Front or back riser

[Hayz]

My friend is having trouble finding a saddle to fit her horse............ now found one but sits a bit low but not enough to cause a prbolem........ (says saddler)............... anyhoo she has been told and bought a backriser pad as it doesnt sit on his back............. I thought a front riser would be needed, he also has atrophy.

Opinions??

[joey_olop]

I would have said a front raiser-we bought a new saddle for my fat mare with no withers-its an x x wide but a bit low on the front but fits perfect with a front raiser.

I would tell her to experiment.

[H & Bailey]

she need a front raiser pad! you can get a wintec? moulded one for about £20 or something like a prolite one where you can put inserts into it ithink they are about £60?
a back raiser will lift the back up and tip the saddle forwards onto the wither which she doesnt want!
the front one will lift the front up and off the withers,so the back end will sit onto the horses back better.

[Hayz]

See thats exactly what i thought, she has allready bought the back raiser, and I did say what I thought but I dont think she will listen :( It was an expensive one

[Zingy]

If it fits and it is level, just is sitting a little low, then you need to raise the whole thing. Tipping it forwards or backwards will make it not fit. A lot depends on the shape of the horse as well. If it has high withers, then it's not always possible to get 3 fingers clearance. That doesn't matter as long as the saddle doesn't touch the spine at all. By trying to achieve that leve of clearance through use of pads, you can actually end up with a saddle that fits less well and would give you problems in other areas. Particularly as, if she's not using a graduated pad but is using ones with stepped changes in thickness, they cause pressure points.

Edit - just re-read. If it is not sitting on his back, do you mean that the back of the saddle is sort of flapping about? So with girth tightened up and saddle held level, then there is a gap between the horses back and the saddle? If that is the case then I'd say either the tree is too narrow (common problem with people trying to fit saddles to high withered horses), or the shape of the tree is wrong for the horse. A back riser pad would work better than a front riser (you need to lift the back of the saddle to level it - using a front riser would literally tip the saddle back, so although it would sit down more at the back, it wouldn't be level and would actually increase the problem), but personally I wouldn't want to use it as a long term solution.

[Hayz]

Edit - just re-read. If it is not sitting on his back, do you mean that the back of the saddle is sort of flapping about? So with girth tightened up and saddle held level, then there is a gap between the horses back and the saddle? If that is the case then I'd say either the tree is too narrow (common problem with people trying to fit saddles to high withered horses), or the shape of the tree is wrong for the horse. A back riser pad would work better than a front riser (you need to lift the back of the saddle to level it - using a front riser would literally tip the saddle back, so although it would sit down more at the back, it wouldn't be level and would actually increase the problem), but personally I wouldn't want to use it as a long term solution.

Exactly ^^^

So, She does need a back raiser :)

[amandal]

Get her to look at the Mattes Wedge Pad, it's absolutely fantastic, Derby House do them. Ziz needs a rear riser and this is by far the best one we've ever had, my saddler loves it too.