Saddles in a breaking yard?

[Dry Rot]

How do you manage?

I just have a few youngsters to break but the girls are always grumbling that the saddles don't fit. The latest visitor to advise kindly demonstrated a correct fit and I'm assured it would only cost around £400 to buy a s/h saddle like hers that would be perfect for the (one!) pony.

Yeah, right! The pony is only 5 years old, so will change shape, and she is for sale, so will probably be gone next week (says he, hopefully). Multiply that problem several times and you will understand the reason for this post. How on earth do you manage on a breaking yard where you have a constant and regular turn over of horses? They can't all have perfect professionally fitted tailor-made saddles, can they?

 

[SarahWeston]

Bit difficult if the first message that you give them is that saddles hurt. It's the owner's responsibility to bring a saddle that fits if you don't have one isn't it? Fortunately most of the ponies I have in, and I don't have many, are the same stamp of pony and we've got something that will fit pretty well - otherwise we don't get on them!

 

[Elf On A Shelf]

Get some racehorse exercise saddles. They are designed to fit anything and everything. We use anything between 1 and 3 poly pads underneath them on the racehorses but I have had mine on my show horses and my Welsh Cob.

 

[conniegirl]

What professional yards do have is a wide range of saddles, experience fitting them selves and lots of shims/pads to make saddles fit well enough

 

[Meowy Catkin]

Maybe get a good branded 2nd hand treeless? A Native SMART Solution or a Barefoot with a soft pommel insert, for example.

 

[FfionWinnie]

My friend has had a saddle made specially for the job. It's not comfortable for the rider but it fits a very wide variety of horses. It's a kind of racing saddle idea. She also has a lot of normal saddles and a lot of different pads.

Your ponies are all going to be very similar types so you could get a saddle that would be acceptable for most of them I am sure.

My AH saddle has fitted every welsh cob I've put it on and it also fits my coloured cob. It was originally made to measure for my welsh cob who died from EGS about 2 weeks after I got it. You could get a second hand one from them. A removable shim half pad could then be used if necessary improve the fit between ponies.

If the saddle is the right type for the breed that's a good starting point.

 

[Goldenstar]

The yard that I was at that did a lot of breaking had a big range of saddles from race exercise ones right up to 18" hunting type ones we fitted and shimmed ( padded we called it then with towels on those days )and got on with the job .
If we got the odd one where nothing fitted the owner was expected to sort a saddle .

 

[Batgirl]

What professional yards do have is a wide range of saddles, experience fitting them selves and lots of shims/pads to make saddles fit well enough

This

 

[Molly'sMama]

place i know seems to stock up on 2nd hand saddles when it can ,then divide the cost.

say you buy the saddle for 100 [make it round number] and horse is there 8 weeks, that;s an extra 12.50 a week, per horse per saddle. if saddle being used by a few then it just adds a few pounds onto each horse and mark it down and 'cost of facilities/equipment' etc.
OR if breakers are the ones selling the horse, then just add the whole saddle onto the price of the horse and sell it with it.

 

[canteron]

Bit difficult if the first message that you give them is that saddles hurt. It's the owner's responsibility to bring a saddle that fits if you don't have one isn't it?

This - also how can you ride a horse in a balanced way (and therefore encourage a willing balanced horse) if the saddle is out of kilter. Maybe a solution is to invest in a selection of shimmies and pads and find a knowledgeable person who can make the best of a bad job while you are breaking in the horses.

 

[Spottyappy]

We never had this issue years ago.
Modern saddles are largely, IMHO, a very different shape, with narrow slowing panels instead of broad flat ones.
We used to use as many different pads as necessary- or not- on a wider fit saddle, and away we went.
Yes, times have moved on,but I personally do not rate saddle fitters. The ones we have mostly tried have ended up causing more problems than they stopped,including a near court case after badly laming one from a back problem.
My daughter worked a a dealer and backing yard until a couple of months ago.
It's a business and you definitely can't invest in a saddle with every horse that arrives, profit would be loss very fast.
If you can find older saddles with flatter panels (barnsby ones are very good,even their more modern ones) you may find that they help, with still needing pads and shimmies, but hopefully will adapt enough to various animals as required.

 

[Merlin11]

My pony is away getting backed just now and the trainer uses an adjustable wow saddle which she had specifically made for backing horses.

 

[Nightmare before Christmas]

I have a range of saddles and pads to try on horses and make sure they fit as well as they can

 

[Dry Rot]

Thanks everyone. I definitely don't have a breaking yard but do have a few youngsters coming on and being backed. The question of getting saddles to fit is a regular one. I can see a racing stables will have the same problems. I like the suggestion of padding them out and that is what a Pony Club person recommended. I also have a few old saddles and something usually fits -- to a degree. It is not as if we are riding them for long periods or aiming for a finely polished finish. I do buy old saddles off Ebay, try them, and if they don't fit they are re-advertised and sometimes I actually make a profit!

 

[Jenni&Ditty]

My friend has about 12 horses in at once, she has many saddles but tends to only use 3, like a narrow, a medium and a medium-wide, and then she'll just pad it up with prolites etc. These 3 saddles seem to fit everything. as long as the saddle isnt a terrible fit, if you only have them for a month it should be fairly ok?

 

[kassieg]

We had saddles specially made at the dealers by adam ellis who did them wide all the way down rather than just the gullet, they had flat wide pannels & it meant they fit everything with a polypad or a poly & a prolite. We had ish, connies of all widths & cobs. They were fantastic saddles !
i am quite lucky in that my barnesby i have for my eventer currently fits my 3 year old so i got her broken with that whether it will after summer god knows. I'm hoping it will dit my ish 3 year old though

 

[dominobrown]

I have a range of saddles, some being of the older (v. old!) style that fit a lot of different horses and different types of saddles from dressage to racing. A lot of horses come with a saddle but I will find something or use pads etc to help make it fit. Although the saddle has to be comfortable breaking is a bit different from work later on in life, you don't (or shouldn't) work a youngster for hours on end so the saddles aren't worn for a long period of time. When I worked in riding schools etc where the saddles would be worn for hours fit was paramount, but for breaking as long as its well balanced and comfortable (I always think you are better to go for a saddle a little too wide and pad it out) then it should be ok.

 

[Lulup]

Worth remembering (as a very basic guide) - a saddle that is too wide can be padded out with sheepskin/riser pads etc with often little adverse effect (short term light use) but if a saddle is too narrow it will cause discomfort and impede muscle development. So don't buy any narrow saddles!

 

[FfionWinnie]

My pony is away getting backed just now and the trainer uses an adjustable wow saddle which she had specifically made for backing horses.

Is that in Fife?

 

[Crosshill Pacers]

I'm backing horses this summer of all different shapes and sizes and the saddle I use is known as a 'bareback' saddle. It was made in America, it's basically a thick pad with rings on for the stirrups, it moulds to the shape of the horse you put it on. Cost me £150 including shipping; my friend recommended it as she has one for racing in and it stood up to approx. 3000 miles worth of hard work before it started to wear thin. The company replaced hers for free on the basis that she sent the original back for them to use as a study!

Handy as I have a 16hh athletic Stb, a 15.3hh chunky Stb (both broken but I like riding in the saddle now), a 14.2hh chunky Stb for backing, a 15.1hh athletic Stb for backing and goodness knows what else that comes through our gates as the summer goes on...

 

[Merlin11]

Is that in Fife?

Yes it is