Your Arabs - can I see pics of how your saddles fit?

Orchardbeck

Orchardbeck

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As above really - am interested to see your arabs, saddles on, and any awkward saddling issues you may have had to overcome. Thanks in advance!
 
Old saddle used to twist. Had wow fitted with changes to standard girth strap layout solved the problem.
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I don't have any pics on this pooter.....but I've just had a saddle m2m for my arab.....he had 7 saddles I think it was over the last 18m....none fitted properly- they lifted at the back, slipped forwards, tipped forwards- tipped back- you name it.

His new saddle doesn't move, tip or slip- he's like a totally different horse - wish I'd done it when i first got him- money well spent.
 
No decent pics, but my mare has an ideal ramsay which fitted her really well. Shes a broodmare now, but I am keeping it for her daughter.
 
This mare (50% arab) really sorted out the good fitters from the bad. Unfortunately I went through two bad fitters before I found a good one. :(
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The main issues were, that the first two fitters tried to put her in saddles that were too narrow and too curved.
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This is the saddle that the third saddler fitted to her (Jeffries elite in wide).
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I fit quite a few saddles as they're not unlike cobs and natives in many ways. Particular issues? Wide flat backs (well spring ribcages) but can have some wither which means many trees will either be too narrow to achieve clearance ot too "roof shaped" at the back so match the higher wither. The flatter one with no wither are very much like natives and suffer sideways slippage, occasionally saddles moving forwards.

The way I fit them is with a fairly flat tree, a deeper rear gusset if there is much wither, otherwise a semi close contact flat shaped flocked panel, a tree that is more of an upside down U at the front rather than, as most saddles, a V. Then four girth straps and I'd usually use the point strap and then 3rd or 4th depending on the fitting issues.

Of course, like natives and many cobs, they tend to be short backed due to having one less rib. The panel needs to be short and not extend out the back, unless the rider is tiny, and if the rider is really quite large for the saddle then a deeper rear gusset may be needed to stop them sitting down on the cantle.

I also fit flexi panel saddles to some Arabs, especially endurance, and these do mean that you are less restricted by seat size.
 
I don't have any photos that will help, but i've found Ideal and Bates suit my Arabs - my flat backed, no wither very wide Russian Boy had a Ramsey Show Saddle and then a M2M Ideal H&C Jessica Dressage.... my slimmer more TB shaped Egyptian x Crabbet boy has a Bates AP and an Ideal Josephine (Jessica with Showing flaps) :)
 
I have an old saddle for an old arab mare it fits her well, I would post a picture but can anyone advise how you get the right to attach a picture?

Thanks

Ian
 
previous old loan horse had big shoulders, a big belly and a big walk (meaning saddles tended to swing on him) and a short back, we managed to find a 2nd hand proper 'pony' saddle which fitted us and him well enough.

Mum's mare is 50% arab

This was old saddle, as fitted/made by a local saddler who didn't do a bad job but we have a better one now.

mare has very narrow shoulders and a forwards girth groove therefore saddles always tend to move forwards especially if she put in a dirty stop :mad:, this saddle had a point strap on it which helped.

she doesn't always look so donkeyish ;)

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new saddle has been made on a straighter tree with straight rather than curved points. It also has point and balance straps for maximum girthing options! I don't have a decent pic of that one atm though.
 
Thanks for all your posts, I thought there may have been a pattern but I guess it totally depends on the type of Arab or cross as to how the saddles fit.

My reason for posting is that I currently have my veteran mare in a t4 cob with an xw gullet. She has a wide ribcage. However she lost loads of topline and muscle with being in for lami last year. My saddler fitted this saddle to giveher room to build up her muscles, butwe have to use a prolite front riser to make up the difference. My problem is that my saddle still slips forward on to her shoulders, and is worse if I do the girth up to what I would say is reasonable.

Is it possible I should have gone for the regular t4, rather than the cob? My saddle seems quite deep and wide in the gusset behind, which isn't a bad thing, just I thought the cob ones were supposed to be flatter in the panels - maybe i'm just comparing it with my old T/G pc Griffin.

She has a touch of arthritis inher hocks so needs lots of walking out etc. I noticed her coat had ruffled where the sddle had slid forwards yesterday, is there anything else I could try to lift it until her muscles develop? Would it be worth doing anything with the flocking? She is older so won't change shape overnight. Or do I do more lunging in a roller/ inhand work to build her up? So many q's in my head, can anyone help?
 
I have my Arab gelding in a T4 too, but it's the hi wither GPD, which is slightly straighter cut and therefore stays off the shoulders a bit more. I have had it re flocked once already and it needs doing again as it is starting to slightly bridge. He lost a little condition over the winter this also affected the fit. For the last few months I have ridden in a thick padded numnah (the shires £16 fake wool one) and this has let his condition come back up. Coming into the spring I am undecided whether to refit/reflock or buy a new saddle.

Also in Cumbria, if you wanted you could have a look at the difference between the two, if this helped?
 
My mare is also using a high wither T4 as the saddle is also used for my TB. Great for ever changing shapes, last year she was in the black gullet but over winter we use the narrower green one :D
 
If you don't need a standard saddle look, I've had great success with a podium on my pure bred Crabbet. I also use a Kieffer dressage saddle. I've also just put the dressage saddle on my 4 yr old who I'm starting to back, & it sat really well on her as well.
 
Orchardbeck said:
Thanks for all your posts, I thought there may have been a pattern but I guess it totally depends on the type of Arab or cross as to how the saddles fit.

My reason for posting is that I currently have my veteran mare in a t4 cob with an xw gullet. She has a wide ribcage. However she lost loads of topline and muscle with being in for lami last year. My saddler fitted this saddle to giveher room to build up her muscles, butwe have to use a prolite front riser to make up the difference. My problem is that my saddle still slips forward on to her shoulders, and is worse if I do the girth up to what I would say is reasonable.

Is it possible I should have gone for the regular t4, rather than the cob? My saddle seems quite deep and wide in the gusset behind, which isn't a bad thing, just I thought the cob ones were supposed to be flatter in the panels - maybe i'm just comparing it with my old T/G pc Griffin.

She has a touch of arthritis inher hocks so needs lots of walking out etc. I noticed her coat had ruffled where the sddle had slid forwards yesterday, is there anything else I could try to lift it until her muscles develop? Would it be worth doing anything with the flocking? She is older so won't change shape overnight. Or do I do more lunging in a roller/ inhand work to build her up? So many q's in my head, can anyone help?
Click to expand...

Does the saddle have a point strap? IF it is wide in the head (upside down U rather than V) then I'd use a point strap to help it stay back - but also check that you're not overly lifting the front of the saddle - being cantle low is a common reason for a saddle moving forwards.

Ruffled hair is movement or pressure and not good. Your fitter has taken a risk in trying to predict that she'll fill out - I do this sometimes, but I use a firmer padding system than Prolite - I use Mattes Correction numnahs, the only things I find work consistently on wide tricky natives and cobs. As an older horse she may not get her topline back and you may need a narrower fitting saddle.

In terms of tweaks to the saddle only a fitter could say, but you need to have faith in your fitter. Has he/she seen the saddle recently?
 
Personally I wouldn't use a point strap on an arab. I know that Kay Humphries hates them too.

The point strap forces the front of the saddle down to make it stay behind the shoulder, fine if you've got pads of fat like an M+M but on an arab I have found that they often don't like them. Just MHO.
 
Fair enough, we're all entitled to our opinions, but I fit a lot of wide ponies and horses and use a point strap on 95% of them, including all the arabs I fit. As I say, the tree needs to be the right shape, and there needs to be no pressure digging into the trapezius, which can happen with some narrow headed trees and with the way some fitters over flock into the head of the tree. The system needs to work as a whole - saddle/tree/panel design and the way they are fitted. I haven't met a horse yet that objects to a point strap.
 
It's attached to the point of the tree - on the sweat flap you'll find the sewn pocket that the tree point sits in, at the front top. The point strap is directly attached to it. It is used where the saddle has a tendency to move forwards, and that can often be simply because of a forward girth groove.

I just grabbed a saddle from my stock and took a (rather dark) photo - the point strap is the one on the left:

http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb29/volatishurakan/P1020187.jpg

On a dressage saddle it may be sewn under the knee block and really only visible at the bottom of the flap.
 
Again, thanks for your contributions. Ihad a conversation with my saddler who thinks that my saddle is actually too narrow for my mare and we need to go up a gullet (we've only got one moreto go after this one, eek! ) and that thesaddle could be slipping forward because it is too narrow. He's coming out to see on friday, it might be that we need a change, it certainly needs more flocking in the middle as it is bridging slightly. He thinks there is a lot that can be adjusted on the Thorowgood, but we might need a prolite multi riser pad- can you get them that have support in the middle?

We are using the point strap and third (not balance) straps.
 
Orchardbeck said:
Again, thanks for your contributions. Ihad a conversation with my saddler who thinks that my saddle is actually too narrow for my mare and we need to go up a gullet (we've only got one moreto go after this one, eek! ) and that thesaddle could be slipping forward because it is too narrow. He's coming out to see on friday, it might be that we need a change, it certainly needs more flocking in the middle as it is bridging slightly. He thinks there is a lot that can be adjusted on the Thorowgood, but we might need a prolite multi riser pad- can you get them that have support in the middle?

We are using the point strap and third (not balance) straps.
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A too-narrow saddle will bridge as it is being lifted away from the back so you may find widening it cures both :). Saddles seldom truly bridge half as much as people think they do, and even if they bridge fractionally without a rider, once the rider is on and the horse is moving, especially in trot and canter, the saddle won't be bridging.

Good luck with the fitting :)
 
Arabs and saddles = absolute nightmare! I tried to buy a new one for my mare last year but everything moves forwards on her, even with a point strap. I've tried pretty much everything on her, from a Bates dressage, Wintec GP, Kent & Masters, assorted made to measures, a WOW and a Fhoenix and none of them have really been great on her. The Fhoenix was the best, but I wasn't impressed with the fitter who came out to us - she only brought two 18" saddles with her, even though I'd warned her my mare and I are both tiny, so we were swamped by the saddles and I don't feel that we really got a proper chance to try them out. I'd given up tbh, I'm getting a Christ Lamfelle bareback pad for my birthday and that will have to do. I've done a lot of bareback riding what with saddles being an issue, so my balance is good, I just want a bit more comfort for both of us for longer rides.
 
Hi, I've just had the fitter out and thought I would give you an update, for those who are interested!

So, just to recap, my mare was in a Thorowgood T4 cob saddle. I'd changed it to an extra wide (white gullet) as we thought the wide/extra wide (orange) was still too narrow. I only rode her in it brieflyas I really wanted him to check it first.

Anyway, when he came out, he thought that really she needed to be in a 'r' type saddle, rather than an 's', as there wasn't enough contact with the panels, and the saddle was too close to her withers.

As she has big shoulders I'd requested he bring a Thorowgood GPD to try - same seat size 17". But when he put it on it looked huge on her! He couldn't understand it with her other being the same size. As they don't do a 16.5" GPD in a Thorowgood, he reckoned we were better sticking to the Cob, but trying a narrower gullet. They do fit other saddles but he thought the Thorowgood was best in terms of broad panels and options.

He said that if we were going for the 'R' model, she would actually measure up to a Medium (black) gullet, rather than an XW. (She is also a bit lopsided with less muscle on the left wither - that explains why my left stirrup always feels longer). So he fitted a medium gullet to my cob saddle, which put it in better balance, but due to her muscle wastage in the middle, he added more flocking on the centre of the saddle to help with panel contact.

When I rode in it, the balance felt much better front to back, but he said that the back clearance was now too low and only a cm or so off her spine and would probably need a riser, such as a prolite all around one, or I could use a folded hand towel as a temporary measure, until her muscle builds up again.

I was slightly in shock at this point as the last time we had fitted a really wide s gullet, and padded the hollows in her withers with a prolite wither pad, using only a thin nuumed numnah. This time the saddle fitted at the withers with a medium gullet, but he recommended I used a thicker numnah, like a polypad or nuumed with sheepskin- he said he wouldn't normally recommend this but in this case he did.

He did mention that this was all a possibility the last time he came out, but I can't believe the difference in approach. I'm looking forward to seeing the effects -has this happened to anyone else?
 
Try and forget clearance and front to back balance - how do the tree point angles line up to her ribcage? Are they parallel, wing out or more upright? Take a photo if you'd like another opinion (or several!). Sounds most odd to me, I have to be honest.

Example photo is within "Example 4" on this blog post (all very good reading) but without a pad is even better!:

http://saddlefitter.blogspot.com/2010/07/bad-intel.html
 
My mare has been a nightmare with saddles! she is 1/2 arab 1/4 conn 1/4 welsh!

she has very high withers and very well sprung ribs! a lot of saddles lift at the back, and i was told she needs a more square cut saddle.

currently she is in a thoroughbred saddle, but it is sitting too low on her wither so having to use a riser pad. :(

my main problem has always been her wither. any saddle which has been fitted and purchased soon seems to sit too low on her?!

being on skye it is very hard to get a decent saddle fitter, and generaly means we have to travel- which is quite a task! :(

so- any saddle fitters fancy a working holliday to skye just give me a bell...! :cool:

x
 
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