quick question - saddle company saddles - HOW adjustable?!?!

[Bowen4Horses]

as title...

can they REALLY be adjusted from XXW to Medium (for example)?

does anyone have any experience of this?

(my head can't get round it... i compare it to someone who once weighed 50stones, who diets and gets down to 8stone... ok, they're a size 8 now... but they're still 'stretched'...)

 

[elliegirl12]

They change the gullet, in my opinion they were the worlds worst saddles! i would go for bates instead!, all i had with the sc ones was problems my horses ended up with a sore back

, although they are meant to be good with horses with cold backs because of the wool, but why not just use a fluffy numner

, personally i would not touch them but that is from a bad exsperiance although it would depend on the horse i suppose but it did not fit one of my horses one was a tb and the other two are both sisters in arab x hanovarian did not fit again! but then the saddle fitter was absoloutley shocking

 

[teddyt]

[ QUOTE ]


can they REALLY be adjusted from XXW to Medium (for example)?



[/ QUOTE ]

Personally i would say although it is technically possible it just wouldnt work for the horse. The way they change the width is to bend the tree. If this is done to extremes, or several times, it weakens the tree. A bit like bending any piece of metal, it gets fatigue. Also, if a horse is a medium fit, then widening (or narrowing) the tree by half a cm or so isnt the end of the world. But any more than that and you are changing the tree into a shape that it wasnt designed to be. You cant just change the front and expect the rest of it to still fit.

 

[Bowen4Horses]

[ QUOTE ]
They change the gullet, in my opinion they were the worlds worst saddles! i would go for bates instead!, all i had with the sc ones was problems my horses ended up with a sore back

, although they are meant to be good with horses with cold backs because of the wool, but why not just use a fluffy numner

, personally i would not touch them but that is from a bad exsperiance although it would depend on the horse i suppose but it did not fit one of my horses one was a tb and the other two are both sisters in arab x hanovarian did not fit again! but then the saddle fitter was absoloutley shocking

[/ QUOTE ]

noooo....... don't say that... i had almost committed to buying one...

do you think perhaps the saddler was to blame? rather than the saddle?

 

[Bowen4Horses]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]


can they REALLY be adjusted from XXW to Medium (for example)?



[/ QUOTE ]

Personally i would say although it is technically possible it just wouldnt work for the horse. The way they change the width is to bend the tree. If this is done to extremes, or several times, it weakens the tree. A bit like bending any piece of metal, it gets fatigue.

[/ QUOTE ]

that's my concern... hmmm...

 

[Donkeymad]

I've seen a few of these saddles, even from new, and they are not symetrical on the most part. This is down to adjusting the tree in the main. Obviously there will be exceptions.

 

[kerilli]

i'm not sure about SC, haven't had anything to do with them, but basically some saddles can have the tree adjusted (such as my Barrie Swain ones, but they can only be adjusted 1/2 a width fitting iirc, maybe 1 at a push), i think Passier can be adjusted this way too. others like the wintec have different width plates that can be switched with each other, these give a lot more adjustment.

 

[CBAnglo]

The metal gullet is attached to the plastic injection moulded tree. The templating machine has the force of about 4 tonnes and this is used to adjust the metal gullet (this is done by measurement and not by eye). This means the gullet is adjusted to whatever width the horse is (I.e. You don't have to be in a W or an XW but could be somewhere in between). It also means that the front of the tree is adjusted as well (unlike the wintec/bates which stays the same).

I have adjusted a M to an XXXW - but I don't like doing such extremes as the saddle has to sit in the machine for a while. I normally like to go no more than 2 fittings up or down.

My own saddles have been adjusted at least 20 times each over the last 3 yrs. When we got our rescue he needed his adjusting every 6 wks as he was piling on the weight and muscles and he went from a M to an XW in a series of increments.