A very interesting visit today from the Western Saddle fitter.
She agrees that Ziggy would look super cute in a Western saddle but he will be hard to fit. We tried half a dozen different trees on him. Mostly they were simply too long. A couple were (too my surprise) too wide. There was one tree from the Equiflex 181 saddle (a new, short, super lightweight model) which would fit him well with only minimal adjustment - making the shoulders wider to accommodate his big front. But it would cost more than £2200 to have one made for him, which I simply do not have.
We went through second hand options for a short, a very short backed, wide native pony. Barefoot - probably too long (I know this is true because we tried them when he was new). Startrekk Shorty - a good fit but questions about stability. Freemax - avoid like the plague, bad problems with stirrup point pressure (I'm glad I didn't buy that one then!). Or look for the old model Equiflex 181 second hand.
I am glad that what she said agreed with my research but it doesn't appear that I will be getting a Western saddle for my pony any time soon, unless I win the Lottery!
She agrees that Ziggy would look super cute in a Western saddle but he will be hard to fit. We tried half a dozen different trees on him. Mostly they were simply too long. A couple were (too my surprise) too wide. There was one tree from the Equiflex 181 saddle (a new, short, super lightweight model) which would fit him well with only minimal adjustment - making the shoulders wider to accommodate his big front. But it would cost more than £2200 to have one made for him, which I simply do not have.
We went through second hand options for a short, a very short backed, wide native pony. Barefoot - probably too long (I know this is true because we tried them when he was new). Startrekk Shorty - a good fit but questions about stability. Freemax - avoid like the plague, bad problems with stirrup point pressure (I'm glad I didn't buy that one then!). Or look for the old model Equiflex 181 second hand.
I am glad that what she said agreed with my research but it doesn't appear that I will be getting a Western saddle for my pony any time soon, unless I win the Lottery!
