My Horse is ACTUALLY Impossible to Find A Saddle For - Any Ideas??!!

I'd agree with the recommendations for the saddle company saddles. bought my mare in October and had a nightmare trying to fit her, she came in a medium and turns out she's XXXW!!!! tried about a zillion (maybe an exaggeration!) types on her but she's 14.3 and extremely wide and flat backed. Saddle company saddles are amazingly adjustable and depending on whereabouts you are I would highly recommend the guy who came and fitted mine for me..........
 
D'sMum said:
I'd agree with the recommendations for the saddle company saddles. bought my mare in October and had a nightmare trying to fit her, she came in a medium and turns out she's XXXW!!!! tried about a zillion (maybe an exaggeration!) types on her but she's 14.3 and extremely wide and flat backed. Saddle company saddles are amazingly adjustable and depending on whereabouts you are I would highly recommend the guy who came and fitted mine for me..........
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I'm in the New Forest-I think there is a Saddle Company fitter near me but not sure what they ar like. I'm very suspicious of saddlers!!
 
Have you tried a WOW? Very expensive new but I know where there is one for around £500 because of an old seat, and there are tons on eBay right now for a bit more than that. You can fit the perfect width gullet plate and then pump up the air at the front or the back to balance it out. Lots of people hate them, and lots of people love them, hardly anyone in the middle :)
 
HAve a look at some of the older saddles - and I do mean older 35 - 50 yrs old - the ones before someone thought of deep seat!

These saddles generally had wider channels so completely cleared the spine area. TBH we seemed to have less saddle fitting problems then. Some where actually really comfortable

I had a really lovely deep seat saddle but if horse lost a mm of condition the saddle came down onto his back right under the riders seat.

To check if yours does, ride in it for 10 - 15 mins without a saddle blanket - Walk, Trot & Canter - then take off saddle and study the channel - if there are grease marks there then you know where one of the fitting problems lie.
 
Another vote for saddle company and probably with a drop panel which gives more support and helps massively with the wither clearance. I highly recommend Norman who travels all over the UK (he's 'down South' but comes right up here). Don't worry about the 'South Africa' he travels over there as well. Someone who really is in it for the Horses. They do not use gullet plates, but a tree that can be adjusted to any width with a special templating machine in minutes. The adjustments are minute and the saddles are often used in remedial cases. Just be VERY carefull with what fitter you use as there a lot of rubbish SC fitters around. Ideally you need one who deals directly with the saddle co and not a retailer. Try and use one who comes recommended by a few people. They do often come up second hand on ebay as well but I'd be inclined to buy new in your case - unless a fitter told you what to look out for.

The one thing you need to watch with them is as they are serge lined the flocking needs checked and topped up every 6 months. The flocking is not lambswool, it's a much softer synthetic and when you feel the difference between the two it's quite amazing.

http://www.equinebowensouthafrica.com/

On the totally opposite scale there are bareback pads...scroll down a bit

http://www.horsedream.co.uk/products.asp?id=2

OR......and this might seem insane.....a western saddle??? They do have much broader panels but not really good for jumping! Wintec do a synthetic version for about £300 http://www.west.ways.btinternet.co.uk/Pages/Wintec.htm or http://www.west.ways.btinternet.co.uk/Pages/Lamicell.htm
might just be what you need!!
 
suzysparkle said:
Another vote for saddle company and probably with a drop panel which gives more support and helps massively with the wither clearance. I highly recommend Norman who travels all over the UK (he's 'down South' but comes right up here). Don't worry about the 'South Africa' he travels over there as well. Someone who really is in it for the Horses.
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This is who I was going to recommend! He came out to see my mare and totally trusted him (having spent a lot of money on another saddler who fitted me with a saddle that was too long and too narrow) - it's all about getting the right saddle for the horse with him. :)
 
PercyMum said:
Thanks Angua.

Forgive my ignorance but whats a shim? My Wintec is too low but also tight at the base of the wither and near the shoulder so would this help? As previously posted, when he puts his head down the whole thing lifts up about 2 inches at the back which is what I thought happened if the saddle is too tight at the front. But its so low at the front I can't see how putting a bigger gullet in can help - i tried and it was awful.

Would a shim address this?

thanks!
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Taking an educated guess here, but it sounds like you have a wide horse with muscle wastage behind the withers. What you need is a wide saddle and a specialist pad such as a korrector (google it) or Lemieux Pro-sorb (again, google it). If your horse genuinely just has exceptionally high withers then you need a saddle with a cut back at the pomel, and but the sound of it, wide fitting. The fact that the saddle is sittng low at the withers is a red herring. Your horse sounds like he's wide to me.
 
Wagtail said:
Taking an educated guess here, but it sounds like you have a wide horse with muscle wastage behind the withers. What you need is a wide saddle and a specialist pad such as a korrector (google it) or Lemieux Pro-sorb (again, google it). If your horse genuinely just has exceptionally high withers then you need a saddle with a cut back at the pomel, and but the sound of it, wide fitting. The fact that the saddle is sittng low at the withers is a red herring. Your horse sounds like he's wide to me.
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I thought he was a wide too but the latest (in a long line of!!) saddlers has told me he is a medium, despite when measured he came up as a wide. When I pointed this out ( very politely, I might add) he said that GN was difficult to fit but as he was only a happy hack it didn't really matter! Needless to say I won't be using him again! I'm not daft and do feel that quite slot of saddlers talk to owners like we are idiots! But I want to ensure my boy is comfortable. Having looked carefully at him I guess he is a little wasted behind the withers. It's looking like most people recommend The saddle Company. Perhaps with some pads and a lighter, made to measure saddle, I might be onto a winner that I don't to take out a second mortgage for!
 
Ooh, and he doesn't have really high withers-I'd say normal so Wagtail I think you are defiantly onto something with the muscle wastage and a pad. Have tried a Korrector pad before. GN didn't like it but I have noticed that he doesn't like any 'modern' flocking. He has had Cair, WOW, rubber panels and those weird heat reactor things. Hated these more than anything else! Man he is SUCH a special child. Good job I love him to bits, the ginger git :rolleyes:
 
My boy is high-withered, short-coupled and needs a wide gullet to clear his spine where he has very close spinal processes. But if the saddles is too wide it sits on his withers.

I went through this - about 6 saddles in 2 years I had a WOW on trial but it was still too close to his withers I think because the air moves around too much.

I ended up with a made to measure fully adjustable dressage saddle by Ellie Martin (wish I had done it earlier and just spent a decent amount of money) and a second hand Keiffer Garnisch GP which has a wide gullet along its whole length and can be heated by a saddler to adjust the tree for a better fit. Both are cut back to allow room for the wither. I don't think you need to worry so much about a saddle sitting a bit low as long as it isn't actually ever touching the spine at any time during the course of riding. When he is a bit fatter mine has a thin Griffin Nuumed underneath and if has lost weight I put a thicker sheepskin e.g Mattes underneath just to raise it a bit.

Good luck though as saddles were the bane of my life for several years.
 
lochpearl said:
I honestly wish this was true as I have 3 albion saddles and not one fits either of my horses, one ID and one ISH this is why I had to go for the saddle company ones :(
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I don't THINK you were making me out to be a fibber!! but this is my personal experience, works for me, said saddle has bailed out other people on the yard and 3 others ended up with K2's -properly fitted by listed master saddlers/fitters. I actually (at the time) had the money for something like a Jaguar but sadly these just did not work on my horse.
 
I had a similar problem wit the ex-racer I used to own. In the end we had a fieldhouse VSD Event saddle in a fairly narrow tree to clear the whithers, and my saddler altered the gullet at the back to make it wider to fit his slightly wonky spine.

In fact I only sold the saddle a couple of months ago (horse pased away 15 years ago), or you could have borrowed it!
 
Luci07 said:
I don't THINK you were making me out to be a fibber!! but this is my personal experience, works for me, said saddle has bailed out other people on the yard and 3 others ended up with K2's -properly fitted by listed master saddlers/fitters. I actually (at the time) had the money for something like a Jaguar but sadly these just did not work on my horse.
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Lol of course not!! I am a true Albion snob, I love them, however the tree on the K2 just doesn't fit my ISH at all, I have used it on my ID but it is now getting too tight in the wither area and the points of the next size up just do not fit his skeleton. Strangely enough however, the SLK Ultima did actually fit my ISH so I am hoping it will fit him when I need it. So my 3 K2's are being sold.

I must say tho, I have had all my previous horses in different widths of the K2 but these latest booogers will not fit my favourite saddles :(
 
I know Nathaniel costs a fortune but I would invest in him for the new saddle, you could end up spending nearly the same amount on loads of saddles that don't fit. I had similar problems with my TB cross, he has muscle wastage behind the wither on the right hand side only and my local saddlers made a bad situation much worse. A friend recommended Nathaniel who told me never to put my 6 month old Black Country on his back ever again as it was pinching, the tree was the wrong shape and the gullet was too narrow. I had to have my new Optimum Peformance saddle reflocked 3 times in the first 9 months and even Nathaniel was amazed by how much topline he gained, all because he had a saddle that now fitted properly. My horse has recently had KS surgery and I have already booked Nathaniel for early June to check saddle fit before I get back, I wouldn't ever let another saddler near him, ever again!
 
I'd try the new style Thorowgood Cob saddle (T4 or T6). It sits well on pretty much most horses and has fabulous spine clearance. It's the same tree as a Saddle Company saddle but with the very convinient changable gullet. It's easily flockable for a perfect fit. I've found it worked very well on flat, very wide spined (but not ness very wide) horses with the right gullet.
 
Another vote for Balance. They have just brought out some new saddles which are designed along their very stringent principles, but are made by people other than Frank Baines, and are a little cheaper than the Baines range. Ring them first and have a chat - they are very friendly and knowledgeable and they WILL NOT sell you a saddle unless they think it is absolutely the right one for your horse.
 
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