saddles?

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Charlie77

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A couple of questions. Are bates gp saddles selling? And what sort of saddle should I investigate for a short backed, deep girthed, big shouldered, Low withered, xw horse? I had kept my bates saddle hoping it might fit my youngster when it came to starting him. Having got my gullet measuring gage out this morning hes already just past the white xw gullet so its not going to fit. Clearly he will change shape a lot but hes not going to get any narrower is he? Obviously the saddler will come and fit him not planning on starting him till Sept or may be even next springbut id like to have a couple of saddles in mind! Hes tb x swiss wb
 
Bates has too upright bars for most very wide horse and that applies even to their wide models, they'll work for some but not for others, I tend to see them fitted much too wide to try and get them close to the horse. He may get narrower as he could throw up a wither, I see a lot of babies who are super wide who develop more shape later, especially the Irish and cross breeds rather than the natives. If you're looking for used then I'd shop around for a used Native Pony saddle, I would be more than happy to guide you from photos. Old GFS and Jeffries saddles had some flat wide trees, Ideal has two wide trees, Duett...they tend not to get flatter in design as they get wider though, in my opinion. I believe XXW and above saddles should almost always have super flat trees.
 
Thank you thats very helpful. My other horse is the total opposite big shoulder high wither, I have half an idea with his shape, but the young one well im stumped. Actually I did have a Jefferys saddle on my first horse a conni x tb who was not diss similar in shape to this young lad assuming he did sprout a bit of wither x
 
OP for what its worth....... am probably interfering here, but if you are going for a "native pony" saddle either new or secondhand then do make sure that you go for one of the "Andrea Hicks'" ones - to cut a long story short there is another company in existence who call themselves native pony fitters. I won't say the name on here but if you do some research then the name will pop up. Just one word and that's Avoid!
 
Used saddles prior to late 2010 will have come from the old company Saddle Exchange Ltd before the company split into AH Saddles and Woodward & Woodward.
 
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