WOW saddle owners

J

Jesstickle

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I have a bit of a conundrum. Mine is roughing up the hair at the front on the poor cobs withers. Fitter came out on Tuesday to have a look and re balanced us but it's still doing it. I know that it is supposed to move laterally at the front but I can't believe it feels nice and it didn't used to do it. But then I ride a lot more than I did :\ Is this a common problem? Obviously I'll get back in touch with my fitter but I just wondered if other people have had the same and what they did about it.
 
We have 2 on 2 very different shapes (connie and a tb). Neither have ever rubbed or ruffled up their hair. I hope you get your's sorted :)
 
Never had roughed hair in eight different WOWs on ten different horses. I think the fitting may be wrong, has the point strap been used, do you know?
 
Hmm I thought as much. Bummer.

To the best of my knowledge it is girthed totally normally. Poor cob :( Will ask the fitter to come back and look at her again. It's probably her enormous driving horse, legs flying everywhere, trot which is doing it. She moves a lot in the shoulder!
 
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Have you got the hex screwdriver thingy? You can undo the head bolt, and put the front girth strap onto the head bolt fixing as a point strap. That would be well worth a try before you pay for a fitter :) you'll find an extra bit of strap on the front girth strap inside the top of the flap with a hole in it.

If you haven't got it, it's a 4mm allen key and you can get one from any hardware store that sells tools.
 
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A point strap won't stop the pivoting, in general (not a Wow fitter) and could make it worse. I would say you need a flatter tree but it may be that a different component needs changing. Rocking is caused by a tree being too wide (which I'm sure the fitter has checked) or there being a pivot point in the middle, often caused by a too curvy tree.
 
Weirdly a friend of mine has had the same issue in the last week!
Doesn't happen with her GP K&M but does with her WOW DR!

Def would get the fitter back!
 
Well at least I'm not alone I suppose. Not sure if that doesn't just make it worse though.

Hopefully will get it sorted tomorrow as I love my saddle and my cob. And more to the point it's the only one I have so no saddle = no games :(
 
sbloom said:
A point strap won't stop the pivoting, in general (not a Wow fitter) and could make it worse. I would say you need a flatter tree but it may be that a different component needs changing. Rocking is caused by a tree being too wide (which I'm sure the fitter has checked) or there being a pivot point in the middle, often caused by a too curvy tree.
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As your not a WOW nor Flair fitter SBloom, I find it very difficult to understand why you would comment!?
 
FRP said:
As your not a WOW nor Flair fitter SBloom, I find it very difficult to understand why you would comment!?
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Please wind it in re having a dig at Sbloom. The forum will be the poorer if she takes umbrage and stops posting.

Yes, she only deals with one brand of saddle but she freely declares that. There's a lot to be learnt from her comments even if you are not considering buying one of her saddles.
 
Gosh, that's harsh! I'm another who has benefitted from SBloom's general fitting advice which proved to be of great benefit to me and my horse. The comment seemed perfectly sensible, unbiased and helpful to me!
 
sbloom said:
A point strap won't stop the pivoting, in general (not a Wow fitter) and could make it worse. I would say you need a flatter tree but it may be that a different component needs changing. Rocking is caused by a tree being too wide (which I'm sure the fitter has checked) or there being a pivot point in the middle, often caused by a too curvye tree.
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The issue is that WOW saddles have a carbon fibre joint at the twist which allows the whole front arch to rock from side to side as the shoulders swing. In horses with extremely mobile shoulders, that can mean that there is simply too much movement going on and a point strap on a cob type horse often helps. As it is free to try it, the worst that can happen is a bit of effort with a hex key and a day delay calling the fitter.
 
I had the same challenge but at the back and my original fitter told me it was a coat change issue (!) but when I got another fitter out they told me I needed new panels, a new tree and different girthing arrangements to make it work for the horse. Combined cost on all the points was well over £1K so I cut my losses and sold it on :(
 
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