not one of them fitted, even though these horses never left their stables, she didn't even girth them up!!
However, luckily, she had a lovely shiny catalogue with her which DID happen to sell saddles that would fit. :/



You can probably tell....I'm becoming cynical in my old age.....
 
I bought a western saddle without a saddler from a private seller. I did try it on my horse and her feedback was that it was comfortable. When I have had SMS saddlers to look at my English saddles they do check the western too but they are markedly less confident.
As people have said about saddles fitting a horse for life- I have had mine for 13 years now, same as the horse. Last couple of times I had the saddler he just looked at them and said they were fine so although it's been a year and I know I really should I don't really want to pay £50 for another check.
 
Is it not possible that we are seeing more problems now due to the advances in diagnostics and research? I have always been interested in the fit of a saddle and can take a decent guess at if a saddle fits or not, but would rather leave it to the trained that are passionate about what they do. It's just a shame when you read stories on here of people that have paid for saddle fitter after saddle fitter, yet still are fobbed off with poorly fitting saddles.
 
I have fitted my last 2 myself - I have some scepticism about saddle fitters who actually sell saddles :(:(

Luckily my local saddler will let you try a number of secondhand saddles yourself with a deposit. My new boy got fitted with a lovely Barnsby dressage saddle - it was perfect. After a few weeks I asked for a non-selling saddle fitter to check both my saddles. She reflocked one slightly and said that my own purchase was a perfect fit-PHHEEWWW!!:D:D
 
I do.

Always have, always will and I haven't maimed a single horse doing so. It isn't hard.

Horses change shape so much and so often that I don't see how a saddle can fit perfectly 100% of the time without small adjustments (thicker/thinner saddle cloths etc as several people have said) by those who know them intimately.

A saddler can only fit a saddle to the back he sees on the day. 2 months down the line and a horse can change shape and what do you do then, buy another saddle?
 
I would never buy a saddle without having a fitter to make 100% sure it fitte well. However, I do not agree in getting saddle fitters to come out left, right and centre all the time to check saddles just because horses have changed shape. Any competent horse owner should know how to assess the basic fit of a saddle, and if the basic fit appears wrong, then that would be the time IMO to get a fitter out.

I have just bought a new saddle and put my old one up for sale. Not because it didn't fit my mare anymore (though she has changed shape over the past few years - still no signs of it not fitting well enough), but because it was huge for me (came with her three years ago). I was lucky in that my local saddler let me take a couple of saddles from the shop (second hand) free of charge and try them one evening. The one I have bought now appeared to be only slightly out on fit - ie the pommel was slightly higher than the cantle, but I had a good idea that it could be adjusted and that in all other aspects it fitted well. So I then paid for him to come out to assess what needed doing, and was pretty spot on in my judgement. Picked it up yesterday, after minor adjustment, and it's perfect. :)

It is unusual though for saddle fitters to let saddles be taken out free of charge I realise though, but I think every horse owner of a reasonable standard should know how to fit a saddle to 'basic' standards.
 
Saddle fitting isn't rocket science for heavens sake. Every rider should know how to fit a saddle and how to check it or how else are you going to know your saddleis ok and fits as horses change shape all the time. Having seen some awful saddles fitted by professionals it is really something you have to be able to check yourself.

I do buy from ebay and get my saddler to check it but now only because I love to learn from him and enjoy his visits. He has carefully explained how to check a saddle and how they should fit.
 
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