Question about saddle gullet fit ?

Shysmum

Shysmum

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After checking Shy's GFS Genesis today, it is too tight - I can barely get two fingers under the pommel and it's tight around the top of his shoulders. He currently has a Wintec White (extra wide ?) gullet plate in, and this fitted perfectly up until recently.

My YO says I must go narrower to lift the pommel and saddle up, which does seem to make sense, then tonight suggested I need it restuffed as it may have shrunk down ?? Other suggestion was to use a second numnah, but surely this will make it far too tight ??

It was almost new when I got it six months ago, and is used alternately with my Barefoot, so not sure it can have gone down that quickly ? Also, I have had to use shorter girths for both saddles, as Shy seems to have lost weight. I do have the flexi thingy to measure the size of Shy, but it's so fiddly - will have a go tomorrow.

Chocolate cupcakes for reading this far, thank you !
 
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Unless your numnahs are made of something really thick like prolite, solid foam or similar then a second numnah will do almost nothing. Having the saddle reflocked is the right thing to do if it has flattened out, which can happen quickly with new saddles or over longer time with older saddles. Fingers under the pommel means nothing, its dependent on the style of saddle, though obviously saddle must not touch the spine. The bit that says its too wide is that the pommel has lowered and more so that the points of tree are jammed in tight behind the shoulder blade, which will hurt and cause muscle wastage, so stop using it. Whether its the flocking flattening out or the horse that's changed shape, I can't tell you, but you might know if your horse has lost weight recently or lost muscle through reduced workload recently, or if a youngster has suddenly grown withers that weren't there before?
 
Just read your edit. It could easily have flattened out in 6mths but as horse has lost weight I'd try a narrower gullet first (depending on how much weight has been lost, may need to go down two sizes). If that doesn't sort the problem have the flocking adjusted too. Does horse have hollows in withers, behind shoulder blades? It's hard to fit the width when they've got muscle wastage like this, both too wide and too narrow will make it worse, so best off lungeing or treeless until back recovers (or get saddler to fit the gullet and monitor back for changes).
 
thanks so much. His back was only checked two weeks ago, and he was given the all clear - and it's only recently that I've been using the GFS more, as i was having back trouble and thought the tree may help.

I won't use the saddle until I get it measured and suss out the right gullet plate, and if it's still tight, I'll gets the YO's saddler to check it over. You have answered my question about going narrower, thankyou !

:)
 
A too wide saddle will show higher pressure along the top edge of the panel, and will feel looser at the points so there's a good chance that you need a narrower gullet. Using a shim pad can help balane the saddle from front to back, but unless you have a "sculptable" shim system like the correction system from Mattes that I use for remedial saddle fitting, you can't really alleviate that uneven pressure.
 
^^ thankyou - yes my first stop is going to be trying the narrower gullets, and take it from there (hubs is overjoyed at the thought of changing them :rolleyes:). And get the whole thing checked by a saddler.

In the meantime, I'm back to my trusty Barefoot, which I bought when he outgrew his last saddle, and has done us proud apart from any jumping - rubbish for that.
 
I found that some of the wider gullets don't really change shape properly if that makes sense and ended up having one tweaked to fit by a saddler as it looked like it should fit at the top but then it didn't have enough shape around the bottom to fit the rest of the horse - noticed it when I did a flexi curve and a saddler confirmed it for me.

I now have 2 'custom fit' gullets for my saddle as well as normal standard ones.
 
The saddles really aren't designed to have different shaped headplates in them and it will invalidate any warranty, but I do understand why you've gone that route. I have seen so many of the natives and cobs I specialise in fitted with much too wide gullets in order to get the front down, the heads can be much too narrow for wide horses, and then the points of the tree wing off. This does mean too much pressure at the top of the panel and the points wing off, giving a major lack of contact and a lack of stability to boot. You need a wider head to allow the points to actually wrap around and follow the angle of the ribcage.
 
sbloom said:
The saddles really aren't designed to have different shaped headplates in them and it will invalidate any warranty, but I do understand why you've gone that route. I have seen so many of the natives and cobs I specialise in fitted with much too wide gullets in order to get the front down, the heads can be much too narrow for wide horses, and then the points of the tree wing off. This does mean too much pressure at the top of the panel and the points wing off, giving a major lack of contact and a lack of stability to boot. You need a wider head to allow the points to actually wrap around and follow the angle of the ribcage.
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I had the GFS ones tweaked - it might invaldiate warranty but thats a risk you take I guess! (Didn't even realise saddle had a warranty :o) Mine was for a fat TB rather than a cob
 
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