17 saddles later, still none fit!!!

[vicky31]

Hello,
I am so stressed at the moment, I have tried 17 yes 17 saddle in the last week and still none fit. I have just received my treeless saddle thinking, they fit 99.9% of horses, great I will get one of those, that will fit. Guess what AAAAGGGGHHHHHH No it flipping well dosent. The pad is so tight on his wither it would rub a hole after a decent ride out.
Does anyone know of any GOOD saddle fitters that have a decent range of second hand leather saddles that will come to the yard? I am in the wigan area, so north west/lancashire.
Or does anyone have anything to fit a 17.2 extra wide monster with withers. The saddles either sit too low on the wither, so we try a narrower one which sit too high, so we try one inbetween and back lifts up.
Oh and just to top that off we also have great big shoulders so straight cut too.
Fingers crossed, Vicky.
PS or does anyone want to swap such a beast for a horse with tack lol, only joking.

[Alex T]

hehe ill swap you my arab but your have the same problem!! just with out the withers!!everything i put on her sits of her back or slips forward i think ive only tried about ten though!!good luck

[No_Angel]

why doesn't your treeless fit? What make it is? What breed is your horse? What pad do you have?

[Daffy Dilly]

I would recommend the Native Saddle Co, but you would probably have to save up, as you're talking £700 plus.

[Pink's lady]

extra wide with withers is really hard. You need to fit the saddle to their back width but have enough clearnace for the bony bits. My friends TB has the same problem:

He's fairly wide but with sky scraper withers. To get the clearance he needed a medium but that was too narrow and would cause more muscle wastage and he'd get narrower and more withery. The wide he needed was a little too close to his withers for comfort.

So I made him one of these - a prolite with a channel. Gives him the lift needed whilst still allowing the saddle to be wide enough. The saddle is fitted to accomidate it.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v715/Pinkslady/Editted%20photos%20etc/prolitepad003.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v715/Pinkslady/Editted%20photos%20etc/prolitepad002.jpg

A pad might be the answer in this case, unless you can get a saddle custom made!

[rtk]

Its a nightmare isn't it, sometimes you just drop lucky, so dont give up hope

My oldie, he was 29 at the time had changed shape and needed a new saddle. Due to spending all my money on my daughters horses I wouldn't buy him a new made to measure one and had tried the entire second hand stock of two local saddle fitters without any luck (I only ride once a blue moon these days)

He is long backed, extra wide with high withers and his back dips these days. Everything I tried dug in at the front and back and didn't touch in between and that was the good ones.

I just happened to give someone a lift to a local horse sales and was browsing the tack auction. I happened to see an English 18" extra wide banana shaped saddle. No-one else wanted it :D not many horses around that shape and I got it for £80. Had it fitted and its just about perfect.

If I can fit him, you will get there, just have to keep trying :D.

[vicky31]

Wow, thanks for all the replies and advice!!
I finally got a saddler out with a range of good second hand tack, he brought about 20 with him.
He took some templates of his wither, across his back were the back of the saddle would lie and in the middle. he then took a template from the top of the wither down his spine. Then he worked his magic with lines and arcs and things. I was getting very excited by this time, he he.
He then said " right basically I dont have a saddle to fit your horse, he has a very wide spine, he is extra wide, has a high wither and a flat back" Rah, was my reply. He said I will have to have one specially made and by that he means the tree and everything ( by this point I am thinking second mortgage!) He then asked what had I been using? I brought my wintec 500 with cair GP out and he said to put X wide gullet in and a good polypad, The x wide fits at the front and the polypad will take up the size difference down his spine and also even out the pressure.
I am not convinced lol but I got the expert out for his opinion so I will do as told.
The problem with having one made is, he is half shire and half TB and just starting to bulk out and mature, so if I have one made now, I will need another one made in 12 months. The other option is to turn him away for 12 months, AAAAGGHHHH, Next time I will buy a fully grown horse with tack lol. Vicky.

[rascalboy]

Lol, there's an easy way to help make this better: get his back muscles strong and up, and you'll have a better chance of finding a saddle. (Plus, it will give you enough time to start saving your pennies if this doesn't work, lol).
We had the same problem with the TB I used to shareboard. She had super high withers, no back/wither muscle at all, and super wide shoulders. Narrow fit the withers, but squished the shoulders. Wide fit the shoulders, but squished the withers. Medium squished everything, lol. (Wintec knock-off gullet change, which actually is fine with the fat paint...)
So, what I did, was get her back muscle up.
I started her out on trot poles, moved to raised trot poles, did canter poles, raised canter poles, started free jumping, bounces, ect. Add that in with bareback, and lots of lunging, and the medium width fit her fairly well.
(I did all that form the ground; no riding, mostly because I stink at poles...). I rode bareback mostly.
So, a few weeks after I left shareboarding, she didn't get over her poles, or worked enough, so her muscle was lost again, and her saddle doesn't fit...
Anywho, if you can't make the saddle fit him, make him fit the saddle.
Once you get his muscle up, his withers will seem smaller, and you can get by with a normal saddle, and maybe a special pad.
Right now, I'd say bareback, poles, jumping, ect.
Have you ever tried a saddleseat saddle? It will go behind his withers, and they're made for fairly flat-backed horses (no muscle), and will probably fit his shoulders. I'd try one of those first.
Or even and australian might work. They seem good for horses with high withers, but they're also really wide. (I tried ours on the QH, but it was too wide for her whimpy self...)
Good luck!

[Lgd]

There is a solution - expensive to start with but in the long run - waaay cheaper. My 7/8TB mare has withers, huge shoulders and is very broad. She has had 3 custom made saddles. The latter two were a Barnsby Raven and a Barnsby Luxus. When she burst out of a size 4 tree Luxus I was pretty frustrated to say the least. Her reaction to a treeless was less than polite :rolleyes: My other mare is also impossible to fit off the peg and she was already in one of these:

http://www.firstthought.co.uk/wow/wow%20concept.htm

Fitted hers on the older mare and she went well in it, despite it not being ideal in the panel style. Then managed to get a virtually new one from a friend that happened to be exactly the right panels/flaps I needed so did save on getting a new one. The improvement in her way of going was been phenomenal considering she was already established at advanced level dressage.

I don't have any pics of the TB girl in hers, but this is the difference it made in the other mare:

Not going badly in the first one (my niece is on board in the first)

http://groups.msn.com/upsaddle2/lgd.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=779

2½ months in the WOW with a much heavier me on top

http://groups.msn.com/upsaddle2/lgd.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=8449

Two years on

http://groups.msn.com/upsaddle2/lgd.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=16242

http://groups.msn.com/upsaddle2/lgd.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=16480

and this is a horse that I was struggling to get past elementary until she got the saddle. She was about to start PSG this year when she injured herself in the field. Back on track now so hopefully next year she will make it.

Nasty bit though- the competition version clocks in at £1500, the Club at £1000. Good thing is that they are infinitely adjustable. The worst cost I've had in four years was changing the panels to a wider gullet on the grey - part-ex'd so it was around £250 for effectively a new saddle.

You can sometimes get demo models cheaper - your local WOW fitter will be able to source them. You would need a WOW fitter to come out an assess which panels are most suited and to see if the horse goes OK in them. There are odd ones who hate the air flocking in the competition version.

[Pink's lady]

Flat backed with a wintec 500? Get a better saddle fitter out! He's basically said he doesn't have the skills to make a saddle fit so anyold one will do and he'll a thouroghbred saddle fit:eek:

The x wide fits at the front and the polypad will take up the size difference down his spine and also even out the pressure

The front will fit if you get the width right but the rest more than likely won't. Did he even look at the panels from behind or asses the curvature of the trev (whish is very curved when set wide!). Polypads aren't particulalry good at disserpating pressure either.

If hes flat and wide you need to get a proper cob saddle (i.e not a wintec TB saddle like the 500) and use a pad to lift it off the spine.