Saddle Company fitters and fitting

[sidesaddlegirl]

Grrr, I schooled today for 30 minutes and then went on a 10 minute hack and my new SC saddle slipped forward- even with the Barnsby Grip pad and left ruffled patches at her withers!
It didn't do that last week when I was testing it out, even when I went on a 2 hour hack.

Anyways, the SC fitter is coming on the 17th but she said that she doesn't do the reflocking, that she takes it to the factory in Walsall for them to do it. She has the machine to alter the tree but tbh, the tree size is fine, it just needs flocking to fit her weird back.

Is this common for the SC fitters? I would have thought that they fitted it on site so they could see where it needed to be flocked up and how it sat?

Has anyone had their SC saddle fitted this way and how did it turn out?

 

[the watcher]

If it is just the flocking that needs adjusting any decent saddle fitter should be able to do the job in site, certainly one of our local saddlers is happy to adjust flocking on them

 

[0ldmare]

The saddle company fitter who sold me my saddle and who returned to check it 6 weeks later did the flocking while she was with me. (Unfortunately I am now not so sure she was particularly good at it, but thats another story!)

 

[spaniel]

My fitter also takes them back to Walsall for flocking. Ive known a different fitter make a mess of two saddles on the yard because she flocked them herself so im very happy for my saddle to go a away if it needs new stuffing.

Is yours a totally new SC saddle as you really should just be doing very light work in it for a few hours to allow the flocking to bed in around your horses back if it is.

 

[sidesaddlegirl]

LOL, it's "new" to me but it's actually "nearly new" as whoever had it before me didn't look as though they had it very long.

The flocking is FLAT though which is why I think it's going forward as it moulded to the previous horses shape which was similar to Hattie's but not quite. Hattie being a TB, needs to have some more padding at the withers to hold it in place.

 

[RhiannonE]

Hi,

It seems like it's different for the different fitters in different areas (how many times can i say different...).
My SC fitter came out and let me try the different types of saddle and the only time it went off to the factory was for it to be made and then she came back and fitted it and i bedded it in for 6 weeks and she came back out and reflocked it onsite.

She did say if it needed a big change (like tree shape change) then it would have to go back to the factory but that was only in regards to me saying Whisper was at that time unfit and the work i had planned for him would build loads of muscle etc etc...

I think as was said earlier- if its just reflocking then get another fitter in - it wouldn't hurt to get a second opinion anyway.

 

[Bosworth]

In all fairness I suspect the shape of your horse has some bearing on the saddle going forward. She is obviously a mare and mares tend to be broader round the belly and back end and narrower in front of the elbows. So the girth is channeled forward by the shape of the horse. The girth going forwards then pulls the saddle forwards. made 100% worse by certain girths. Anything with elastic in will exaggerate the problem. A narrow girth will also allow this to happen. The best ones are the shaped girths that are more forward cut behind the legs to prevent the girth moving forwards and then slope back to the girth straps. The other girths that work fantastically for mares are the Stubben cord girths, they are extremely wide and spread the load and prevent the saddle being pulled forward.

THe saddle should be bedded in to any new horse slowly, I realise it's not new but it is new to your horse and as such should be bedded in over a 7 day period, slowly increasing the amount of time it is ridden in.

I would not get another saddler to add flocking - there are so many out there who just stuff flock in and in most cases use the wrong type of flock for these saddles which then ruins the saddles. It can be tweaked on the machine which will take seconds which is in effect the beauty of these saddles, the tree can be adjusted to fit rather than stuffing in extra flocking to try and make a tree that doesn;t fit - fit.

 

[sidesaddlegirl]

I am using my normal elastic girth at the moment as I don't have another one that fits her yet (my three fold one for my side saddle is too long to use with her astride saddle).

I ordered this special curved girth for "problem horses" last week from Better Saddles but they didn't have any in stock and it will be two weeks before it's made up for me. If that doesn't work, then I'll get one of those Stubben girths.


Hattie does have a wide barrel and the last saddler I had, did say that her shoulders were a problem as there was nothing to hold the saddle back.

I will see what the SC fitter says and hopefully my girth would have arrived by then too.

 

[Bosworth]

Ah ha - that could be your problem solved. Good luck with the girth

 

[CBAnglo]

[ QUOTE ]
In all fairness I suspect the shape of your horse has some bearing on the saddle going forward. She is obviously a mare and mares tend to be broader round the belly and back end and narrower in front of the elbows. So the girth is channeled forward by the shape of the horse. The girth going forwards then pulls the saddle forwards. made 100% worse by certain girths. Anything with elastic in will exaggerate the problem. A narrow girth will also allow this to happen. The best ones are the shaped girths that are more forward cut behind the legs to prevent the girth moving forwards and then slope back to the girth straps. The other girths that work fantastically for mares are the Stubben cord girths, they are extremely wide and spread the load and prevent the saddle being pulled forward.

THe saddle should be bedded in to any new horse slowly, I realise it's not new but it is new to your horse and as such should be bedded in over a 7 day period, slowly increasing the amount of time it is ridden in.

I would not get another saddler to add flocking - there are so many out there who just stuff flock in and in most cases use the wrong type of flock for these saddles which then ruins the saddles. It can be tweaked on the machine which will take seconds which is in effect the beauty of these saddles, the tree can be adjusted to fit rather than stuffing in extra flocking to try and make a tree that doesn;t fit - fit.

[/ QUOTE ]

The only other thing I would add, is that the SC saddles have special wool flocking - it is grey in colour. Other saddlers will use the traditional white flocking - this is much harder and will stretch the serge panels on the saddle, as will over flocking. Once these panels have been stretched, there is no way to "shrink" them.

Minor adjustments to flocking can be made on site but a total reflock is sent back to the factory who will reflock it to the template taken by the fitter/on the fitter's instructions.