saddle spreading = damaged tree?

[blood_magik]

my gp appears to have spread and is now pushing down onto my boys withers - I can't get any fingers between the pommel and him.
I phoned the saddler and explained the problem and he said that the tree may be damaged.
anyone had this happen?

jerrys lost a bit of weight recently I'm hoping it's just needing reflocked to make it sit off his withers.

that horse is a bloody money pit

 

[horsimous]

My friend and I arranged to ride another friend's native pony. It's a very wide, round and rather fat neddy so we were really surprised that the owner was using a wide GP and asked how it could fit as it looked very high on her pony. The friend who owns the pony said oh it spreads once you're on so it goes lower (she's been advised that it was ok by several people including a physio!!).

I said that I'd be surprised that this type of saddle (not a brand I'd heard of) would be supposed to do that (I own a semiflex one which is designed to do this) and how could a saddle not designed to do this spread equally and without causing damage to saddle or horse.

Once it was on, it looked crooked but I thought that I'd better not keep commenting as we were there to ride as a favour and not been asked to critique all her tack! My friend got on and rode up the school and just looked really crooked (the owner had complained of having a bad hip and riding crooked because of it). The more he rode the worse it looked and also the pony was stretching down in a way which said to me that it was trying to pull it's musclse out from under a pressure point.

After the saddle was taken off I had a good look at it. Underneath it was straight down one side of the channel but the other side was crooked and went out at an angle. This showed up on the pony's back as the mark the saddle left behind went off to the right. Looking at the saddle from the front it looked crooked.

The biggest revelation was that I decided to check the tree. Oh my god! It was so broken it only needed a small amount of pressure to completely give and the seat creases this showed were an indication that this had been going on for a long time... Luckily this pony has a very strong back. If you'd put that saddle on my TB it would have caused a lot of damage in only a couple of minutes.

The owner of the pony was horrified. She promised to never use the saddle again and luckily she has a treeless one to use. She was only using the leather GP as her instructor had said it was better for her position. All it had been doing was causing her hip problems and giving her horse alot of discomfort.

Hope this helps.

 

[Tnavas]

my gp appears to have spread and is now pushing down onto my boys withers - I can't get any fingers between the pommel and him.
I phoned the saddler and explained the problem and he said that the tree may be damaged.
anyone had this happen?

jerrys lost a bit of weight recently I'm hoping it's just needing reflocked to make it sit off his withers.

that horse is a bloody money pit

Are you sure that your horse has not just got fitter or lost weight and the saddle is now too wide for him?

What make is the saddle - some of the Indian saddles have gullet plates that are made from incredibly thin metal and spread really easily.

You need to take it in to the saddler to look at.

 

[blood_magik]

not good
on the plus side, there are no creases on the seat and it seems to sit evenly on him.
I checked his back and it seems ok - he isn't dipping to get away from the pressure.
off to the saddlers now so hopefully it isn't damaged.
I think my dad might kill me if it is

 

[blood_magik]

evelyn - it's an apg equine saddle with a barry swain semi-flex tree.
it's going to the saddler today.
it was just that he mentioned the tree could be damaged when I told him it had spread and I was trying to think what could have caused the damage.
I can't think of anything, to be honest..

 

[asmp]

I had the saddler out yesterday. I had thought the saddle was too tight as it appearing to be digging into his shoulders when I sat on it - I was totally wrong. It was too wide and my weight was pushing it down. Saddler has now reflocked it and horse much happier!