Little update on Major, follow on from our 'saddle woes' thread!

[Girlracer]

Well I thought I would do an update following on from this thread -

http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?656331-Saddle-woes-(

After I had gotten over the gutting feeling of having let him down AGAIN and possibly taken another few steps back I cracked on with finding him a new saddle. I had decided with my saddle fitter that it needed to be adjustable, possibly a K&M or Monarch. I went to Horsatack and had a sit on a few saddles there, and had planned to buy new. But instead I found a not too old Bates Innova (what I was going to buy new, on finance) for half the price of new, which meant I could buy outright. It arrived on the Friday and my saddler came out on the Saturday morning. I have had it totally re-flocked and I'm so pleased with it, I think we may have gotten it right this time, and I have a saddler I trust. (only didn't use him before as he doesn't sell the saddles and I wanted to be able to try a few before I bought, but that didn't work out so well!)

I am using a half pad with the adjustable shims just until the muscle loss rights itself. But he seems really happy in it, and I am finding it so comfy!

Some photos from Saturday afternoon -

 

[Bernster]

Nice to hear of a good outcome and you look v happy. Am in the middle of my own saddles woes and getting fed up so I'm interested to hear about your saddlers approach of using shims to allow for muscle development. Am trying to get out a different saddler with what may be a similar approach to see what they say (either Lavinia Mitchell or Julie Robertson).

 

[Girlracer]

Nice to hear of a good outcome and you look v happy. Am in the middle of my own saddles woes and getting fed up so I'm interested to hear about your saddlers approach of using shims to allow for muscle development. Am trying to get out a different saddler with what may be a similar approach to see what they say (either Lavinia Mitchell or Julie Robertson).

Hi Bernster, sorry to hear you're having similar issues. My horse has some muscle loss behind the wither, most notable on the right hand side. He was talking about wanting the saddle to be symmetrical, but using this pad to 'fill' the gap whilst I work on getting it built back up (was related to the previous saddle). I'm sure he could go into considerable detail regarding his theories, he really does know what he's talking about. This is the first time I haven't had something deep down telling me not all was well, it looks really good on him and he seems very comfortable.

His name is Norman Hyett, don't think he has a website but certainly findable on Facebook, used to be a member on another forum, not sure about this one?

 

[Equinus]

The smile on your face says it all!

 

[Girlracer]

Thank you equinus!