The video 28 in your pictures catalog looks like you’re backing him, yes? It does look like the saddle just keeps sliding forward and there’s a pretty big gap at the shoulders. It is like the narrower part of the tree that would fit his shoulders is trying to find its spot and since the front of the tree is too wide it just moves more and more forward. I don’t know if that made sense or not.
I have been pondering one of those for awhile. Currently I have some 1/4" felt that I’ve cut into shims that I’ll stick under the front of the saddle.
From before he ever had a saddle on his back and even through weekly dressage lessons (it did get a /little/ better) he has always had a bit of a dip behind his shoulder which has made saddle fitting…fun.
Tonight I might try shims and see if my latigos are long enough to do front and back on both sides.
New saddle isn’t too heavy at all - maybe 27 lb? I think it with the packaging it came in was 33 lb or so. In any event, it isn’t too heavy for me to manage, which is another reason I chose this saddler/type of saddle. I have old shoulder injuries and and I’m getting too old to heft around a 50-lb. saddle!
[QUOTE=aktill;8016358]
Because using a double rigged saddle without a rear cinch overloads the front of the saddle, and generally causes even a correctly shaped tree to dive down in front…[/QUOTE]
Are you saying the weight, a matter of ounces is going to make a difference? Or are you saying the only people in my area who use their saddles correctly are the riders who are from Mexico with the back cinches tight? Even when showing I never had a back cinch touching my horse. With no contact how does it influence the saddle fit?
I will also say that any time I ride you can easily put a hand between the girth and my horse. I feel that if you need to tighten a girth to get your saddle to sit where it should something is really wrong with the fit.
I do only use the front cinch, snug but not tight. How snug would I need the back cinch to make a difference? I have used it in the past and had it where it is just against his sides but I can easily slide a hand under it? It’s hard to adjust sometimes with the holes on the billets–one hole seems too tight whereas the next seems too loose :([/QUOTE]
Depends what you want to use. If you’re using a leather rear cinch those have no give at all, so I’d only do them up so they touch the horse’s barrel rather than to snug them up. Even then, they’ll help to control some of that rear saddle bounce. If you use something like a mohair rear cinch you can snug them up, since they’ll give a bit (that’s what I use, and that’s what double rigged saddles in the 1800’s often were used with).
If the rear cinch you have doesn’t have a wandering stitch line between the existing holes, you can get a cheap $10 punch set from Tandy’s or the like and punch half holes. I either do that, or replace the rear billets with latigos and add rear holders or slots (set them up like the fronts, essentially).
They’re nothing I would particularly worry about, but this is what I meant:
gap under frog (the cosmetic piece joining the rear jockeys). Likely the jockeys were cut out with a clicker from a die (big machine press and a metal pattern) rather than by hand, so they don’t quite match up. The gap is just a little ugly, but at least they erred on the side of adding more lift to the skirts.
jump in stitch line on skirt under jockeys. This is just lazy, or a consequence of building as quickly as possible. It really would have only taken an extra couple of minutes to stitch to the lace line, backstitch, jump the gap, then start stitching again rather than to just jump across the skirt gap with the machine. Those machine stitches don’t lock the way hand stitches do, so if you ever break that exposed thread the stitch line might start to unravel.
The skirts aren’t laced or at least whipped all the way under the cantle. Even most custom saddlemakers won’t do the decorative roo or latigo lacing all the way down at the same level of complexity (they just do that for the visible part), but if the skirts aren’t joined all the way in some fashion the inside corners can start to curl.
The rear crupper D is not centered over the gap in the skirts, so any pull on the D will be ever so slightly off center.
Things like this are just part of the deal with production saddles. My colt saddle is like this…the top is fine, but looking under the cheyenne roll at the stitch line makes it seem like a child with a shotgun created the stitching holes (they were likely drilled). The stitch line on my rear cinch was clearly done by the drunken sailor of yore too, but since I don’t use it, it doesn’t bug me except when I find it in the tack room (remember I use a mohair cinch in back).
These companies have to build to a price, so comparing to custom isn’t entirely fair, but such is life.
Google AboutTheHorse and look at their saddle pads. The sell pads and shims designed to correct “not quite right” fits. Their $20 video is very good at explaining what to look for in fitting, and is not a sales pitch (ie, can be used with any saddle).
[QUOTE=2enduraceriders;8018367]
Are you saying the weight, a matter of ounces is going to make a difference? Or are you saying the only people in my area who use their saddles correctly are the riders who are from Mexico with the back cinches tight? Even when showing I never had a back cinch touching my horse. With no contact how does it influence the saddle fit?[/QUOTE]
Not sure if you actually care or are just being cute, but no, I’m taking about balancing the front and rear support pulls rather than talking about the dead weight of a loose rear cinch. Particularly if the saddle is too wide in front, cinching up snug in front with nothing in back will tend to lift the rear of the saddle.
A loose rear cinch is less than useless since it’s just something for an itchy horse to stick a leg through, or somewhere for a working horse to get a branch or the like jammed through.
Google AboutTheHorse and look at their saddle pads. The sell pads and shims designed to correct “not quite right” fits. Their $20 video is very good at explaining what to look for in fitting, and is not a sales pitch (ie, can be used with any saddle).[/QUOTE]
The back cinch that came with the saddle is leather. Might try it with the mohair cinch I have (just need to find a connector strap) or see if I can find some longer latigos.
Last night I rode with my 3/4" 5-star pad with a 1/4" liner underneath that and two thin shims tucked up under the front of the saddle. It actually seemed to stay in place pretty well (side to side has never been an issue) and Cody was moving out nicely.
I did get that video, need to watch it again. Going to go check out the saddle pad though.
What length of tie strap would be considered “extra long”? In looking around online I am finding 5’ and 6’ ones, and one that is 6’6".
Also, the closest I can find to a “wide” cinch is a roper cinch, would that be better than a standard straight cinch if I am going to use a long latigo and a single cinch? Or is there somewhere to find a truly wide cinch like the one in aktill’s photo http://www.easphotography.com/Tindur/IMG_2925.JPG ?
