Old bates/wintec VS new style

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delbino7

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Hi before I start the horse in question is no longer being ridden just long reined and free schooled in a roller until we get a saddle to fit so no keyboard warriors jumping down my throat...

I own an old style bates GP saddle and I cannot get it to fit for the life of me. I've had a saddle fitter out in the area and he changed the gullet and claimed it fit for my horse to start bucking and bronking going into trot when trialling the saddle fit (Meant to be an expert) but you can see looking at the saddle that the back of it at the point of the cantle sits a good inch higher than the pommel and he claimed it was a good fit it got to the point I asked him to leave the yard. A wider gullet makes it fly up at the back in Trot but he seems happier to go forward but a narrower gullet is just too narrow.

My friend is a saddle fitter who fits new bates/wintec saddles he is coming to see me this week to see if the new style fit better.

I haven't a huge budget but just wondered how people compare the old style to the new especially the wintecs as I like the suade knee blocks. Tree difference? Comfort? Fitting?

He is a shire X Tb very round with some wither.

We've just bought a house and looking to buy a wow saddle after the new year but for the time being.....
 
There is a huge difference between the old style and new style Bates/Wintecs. The old style panels are rock hard underneath and the new ones are much much softer. Also the new styles have inserts as well as changeable gullets which means the fit can be made much better. I have a new style Bates dressage on my TB and a new style Wintec Wide on my little cob. I think they are great saddles, but I wouldn't put the old style on any of my horses.
 
I have a new Wintec Pro for my mare - she needs a very flat tree. I confess I said something rather rude when the saddler produced it, but it fits us both and is extremely comfortable- nothing like the old Wintecs I remember. I'm very pleased with it.
 
I have had an old style Wintec GP (but not for very long I hate synthetic saddles) and currently have a new style Bates jumping saddle. I have found the new style MUCH easier to fit - the style is so flexible in how they can adapt it to fit the horses back in a variety of ways around the Cair, be it flocking or foam pads.
 
I have an older VSD Bates and my horse used ti buck and really didnt like the cair. I had the cair taken out and completely re flocked it and horse has been absolutely fine since. When we took the cair out each panel had a join about halfway which was taped together so it must have been creating a pressure point on his back.

My saddler said he's seen it a lot in bates - I dont know what the new cair panels look like but I would only ever buy a flocked saddle from now on.
 
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