Wow saddle panel help please

[Beatrice5]

I have had a fitter out but she's currently away and has left me with a shopping list. I'm a total Wow novice so please can you help enlighten me.

My big cob mare is very overweight due to having been off with an injury.

The fitted recommended a DXWG with tab and stitchline panel. Now I've been trying to do my homework and these are from what I have read recommended really only for horses with large well developed trapezius muscles - she has no muscle just a lot of blubber. When we had a trial wow is slipped really badly to one side and I'm worried it may have been because the saddle had tabs? Is there anyone with Wow experience please who can offer some education in this respect and advise if its worth trying her in a DXWG with no tab ( that seem a lot easier to source preloved too ) as opposed to hunting high and low for a DXWG with tab?

Many many thanks for your help

 

[SEL]

There are a set of size 1 DXWG with tabs on one of the 2nd hand FB pages back in April. It might be the shape of your horse means the fitter thought tabs were needed.

Slipping to the side should have been corrected by asymmetrical air in the saddle. Worst case asymmetrical girthing can be put on, but tweaks to air usually sort it.

 

[Andrew657]

As I understand it the DXWG panels are designed to accommodate a wider spine or large wither (developed trapezius muscle could be one of the reasons for this- but not the only one)

The tab effectively moves the panel lower done the wither.

The stittchline contains the airbags in the top portion of the panel (I believe this is the standard option).

I assume you also have a size 0,1,2 for your shopping list.

 

[ycbm]

The airbag inside panels with a tab is, or always was, exactly the same as the air bag inside the panel without one. The corner is folded down and taped back to itself inside the panel. What the tab does is create more room at the top of the wither. So on the right horse a panel without a tab is more stable because it holds the saddle against the wither further up.

In practice, I've found it far too easy with a panel without a tab to squeeze the wither. I don't like untabbed panels and I never used them again after the first time I had a problem with one (which was the first new one I ever bought).

The stitch line also, for a reason I can't quite explain, makes the panel sit more stable on most horses. The bag is the same and in the same place, the job of the stitch line in a panel without one is done by foam filling.
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