multiple horses with few saddles?

ex racer rider

ex racer rider

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how many of you have a few horses with only a couple of saddles?
Just wondering as i know of dealers etc who have 5+ horses and only one or two saddles... how is this viable?
Are their horses destined to have sore backs all of the time due to incorectly fitting saddles?
So my question is do any of you lot have multiple horses and only a few saddles? if so how do you get away with it?
 
I am hoping new saddle that isn't here yet will fit new horse I haven't bought yet :o. Only because it's for a pony I am just schooling for my daughter and she will have her own saddle when she rides her. Prolite pad with adjustable shims is making loan saddle from saddler fit said pony while I wait for the new saddle to arrive.
 
ex racer rider said:
how many of you have a few horses with only a couple of saddles?
Just wondering as i know of dealers etc who have 5+ horses and only one or two saddles... how is this viable?
Are their horses destined to have sore backs all of the time due to incorectly fitting saddles?
So my question is do any of you lot have multiple horses and only a few saddles? if so how do you get away with it?
Click to expand...

Saddle pads. Although I do have pony saddles too.

I also only have 3 or 4 bridles, bits are permanently attached, I choose the bridle according to the bit I want
 
Our two ponies, somewhat amazingly, as one is a stocky looking NF the other a more dainty looking arab x show pony with high whithers take the same width gullet in saddle, so can ride both in the same one, tend to use the synthetic on both in wet weather as the other is leather, have had this checked out with the saddler, and she says the Wintec is not quite such a good fit on the NF as it is on the other one, but is absolutely fine to use on both, they just have vastly differing lengths of girth.
 
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I used to have about 8 treed saddles and selected the "best" for each horse that came through the yard, until about 6 years ago when I started using Solution saddles, sold all 8 treed saddles and now have 3 Solutions which I can fit to anything and know that they will be perfect and won't cause the horses any problems - rather the opposite in fact as many of the issues the horses come in with are saddle related in the first place :)
 
It works for some people if their horses are the same shape, but my TB had to have a few sessions with the physio when I got him due to tightness and pain in the lumbar region. The girl I bought him from had one saddle to four horses and just used different thickness pads for each one - two TBs, an ISH and a warmblood. The vet and physio both put his issues down to the saddle essentially banging up and down on his loin area.
 
All are cobs, mostly of the same breeding and end up very much the same buildwise :) Trusty wide treed show saddle, fits like a glove on most. Any it doesn't [ie....too fat], well, I do bareback essentially until they slim down.

Have a couple of non-cobs, my TB and the warmblood....have a med/wide treed GP saddle which fits them both lovely, so they do share that one also.

If we take 2 cobs out at the same time.....well....we toss a coin over who rides bareback! :p
 
All tb's/ tb types so roughly all similar fits, so the one saddle does them with a variety of pads if required to finetune it. Although currently have a tendency to ride everything in a race saddle atm rather than my jump saddle.
 
Another vote for Solution saddles they really do seem to think anything, pricey but so far worth it. As Christmas Sparkles said wide tree showing saddles also seem to be brilliant for roundies but I guess dealers often either have to stick to one sort of horse or use lots of pads, not ideal but then few things are.
 
In the hunt yard we have an exercise saddle or 2, huntsman has 2 of his own he uses out hunting, whip has one. I used my own saddle on a couple of tb's as it was a better fit than the exercise saddle which was wider and one horse had to have a saddle fitted as he was an awkward fit, conveniently the huntsman had broken the tree in one of his otherwise probably wouldn't have wanted to pay for another. I won't use a saddle that's a really bad fit and we had a fair few pads and a couple of riser pads, though I didn't like the horse wearing a riser pad for hunting even with the numnah between it and the saddle it still made the horse sweat excessively on his back.
 
I have about 8 different saddles that are varying sizes, plus 2 of them are wintecs with the changeable gullets. Pads and different numnahs can help a saddle fit better if its just slightly off. Ive never had a problem with any horses going through my door with bad backs and none of my long term horses have ever had bad backs either. You dont need a master saddler to fit a saddle if you know what your doing yourself. :)
 
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