Stirrup bar placement issue

[soloequestrian]

My mare is quite hard to fit a saddle to - very broad and very flat back. I found Heather Moffett Flexee saddles and they have been great for her. If find them very comfortable too but the stirrup bar is a little far back for me, I would love the stirrups to sit just an inch or so further forwards so I don't have to fight to keep my leg from slipping back. Any ideas about how to achieve this or ideas for other makes of saddle that fit in a similar way? At the moment I'm experimenting with a strap that goes from D-rings to the stirrup leathers and pulls them forwards (I have Swiss clips so the stirrup should still release if it needs to!).

 

[sbloom]

There is no real way I know of to fix that and it is commonly a problem with HM saddles, a one-size-fits all approach which will only work for the longest of thighs with small feet, and may not work at all on very wide ribcages. There aren't any other saddles that fit that way to my knowledge, but you could possibly find a really good saddler to take it apart and put the bars in the correct location for you? I have no idea how they are built therefore whether this is possible.

 

[soloequestrian]

Well we managed to stuff the stirrup leathers through the back of the bar between the front and middle rivets so it's just over an inch in front of where it would normally sit. Difficult but it has made a difference! Now to find a way to place a stirrup bar there - I'm thinking of putting webbing around the current bar and threading an hanging-e onto it. Just trying to work out the strongest way of stitching the webbing in place because it will have to be done in situ. I'm wondering if it would work to double up the webbing into a ring and then just sew round and round it.

 

[sbloom]

Please be very careful, this is a serious safety issue and I'd have to recommend you take it to a qualified saddler.

 

[soloequestrian]

Ha, would love to find one... where are you based? I've asked quite a lot of people here in NE Scotland and they don't seem to exist!

 

[sbloom]

I'm not a saddler, different skill set, though some do both. You may need to post it to get the work done I guess, but I'm sure that's the story of your life . I will be in South Lanarkshire within months but I've been saying that for a while!