Wintecs and cobs?

[Jingleballs]

What are people's experiences with using Wintecs (specifically Wintec 500's) on their cobs?

I'd heard from quite a few people that Wintecs were not a good fit for cobs due to the curved nature of the tree.

I had a saddler out today who highly recommended wintecs and thinks they are great saddles IF they are fitted correctly!

I expressed my concern based on what I have heard and he suggested that most of the issues were caused by people buying the wintec off the shelve, putting in the correct sized gullet and expecting it to fit whereas he suggests a proper fitting where the flocking is then adjusted to provide the correct fit to the horse.

What are other peoples experiences of using these saddles on their flat backed, low withered cobs??

Even more interestingly, this saddler does not stock Wintec saddles so he's not trying to sell me some of his stock!

 

[dumpling]

I have a Wintec for my cobby pony. I think they're great! He's gone from an extra wide to medium/wide so they're great if they put on weight, etc. Would much rather choose a Wintec over a Throrowgood anyday.

 

[jewel]

if your horse has big shoulders, you would be better of with a wintec VSD. which i have managed to find online for £227 new whilst my local shop sells them for just over £400

 

[3Beasties]

Would be great if it fitted properly as they are fab saddles. don't Wintec do a saddle for cobs, It still has a changeable gullet but you can put an extra extra wide (Purple) gullet in I think!

 

[Jingleballs]

I've specifically been told to buy a 500 GP saddle, we tried the wintec wide that my friend has and it was too wide for him so they've suggested the 500.

 

[jewel]

the 500 is a forward cut saddle. do you a wintec fitter in your area that could come out and try different ones on

 

[Jingleballs]

[ QUOTE ]
the 500 is a forward cut saddle. do you a wintec fitter in your area that could come out and try different ones on

[/ QUOTE ]


There are saddlers in my area who stock wintec however not sure I'd want any of them to fit the saddle.

I've had a look online and the VSD looks like it may be a bit better as it's slightly straighter cut - he's currently in a SC working hunter -so again somewhere between the GP and Dressage - http://www.thesaddlecompany.co.uk/index.php?page=1

Do you think the GP style would cause him major movement issues due to shoulder impingement? Saddler did not seem to thing so?

 

[jewel]

i know i've been told that the 500 would be no good for my cob as he has good big shoulder as it would restrict his movement. do you know anyone that has a 500/ vsd that you could try on, so you can see what you think before you buy one

 

[piebaldsparkle]

[ QUOTE ]
What are people's experiences with using Wintecs (specifically Wintec 500's) on their cobs?

[/ QUOTE ]

The Wintec 500 comes in either GP, VSD or Dressage.

I think the VSD is best suited to cobs as the straighter cut help accomadate bigger shoulders and shorter backs.

_OC_ has a Wintec 500 VSD for her cob.

 

[Jingleballs]

Only problem is the vsd comes with cair system as standard and I don't want that.

 

[Kallibear]

Sitting on the shoulder really shouldn't be a problem, unless you have the saddle far too far forwards. The points of the tree is no different in a VSD from a GP (it's the same tree!) so it's only the knee roll part that will interfere with the shoulder. Have the saddle fitted in the correct place and you could have a jumping saddle if you wanted!

The 500 is a terrible fit on ALL flat wide cobs (you do get non-flat wide cobs thought!) I've seen unfortunate enough to wear one. They are, almost without exception, fitted with a too- narrow gullet to balance the front up and stop them rocking. The panels at the back are also too sloped to sit well on a flat back. A livery has one for her flat wide horse and the flocking on his in the middle has been so compressed and bedded down in the middle (to make it flat enough not to rock) that it's about a centimeter thick. He, unsuprisingly, has white patches under that area.

He also has dents in his back where the outside edge digs in. Pink did too, before I realised quite how terrible a fit it was (and yes, I had it 'proffesionally' fitted by TWO different saddlers, one of them didn't stock wintecs either........). It took a good year for the damage to repair.

With flocked saddles you can mess about with the flocking at the back to try and get the panels flatter (veiwed from behind) but it's difficult and not particularly effective. Having the flocking adjusted to change the curvature of the tree is easier to do, but you can only do so much.

If this saddler has access to wintecs, get her to bring a wintec Wide cob saddle as well, and try that. The gullet goes down to a wide (red) casper really shouldn't be any narrower than that! They have flatter panels, both front to back and side to side. Plus they are extremely comfortable.

 

[244jimmy]

i used a wintec on my flat backed,pritty much no wither, big sholderd cob and hated it only because it kept slipping i tried loads of different things to stop the slipping with no luck in the end i sold the saddle.

and it had been fitted twice !

 

[RachelB]

I don't think you can generalise about fit with any saddle. The Wintecs are built to take a medium gullet (with the exception of the Wintec wide saddle I suppose) but can take narrower and wider if you can manage to wedge the gullet plate in. This can create problems, especially when the saddle isn't fitted by a trained saddle fitter. My old Welshie came to me with a badly-fitting saddle, and when we had another one fitted she kept bucking me off. This started a HUGE problem for us and eventually my saddler told me that the 18" XX-wide KES saddle she had fitted (to a wide-fitting 14.1hh cob) was the only thing that would vaguely fit. Still I was bucked off regularly. Eventually I got a different saddler out who stocks the entire range of Wintecs and he stuck a Pro dressage and a 2000 GP on her, both with wide gullet plates, both of which fitted really well. The bucking stopped so that had to be a good sign! My old saddler was amazed that a Wintec could fit my pony. I have to say, I still have the saddles for my 15.3hh ID X and they are a better fit on her withery frame, but I would never dis-count a saddle just because someone told me it wasn't a good fit on one type of horse. Wintec saddles are not the fit-all solution to everything that Wintec claim(ed) they are, but like any saddle they can fit some horses and not others - IF, as you said in your OP, they are fitted by a trained saddle fitter.
Which reminds me, must call my saddler!

 

[Jingleballs]

Kallibear - can I ask what saddlers you used (I know we are in the same area so I'd be interested to know more detail of your experience especially if it turns out we've used the same saddler)

The saddlers I had out were master saddler,qualified saddler and saddle fitter.

They seemed very knowledgable and addressed my concerns about the wintec saying they prefer it over the thorowgood saddle and that it gives a better fit.

 

[MagicMelon]

I used a Wintec Cob/Wide for about 3 years on my no-wither barrel-shaped Welsh Cob. TBH it always slipped side to side. I learnt to live with it as I simply couldnt find any other saddle which wouldnt do this (unless perhaps I had one made for vast expense).

However, I recently got a Kaymar saddle which is brilliant. It doesnt slip anymore.

I think Wintec's can be good for a lot of horses but they dont fit everything obviously. Also, another problem I had with them was the Wintec Wide was quite VSD so I found it very unsupportive to go XC or even SJ to a decent level in as theres hardly any knee roll to get your knee behind or get short enough stirrups. This is a problem Ive found with a lot of "Cob" or "native" type saddles - they seem to think these horses are only ever used for hacking or very low level stuff which isnt the case quite often!

 

[muffinino]

I have the Wintec 500 VSD with CAIR for my short coupled cob and it fits quite well, doesn't sit too far back on him, which can be a problem with short backs. If I'm honest, it is ever so slightly too forward on his shoulder but I would struggle to find anything other than a dressage saddle that wasn't. I've had it for nearly 2 years, hunted, jumped, done dressage & ridden in it nearly every day and it's not caused him any problems. For a cob, he is relatively narrow in his shoulders though. I've only just changed the gullet this summer froma medium to a medium wide, that's how narrow he is, and that's because he's filled out a lot this year but hopefully I'll change back down once he's hunting fit again.

As has been said, the only way to know is to have it fitted, as I did. You might find it fits, you might not, only one way to find out.