Saddle Fitting/fitter problems

[missallym]

Has anyone else had as many problems with saddles and saddle fitters as me over roughly just 8 months?
I bought a new horse, and had two saddles from my old horse. first saddle fitter came to see if they fit him, and said they would do and to just pad them with numnah inserts. I used one for a while, but it wasn't right for me anymore.
I went to another saddle fitter, who came out in summer last year, I asked if my two saddles were ok, she took one look at them on the floor, and said, they wont fit. Then proceeded to do a very good job of selling me a very expensive 2nd hand saddle. (in fairness, that saddle is fine and fits, but it was just afterwards, when I thought about it that she was just determined to sell me one of her saddles, and an expensive one at that when even she had said it wont be his saddle for long term, as he is just a youngster so will change shape).
I then decided to get a dressage saddle, I went to a shop, picked out a brand new one and got the "master" saddler (and I use that term loosely) to come out to fit it to my horse. This was in November last year. He brought a saddle which I never even asked for, which was twice as much money and proceeded to give me the sales spurge on that. I didn't like it, and so he got the one I had originally asked for, fitted it quite quickly, and said it was fine. I got on, and thought the front looked too low to his withers, I mentioned this to the saddler, who said, well lets put pads in the numnah and lift it up. we did that, but he never watched me ride round in it or anything. just asked if it felt ok. which it did. so I bought it.
I rode in it for about 3 weeks, then my horse went lame through his shoulder. I got other people to look and they said the saddle definitely didn't fit. I rung the master saddler back up, he came back out and re-measured my horse and said his back was a different shape, but you could clearly see he hadn't fitted it right. I sent that saddle back and got a refund, for the saddle only, not for his charges the first time he came out.
my horse came right after a week off and was fine for a few more weeks.
I then got another saddle off saddles direct in January and got another saddler to come out. she fitted it and said it was fine, she checked my current saddle from summer and said that was still fitting ok. ive rode for 3 weeks in the dressage, and low and behold, my horse went bad again. I got physio out who said he was very sore through his back and girth area, due to a badly fitting saddle. though he cant say if its recent saddles or the one from November, which is causing the problem. I didn't get physio out in November.
I am so fed up, so far, its cost me nearly £200 in the last 3 months, paying for saddlers, back scans, and physio, and I still don't seem to have a correct fitting saddle.
How are you meant to trust saddlers when Im having so many bad experiences? I am so put off by them, but they are needed as they are meant to be the experts at this.
how do I know yet another saddler isn't going to come out and tell me one thing, sell me another, for my horse to go bad again, and then it costing me another wasted £50+ and me having an out of action horse.
sorry for the essay, just wondering about other peoples experiences.

 

[hippocobamus]

This is an all too familiar nightmare, which once upon a time I was living on repeat.
I'd be very frustrated if my horse was sore to the point of being lame due to a badly fitting saddle. Horses do change shape very quickly, but you should at least have confidence in the fit of the saddle at the start of the process.
I eventually went to solution saddles and only wish i'd contacted them sooner. As you have a youngster, it might be worth you having a look as the saddles flex and change with the horse, so you don't need to buy a new saddle every 5 minutes.
Hope you find your answer.

 

[rextherobber]

My saddle fitter doesn't sell saddles, which makes it difficult initially. I had a saddle from my old horse and borrowed a couple from friends, fitter came out, none of them fitted my new horse. I was advised on size and makes of trees that would suit my horse, I bought one on eBay, fitter came out and fitted it. My saddle is an adjustable gullet model, and obviously took longer than if saddle fitter sold them, but I felt well advised, and obviously fitter had no hidden agenda saying my old saddle was unsuitable so I'd buy one off them.

 

[missallym]

yes I was very frustrated at my horse going lame due to the saddle, and frustrated now too, that he's gone sore again. Luckily he is very good at telling me when something is not right, so I know and get it seen too straight away. bless him.

The first dressage was changeable gullet, but it was where the ends of the bars ended that was the problem and they were sticking in his shoulders. so no matter what size gullet I used, the bars would still stick in his shoulders.

Thing is, these saddlers seem very convincing and you trust them to know what they are doing. so when it goes wrong, its very annoying, and at a great expense to me.

 

[adsthelad]

I've had a bit of a frustrating experience, though nothing like yours. I had a saddle for my horse and I knew it was far too tight and so I got the saddler to come and have a look and he completely convinced me that a prolite riser would help, so being as naive as I was, I went along with it and bought one (off him - perhaps explains why he was so insistent?) but of course it only made the issue worse. I felt so perched and the saddle became so tight I couldn't even get my hand in down his shoulder.

Unfortunately living on an island I can only take what I can get, something that really isn't ideal when what you get is someone who doesn't really know what they're doing.

 

[cremedemonthe]

OP I've sent you an article that may help you for your next visit from a Saddler.
Oz (Saddler)

 

[JillA]

Really the best advice is to ensure any saddle you buy is fully adjustable and then get a specialist fitter to adjust and reflock/adjust the flocking on site.
Master Saddlers really do annoy me, their fitting course is a couple of days, my fitter who is from Belgium spent 3 months learning the job - fitting, not making saddles, and spends half a day doing the job, including seeing me ride at all 3 paces.

 

[Wheels]

JillA that is not correct.

To be a qualified saddle fitter with the SMS you need to do a 2 day course followed by gaining 3 years saddle fitting experience, preferably with an already qualified saddle fitter as a mentor, then a further 4 day course and then an assessment.

You are also confusing a master saddler with a qualified saddle fitter, a master saddler makes saddles and a qualified fitter fits saddles. They are two entirely different things. Some people are both master saddlers and qualified saddle fitters, some are one or the other.

 

[teddypops]

Yes, I've had a nightmare with saddle fitters, I ended up having a made to measure saddle which still didn't fit, I was told to use a rider pad, I was furious! In the end I had to tell the saddler what I wanted him to do, he did it and so far so good! It took 2 months for him to get it to fit!😳 However as I planned to get my 2nd horse a saddle too, he has lost out as I certainly won't be using him!

 

[Rowreach]

This is one of the reasons I've only used treeless saddles in the past 11 years.

 

[Wheels]

This is one of the reasons I've only used treeless saddles in the past 11 years.

I have come across some bad fitters too so I decided the only thing for it was to train up to become a saddle fitter myself.

I really hope I do a better job than some of the ones I used in the past and a better job than what some of you on here describe

 

[JillA]

JillA that is not correct.

To be a qualified saddle fitter with the SMS you need to do a 2 day course followed by gaining 3 years saddle fitting experience, preferably with an already qualified saddle fitter as a mentor, then a further 4 day course and then an assessment.

So that's a total of 6 days, plus a three year period of experience - good, bad or indifferent? No wonder we have the situation we have. My fitter had three months learning saddle construction, anatomy of both horse and rider at rest and moving, and biomechanics, all with a teacher, not "saddle fitting experience PREFERABLY with a qualified saddle fitter". Sorry but it just shows the relative importance attached doesn't it?

 

[DabDab]

Yes, I am sorry to say that I now loathe saddle fitters as a breed and so no longer use them. I had a great fitter when I lived in another part of the country but round here I have completely failed to find one even remotely useful. I have either used myself or seen other people use all saddlers that I can find to cover the area. Makes me cross.

Luckily I have a fairly good knowledge of different saddle types and fit and I have a physio who is quite frankly a miracle worker, so she is super hot on anything starting to cause a touch of soreness.

 

[Wheels]

It's certainly not perfect and yes it does matter who the mentor is.

Of course most of the manufacturers also give some days training on their saddles too and there are CPD courses undertaken by lots of us too.

 

[Wheels]

It's certainly not perfect and yes it does matter who the mentor is.

Of course most of the manufacturers also give some days training on their saddles too and there are CPD courses undertaken by lots of us too.

 

[Micropony]

All saddle fitters are not created equal, unfortunately. As with all professionals, there's really no way around the fact that we have to educate ourselves at least enough to trust our own judgement about whether we rate the person we're dealing with or not. Personally I would never just go into a shop and pick one out, or just buy one online and then get someone to come and fit it. I don't know enough to be able to choose something that's going to be suitable for my horse.

I am really lucky that my saddle fitter is fab, the three saddles I have bought from him (not all for the same horse, I hasten to add) have been great, and I dread the day he retires. He can look at the person and the horse, ask you how you like your saddle to feel, and tell you which saddle or saddles you should be looking at. And he's spot on.

He has always wanted to see me ride in a saddle before selling it, and often after significant adjustments to check all is as it should be.

Even so, with a young horse you can still end up spending a fortune on fitting and adjustments as they change shape so quickly. When my boy was 4 we were needing adjustments every three months at one stage, some quite major, and thus expensive!

Where in the country are you? Someone on here might be able to recommend a really good saddle fitter.

 

[missallym]

Wheels... I may actually look into saddle fitting myself.

Micropony.. Im in Leeds. I also don't know enough, so trusted the saddle fitters to do the job properly, if the saddles weren't suitable, then I expected them to tell me, and they could have been returned, both from the shop and online. Pity your saddler wasn't up this way.

 

[ihatework]

It's a bit of a nightmare to be honest. Most of my initial horse ownership life I just never had a problem, I used a guy called Mike Norton who supplied and maintained saddles for my horses for a number of years. Never had back/saddling issues. Then he retired.
During the next few years I tried 4 different saddlers and had a variety of issues. Why was it so flipping difficult to find a professional that did their job correctly?!

After that I switched to WOW and that has been pretty successful. I've used 2 different competent saddlers who have been able to keep tweaking the saddle without trying to flog me anything.

Honestly, if I were to go back to a flocked saddle I'd bypass saddlers and just buy secondhand. I know enough to spot major issues and for the rest I'd let the horse indicate how comfortable they are.

 

[xgemmax]

This is why I new never buy a saddle from a saddle fitter. The two times I have they have not fitted properly and too long. I now go out and buy something that is the right sort of shape and length that I need and try it myself. I know whether the saddle is going to fit or not when its on the horses back and then get someone out to double check and adjust flocking if needed.

Sadly some professionals are not trustworthy and we need to have a clue what we're doing ourselves!

 

[Girlracer]

It is such a minefield, I have been messed about so much by saddle fitters over the years. Causing both me and my previous horse a lot of discomfort, purely because they wanted to sell me an expensive saddle.

I have now found a saddle fitter that the first time she met me, I had budget for a new saddle (of which she sold many), but had said I had been recommended an Ideal Impala Pro (which she didn't sell) for his shape. When she came she tried many of her new saddles on as well as an Ideal Impala that I had borrowed and rather than try to sell me something of hers she recommended I buy an Impala - which I did - and she then came and fitted it for me. I am hanging on to her for dear life, I trust her 100%.

 

[Ben2684]

I have had various issues buying it second hand and new, the last saddler I used sold me a saddle for just over £1500 and I spent the next 6 months buying an assortment of pads shims etc (at his recommendation) to help it fit. I was so cross in the end I stopped using him and the saddle!! My current saddler adjusted it quite majorly and thankfully it fits really well, however they have now emigrated and I am dreading the search for another fitter that I trust (I don't trust myself to know enough to go it alone!!) especially now I have a new horse that will need fitting. Have booked someone qualified but they are also qualified as a Mctimony practitioner and she has told me to block out the school for a good few hours so I am hopeful it will be a thorough job!! It's such a nightmare and a saddle fitter that you can trust implicitly seems to be like gold dust

 

[Ben2684]

OP I've sent you an article that may help you for your next visit from a Saddler.
Oz (Saddler)

Hi Oz, Could I have a copy please too??

 

[FfionWinnie]

You've done well only losing 200 quid! I've lost thousands due to professionals being incompetent. It's a huge problem and we all should be aware of our consumer rights to help protect ourselves.

I think as horse owners we take it all too lightly, swallow the loss of money and don't complain enough.

From a moving forward point of view, I have started to educate myself about saddle fitting so I can be more aware of what nonsense or not is being spouted.

Try and find one who doesn't sell saddles or has a variety of brands and can also make adjustments to it. Then you can pay them to come out and advise what you should buy, then go and buy it yourself second hand if necessary. The problem here is that is not a quick process. However you said you have a saddle that fits so you have more time to do it perhaps.

 

[leflynn]

Really the best advice is to ensure any saddle you buy is fully adjustable and then get a specialist fitter to adjust and reflock/adjust the flocking on site.
Master Saddlers really do annoy me, their fitting course is a couple of days, my fitter who is from Belgium spent 3 months learning the job - fitting, not making saddles, and spends half a day doing the job, including seeing me ride at all 3 paces.

Great idea getting an adjustable saddle but they can't all adjust to a change in back shape (or not those I have tried)

 

[JillA]

Adjustable tree (especially the head) and then you adjust the flocking in the panels to suit.
To come back to the original problems, could it be that we are generally not prepared to pay a proper amount for their time, hence their need to try and sell us a saddle or accessories?

 

[cremedemonthe]

Hi Oz, Could I have a copy please too??

sent with pleasure

 

[Beatbox]

I eventually went to solution saddles and only wish i'd contacted them sooner. As you have a youngster, it might be worth you having a look as the saddles flex and change with the horse, so you don't need to buy a new saddle every 5 minutes.

100% agree with Hippocobamus.

I have 2 saddles - the SMART dressage and jump PRO models for my gang - and they all go just great it them.

You can even go to one of the training days to learn how to fit all sorts of back shapes - they are open to non-agents as well.

 

[Beatbox]

Hi Oz, Could I have a copy please too??

Hi Oz - Me too please? You can never be too well-informed!

 

[cremedemonthe]

Hi Oz - Me too please? You can never be too well-informed!

sent

 

[Baroque]

OP I've sent you an article that may help you for your next visit from a Saddler.
Oz (Saddler)

May I also see a copy of the article please Oz?