What Saddle for a tb?

Sagamoon

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Could anyone that has a wide barreled tb horse with narrow shoulders, recommend a jump saddle that doesnt keep slipping forwards?
 

TheChestnutThing

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I ride mine in a Passier. It's a wonderful saddle. The older models especially were made for TB's as they were the majority of sport horses. Kieffer also works really well (my previous TB was in a Kieffer and I kick myself daily for selling it).

If they slip forwards it generally means they are too wide.
 

sbloom

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TBs vary in shape massively and there is a ton of reasons why a saddle might slip forwards. Is there a good fitter that covers your area that you could work with? Anything recommended on here is an absolute crap shoot and could lead you right down the harden path.

On the wider horses I fit a saddle running forwards usually (not always but...) means it's slightly tipping back, so more likely to narrow than too wide. See the problem?

What saddle do you have? Do you have a photo of the whole horse with the saddle girthed up? That may help us....equally even a rider sitting on the back of the saddle is enough to make it run forwards on some shapes, so we might even have to take you into the equation...and a horse that's tight in its back or, worse, bilaterally lame is more likely to send a saddle forwards.....it's complicated!
 

Sagamoon

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TBs vary in shape massively and there is a ton of reasons why a saddle might slip forwards. Is there a good fitter that covers your area that you could work with? Anything recommended on here is an absolute crap shoot and could lead you right down the harden path.

On the wider horses I fit a saddle running forwards usually (not always but...) means it's slightly tipping back, so more likely to narrow than too wide. See the problem?

What saddle do you have? Do you have a photo of the whole horse with the saddle girthed up? That may help us....equally even a rider sitting on the back of the saddle is enough to make it run forwards on some shapes, so we might even have to take you into the equation...and a horse that's tight in its back or, worse, bilaterally lame is more likely to send a saddle forwards.....it's complicated!
Thanks for your reply. The saddle she has on at the present is a fraction too long so that's why we need a new one. However we spent nearly 3 hours at a saddlers and tried many different saddles but not one suited both rider and horse together. I was really just looking for ideas in case there was one we haven't tried yet ?
 

sbloom

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Did the fitter you tried not come up with any other ideas? If they didn't then I'd be considering another fitter anyway, and another fitter may well have stock/ideas based around your actual situation, whereas we can only guess and offer potentially a million options. Honestly most English brands will make various models for high withers, some will be on custom-chosen trees so that's all about the fitter speccing the right tree for you...some will be off the peg but still may not suit your particular version of "high wither", it all comes down to the fitter. Perhaps you could ask for another recommended fitter that covers your area?

If the rider is really tricky to fit then the options may narrow down to finding brands and/or fitters that really know their stuff on rider fit, otherwise it's pot luck trying different combos of seat shape, bar and block placement etc.
 

maya2008

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A long time ago, my young TB was happy in a Wintec. I know people hate them, but she liked it. Eventually she matured and it wasn’t as good a fit - we ended up with a jump saddle from a local saddler (of no special name) that fitted beautifully. I hacked and dressaged in my treeless, but jumping is always better in a treed saddle so she had both!
 

lynz88

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I've used the old Bates and Amerigo on my TB who has a very big shoulder, "typical" TB wither, and large barrel (coupled with me and my long leg). I have used a CWD for the last 8 years or so and love it.
 
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