Iberian horses and saddles

[Sags_Deer]

Okay
Im at a loss, my current saddle number 3 still not entirely sure right, fed up with fitters not being able to fit one to him

Can anyone help please.

 

[tallyho!]

If you look up GBPRE page there is a thread about saddles for PREs/Iberians. our Iberians in Lavinia Mitchell - I've used her for almost 10 years without any issues.

 

[j1ffy]

Ditto tallyho - the GBPRE webpage used to have a list of all the saddles people used as well, as it was such a common question.

They tend to have very flat, short backs so any curved tree won't sit well. Mine have had (successfully) an Ideal, Farrington, Bliss and Jeffries. I've heard of people struggling but I haven't, maybe I'm lucky with my horses and / or saddlers!

 

[tallyho!]

I should add, 10 years, 4 different horses.

 

[Cortez]

Strangely enough I've never had a particularly difficult-to-fit Iberian horse - perhaps I am just lucky? I have two saddles for each of my Spanish horses, an exhibition saddle (Baroque/bullfight style, either normal Portuguese or a version by Deuber) and a modern dressage saddle, currently a Barnsby for the short coupled one and an Albion for the two with more rangey conformation. Perhaps it is because PRE's and Lusitanos are a fairly recent import to the UK (even rarer in Ireland!), but they seem to do OK in their native country, where saddle fitters are not the norm.

P.S: I've had about 20 PRE's over 25+ years; never had one with a sore back.

 

[shortstuff99]

I use a WOW on mine, and I know that they're not massively popular but Bates seem to fit quite well too. I would look for saddles with wide channels as PREs tend to have wide spines.

 

[Farma]

I have a ideal Jessica, that was the only one that suited in my budget.

 

[Wheels]

Like with a lot of other breeds there is a wide variation of shapes and sizes within the Iberian breeds.

Some are very flat backed, some more curvy, some have wither height, some don't. Most are wide but some have more well sprung ribs than others.

Some appear to be not that flat backed but as soon as they start moving they raise their back so you have to pay particular attention to dybamic saddle fit in those cases.

So I would say get a fitter out with a bit of choice and see what works. If the horse is very flat backed the one of the specialist native pony type saddles can work well.

 

[sbloom]

I agree they vary, and that a flatter railed tree would be needed, even where there's a wither. I have fitted a variety of trees to Lusis and Andis but they're all relatively flat.

 

[Sags_Deer]

thank you everyone

 

[texenstar]

Oh my gosh, I had the most horrendous time this summer trying to find a saddler that could fit a saddle to my Lusitano mare. In the end my saving grace was a Lavinia Mitchell/ LM saddler and saddle. Fits my mare really well and there is a huge difference in her movement and behaviour. Couldn't recommend them enough, I got mine second hand and it is great quality.

Good luck!

 

[MagicMelon]

Mine (now retired) is only half Lusitano but he was very Luso looking in build etc. He was short coupled which made saddle fitting hard. I ended up with a WOW with a 17" seat for me on 16" panels for him. Saddles would always slip back on him as his big shoulders would shove it back whereas with the WOW they just pass underneath. I had a Bates saddle fitted to him "professionally" prior but ended up with the horse developing issues and clearly unhappy with it, the WOW fitter then told me the Bates would never have fitted him properly (too long in the seat etc.) so that was really annoying when you trust a "professional".

WOW's arent cheap, if you wanted to save money I asked the fitter to tell me what bits I needed then I sourced them all second hand and she put them together. Cost about £1k at the end of it, still cheaper than buying the whole thing ready done.