New Forest owners please - what saddle have you found works best?

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Fifty Bales of Hay

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Following on from the post of New Forest owners the other day, I wondered if anyone can give me suggestions of saddles that work well with this breed/shape of pony?

And is your's a similar shape to my New Forest?





He's not particularly stocky, has a wither, but is wider lower down where the points would be on a saddle.

The problems I found last year when trying saddles on him, were that they either lifted at the back when he started trotting, or shifted forwards and up his neck - or BOTH! Saddler suggested putting a point strap on at the front of one saddle that sort of fitted him, but I wasn't completely happy with the fit on his back, so I didn't go down this route.

And if anyone has any 16" or 16.5" saddles that their New Forests have outgrown that they are thinking of re-homing and you think they might fit mine, will you PM me please?
 
My lad is stocky and my OH's mare is tall and fine. We have been through a whole range of English leather saddles, but actually found Wintecs to be the most reliable fit. My OH has a 2000 as her back up / winter saddle. I have used 500's and 2000's before H settled to a reasonably consistent shape and I now ride him in a Wide.

My OH tells me that her leather saddle is more comfortable, but that the Wintec is a good backup. The wide models have a narrow twist and I find them very comfortable and have done a number of ten mile fun rides in mine.
 
:wavey:

16" Ideal working hunter in XW. Had it for a year now and I love it and everybody who`s sat in it remarks on how comfy it is!
Although it looks to have not much knee roll it`s actually very secure. I never budge despite his best efforts with un announced airs above the ground and have jumped 2' 9" in it.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2286825&l=516eb60ec2&id=691795988

Tried him in the 17 " (exact same saddle) and he hated it!

Used a saddler from the forest as I gathered they would have more experience than most fitting NF ponies :-) £700 fitted and no call out with a free 3 month check (and adjust if necessasary, which with mine it wasn`t)
 
My forester is a chunky one and he has an XW 16 inch saddle company saddle - really nice fit and very easily adjustable if you have a local fitter.
 
Mine is a finer built NF, but is pretty wide at the same time.
I've got her in a Wintec Wide with the XXW (pink) gullet fitted and it fits a treat! Couldn't afford a leather saddle, and this one looks pretty smart
 
Ours is fairly chunky NF and currently in a Wintec 2000, which is OK for fit but we need it for our other pony whose saddle is a poor fit (we can swap gullets and it's great on him), so we're getting the NF a (new) Kent and Masters GP in brown so daughter can do showing.
 
Ideal Working Hunters 17" Wide. Very very popular down here on the foresters, they seem to just fit them perfectly on the whole.

Wintecs can work, but if they have a big shoulder, they can get a bit caught up in the forward cut flaps. I've seen it happen with a couple of them, but I know plenty of others who have been just fine.
 
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is he the kind with practically no withers just like my kitty?

if so the less knee roll (chunky bit on underflasp at front) the better. wintec probs no good. Bates caprilli fitted my part nf mare perfectly and we were lucky enough to find a 2nd hand one, relatively cheap

good luck with the saddle hunt...it took me 18 months:eek:
 
Mine sounds similar shape to yours and is in a 17 inch wide ideal gp with extra flocking at the back. Had a native pony saddle before but had lots of trouble with it slipping constantly!
 
pickwickayr said:
Mine sounds similar shape to yours and is in a 17 inch wide ideal gp with extra flocking at the back. Had a native pony saddle before but had lots of trouble with it slipping constantly!
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Probably silly to reply to such an old thread but any saddle will slip if on the wrong pony ie wrongly fitted. I fit at least three different Native Pony trees to New Forests, though I probably fit just one tree to more than 50% of them - natives are often tricky to fit and the saddle has to be just right in terms of shape, width, flocking etc. Even a minor change top flocking can make a difference.

Also, there are two companies making and fitting saddles that look similar (but are really rather different in fit and quality of both saddle and fitters), if you search online you'll see the difference in reviews on the two companies.
 
measles said:
Our girl is a finer build and the best on her I've found is a Pessoa XP jumping saddle.
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A flat and narrow seated tree can work well on them, that would describe the tree I fit to them most commonly, but of course not eveyone wants a jump saddle and most brands only stick those sort of trees in jump saddles.
 
Gosh this is an old post, so surprised to see it pop back up again.

I still have this lovely pony and we eventually settled on an Ideal saddle for him, as this seemed to suit him best, and suited me too.

Over the years (as he was young) he has obviously changed shape, but not too much, has just got a little wider which we'd allowed for in the initial fitting and flocked it out a bit to start with, intending to take it out when he muscled up.
 
AMP said:
Gosh this is an old post, so surprised to see it pop back up again.

I still have this lovely pony and we eventually settled on an Ideal saddle for him, as this seemed to suit him best, and suited me too.

Over the years (as he was young) he has obviously changed shape, but not too much, has just got a little wider which we'd allowed for in the initial fitting and flocked it out a bit to start with, intending to take it out when he muscled up.
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Yes, so many people seem to like the Ideal saddles and, in particular, the Working Hunter. I think I'll go for one of those when my boy is three. What age was your boy when you bought the saddle? :)
 
I really wish I'd read this post when I was looking and gone for an ideal saddle from the outset. Would have saved me 18 months of heartache and well over £2000 in a range of saddles :( I know now where to start in future!!
 
IN my experience Ideal will fit some but not all NFs. They don't have a super flat tree that isn't really wide (presuming the FWB is flat, I've not seen it, it may not be that flat, the H&C is sort of flat, the WH tree is less flat).
 
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