I have a horse who is very hard to fit. 7yo TB with high withers and short back. I would like to find a jump saddle, and either an endurance or western, but I am getting really frustrated with trying to find a saddle we both like. I have sat it a barefoot Tahoe and liked it. How do these work on a high withered type? Seems like it has potential with their VPS system?
I have an older Barefoot London, so dressage saddle, that I like. I found it worked well on my Arabs who had whithers. It doesn’t work at all on my Friesian who is super wide and has no whithers. Her whither tracing looks like a rainbow, which caused the Barefoot saddle to feel like it was wallowing even with a tight girth and a balanced rider. I didn’t have any sore back problems even on longer trail rides. I didn’t jump in it.
Another interesting option may be the EQ saddle science saddles or their sister company, Reactor Panel Saddles for an endurance saddle. That’s what I finally found for my extra wide, no whiter friesian. They are somewhat adjustable and fit a bunch of different back shapes. The downside is they aren’t cheap.
You’d have to try it. Many treeless saddles just don’t have clearance for high withers.
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High withers are tough for treeless. Maybe one of the paneled type, like a Ghost, would give you the clearance you need.
My high withered tb LOVES his barefoot treeless. I had bought one used to go swimming with and he and I liked it so much I’ve been riding in it full time. He actually really filled out his withers and no longer has a dip/shark fin withers. The used one I had just died so I bought a new one. They have a pommel measurement tracing on the website which will show you the clearance.
