I was also under the impression it was CWD.
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The business model of these brands is made-to-order. There are ways to customize the order as far as seat, flap, panel, color, etc. But the saddles aren’t exactly bespoke. The degree of customization in terms of fit may depend–sometimes there are lots of options, sometimes not that many–and often (especially recently with the brand in question), there is pressure to take a fairly standard configuration and call it custom for that horse versus actually doing the work to offer unique modifications.
For example, a friend has a horse with a fairly unique shape. Her panels wore out over time and needed to be replaced. She wanted the exact same panels made because horse had done just fine in the saddle for years. And was told, oh, we don’t like to make them like that anymore and tried to push a change that would not have been adequate. Not that they COULDN’T (supposedly). Another example is a friend who was having some fit issues and I helped her figure out a shim for the horse that worked well. But at first she was resistant to trying because the saddle had been custom fitted to this horse. I looked at the stamp and said, you know this is just a standard panel with shoulder relief, right? 
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It was CWD.
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My saddle fitter always told me that 90% of horses could use an off the shelf saddle with the right tree/panel and the ability to reflock.
Personally, I will never buy a saddle that I can’t put on my horse and ride in before I part with my money. I’ve seen far too many people have issues with “custom” saddles that didn’t fit them or their horses. I’d much rather buy a demo that I know fits, or find something on the used market and have it adjusted.
I think that most people don’t understand that most custom saddles are just assembled from a selection of parts and are not truly “custom” as in bespoke. However, there is a lot of pressure to buy the “trendy” saddle that everyone else in your barn rides in . . . or which has the image you want to project. A lot of German and English saddles are far more adjustable than the French brands, but they are overlooked because they are not as “pretty”.
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Hi everyone! Thank you for being so nice when pointing out is was a CWD. “Read for comprehension” springs to mind here. I’m not sure how I missed it, but I sure did!
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So, as an aside, there is nothing incorrect about using the 2nd and 3rd billet straps. Lots of people do it, and many brands will set the billets a bit differently so that it offers more options for saddle fit. A good friend used to do this with her Antares, and I recently did it with an Albion I had on trial. My horse has massive shoulders and uses them a lot (huge range of motion), so it made sense to me that he would be more comfortable this way.
I am in no way defending what sounds like a hellish experience, but I just wanted to point out that, in other circumstances, that advice is worthwhile and there is nothing wrong with using the middle strap.
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Yup, the typical application for straight billets is to use the first and third, but depending on the horse’s girth groove placement in relation to his wither and the rest of his body, first and second or second and third might be a better idea. Here’s an example from Thorowgood (whose saddles allow you to adjust billet placement) that illustrates why you may want to use a certain billet placement over others. Their diagramming mostly shows billet placement on the saddle, but you can start to see from these examples how using center billets differently could also help.
And I also second what @Pokerface said about how this doesn’t excuse a rep who sounds like she’s very committed to not knowing what she’s talking about.
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Those billets from the Thorowgood link are what the Albion billets looked like.
The most important thing is, that the saddle does not fit the horse no matter how the girth is attached. All changing the billet placement does is help a correctly fitting saddle stay where it belongs. If I was you, and I paid as much as I assume you, did, I’d be making the biggest stink possible. That’s way too much money for a saddle that hurts your horse.
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I’m in Ohio, care to share who to avoid?
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Neat!
I’d only ever heard of using different billet configurations to accommodate a girth groove in lieu of using a special girth (and figured the CWD rep would have pointed out the groove issue at the initial fitting).
I wish I had more horses to experiment with billet placement on now!
Yes, I use the second and third billet on my mare due to her conformation. There are “real” reasons for varying girth/billet combinations.
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Hi all! Any experiences with the CWD rep in south Florida area? I just got my CWD saddle and it does not for my horse at all! Feels different form the one that I tried as well. So upset and diss appointed. Rep said she’ll make it right but I don’t have high hopes. Any feedback/suggestions would be much appreciated!
Is your rep located in south Florida? I am putting in a dispute with the credit card as well.
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Their workshop is in Florida. The turnaround will be quick if they have to replace the panels.
Yes and no. If they can just modify the existing panels, then yes, depending on how backed up they are and how much they care about this customer. If they have to replace them, I think those come from France and will be a wait. I would not want to just do a modification on a $$$$ brand new saddle that was made wrong because there are only so many times you can do that with foam before having to replace (for any other reason in the future like horse changes shape or you get a new horse and want to refit your existing saddle).
My 2016 CWD was modified twice to add foam. It still sat too close to my horse’s withers and the balance was off for me. I decided to get a Voltaire because they made panels that solved that problem. I soon found that it was impossible to sell the CWD because of the “crazy” panels (quoting a consignment seller). I decided to just get pro panels and then sold it to a teenager in my barn who continues to ride in it and love it two years later. This is just my experience, but the saddle is fine and the rep was also great.
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If you had them add foam only, then they would have done that in pieces. Easy to remove to bring it back to “normal.”
Those panels were never “normal.”
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No experience with CWD to share, but Back Country rarely messes up, and when they do they have always (IME) stood behind their product when presented with a legitimate issue. They make it right and they do it fast.
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I was curious how your journey is going, do you have an update? Sending good thoughts your way.
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