Coming 5 year old QH. Likely still growing a bit. It isn’t so much that he is bum high, but the shape of his thoracic means the saddle wants to slope forward and push the rider forward to the pommel. Saddle rocks slightly even though it has pretty flat panels. The saddle is foam and the panels are in good shape. Would some sort of a reverse wedge pad work to balance the saddle? (I was thinking reverse wedge foam stuffed in an Ogilvy cover). A narrower saddle is not the answer. The alternative would be a wool flocked saddle altered for him, but would that be much better?
CHT: I think they sell the reverse wedges. You can also use a crupper.
Frisky: You may need a hoop tree. I just went through this and ended up with a duett. Take a wither tracing and post it on here, we will be able to tell you if you need a hoop tree.
The saddle doesn’t slide forward, its that they angle of the seat pushes the rider to the front of the saddle. Does that make sense?
Yes, I think you could still benefit from one. Of course, this is on the assumption that your saddle fits you well. If the saddle isn’t fitting right, you may be being pushed forward from that alone.
There are loads of front-riser type pads out there, and you also could try the horse in a correction pad with wither shims to see if the saddle can be leveled for the rider without compromising fit for the horse.
Broad shapely horses are probably the most difficult to fit. I’ve had excellent results from the Harry Dabbs line. All have upswept panels which are great for short and/or rising toplines. Depending on the specific shape of your horse, including height of withers and the angle (or lack thereof!) under the rear of the panel, I might suggest their Hunter, IB, IB XL, or Avant XL saddles. Harry Dabbs saddles are named for the tree, so once you get the right tree for the horse you can deck it out with whatever cantle, flap, blocks, etc, you like in a mono or dual flap.
Some horses also do well in Black Country saddles which have more shape than many English brands, and are also shorter in the panel than many. Almost all models are available with a hoop tree.
The ones I am seeing online also go down into the shoulder a bit. She owns a pad like that for her former horse who was older and had some atrophy below the withers. That won’t work in this situation though, as it will change how the saddle fits across his shoulder.
Yeah, with that shape no normal A shaped saddle will fit 
You need a hoop tree. It looks a lot like the wither tracing for my guy. I would highly recommend Duetts. Don’t bother with the wintec wide or the thorowgood saddles, they won’t work. I have heard that sometimes black country and passier will fit, but you have to confirm that the tree is a hoop tree and not the standard tree.
You probably need a more banana shaped panel to accommodate the back. The duetts can be custom made for this, but if you don’t want to spend the $$ you can find a used one and have the wool reflocked. That is one great thing about Duetts is that they are wool flocked so they are very adjustable. I have a Duett foxhunter, if you would like to compare the tree on mine to your wither tracing I would be happy to post a pic.
CHT, you could try the Thinline Trifecta pad with front shims. I’ve got the same issue with my TB (he’s got a good wither with the dips below). My saddle always wants to settle into those dips, causing it over time to become unlevel with the pommel down. Yes, I realize that this probably means I need a saddle with skid row panels but that’s not going to happen right now, and horse and I are both happy in this saddle otherwise. When I have the fitter out, she always ends up adding more to the front to level the seat.
I’ve got the Trifecta pad, and it definitely helps. He’s also got a big shoulder and the Trifecta does not seem to interfere with it. I’m due for a fitting soon so at that time, I assume I’ll remove the shims and use the Trifecta plain, then as the wool compresses, add them back in until the next fitting.
This is a common issue in a horse that is a hoop tree candidate or not. The tree width needs to fit the shoulders but the saddle, if it doesn’t have the depth in the front part of the panel to offer lift will dip down into the base of the wither. This is where a K type panel and or full front gussets are helpful. They provide the structure needed to aid in the balance.
Agree with all of the above (and wound up buying a Thorowgood GP - T8 - saddle with a rounder tree shape, adjustable from W to XW) on my WB filly who is round, flat, and took forever to “pop” withers. She is now going on 5, and though still in a W tree she has developed enough of a wither to enable the saddle to stay where it’s supposed to. I have swapped out the T8 for a County Conquest jumping saddle and a Hastilow dressage saddle - both W trees.
A hoop tree might be good in your horse’s case - Duett or Black Country were suggested to me.
I found that the saddle tended to ride forward on the longe AND U/S, so used a non-slip pad and a TSF, Total Saddle Fit girth. This helped keep the saddle BACK where it belonged - and I still use it with the County jumping saddle.
Good luck! She may change over time since she’s still young, but you have some helpful suggestions in the meantime
I have a feeling my question has gotten lost in the shuffle. The horse in the original post does not need a hoop tree and the saddle doesn’t slide. it is just a downhill horse, so the cantle ends up too high. The saddle is not too wide, too narrow or the wrong bar angle. It is just the horse is downhill. I was looking for help on how to help level the saddle without changing how the saddle fit the horse in the shoulders.
Your best option is a shimmable half pad, adding shims in the front until the saddle sits level. However, if it fits perfectly through the shoulders and wither, doing this will probably make the saddle too narrow through the shoulder.
The saddle I use on young horses is fairly wide and a pretty generic shape…it tends to fit young warmbloods well, and with a half pad with shimming options, it works when they’re downhill and when they pop withers. But it’s wide enough to accommodate the shims.
It is easy enough to have something custom made, so I think that is what we are going to do: get shims made that don’t go down the shoulder and that are tapered. I thought this would be a more common issue and so easier to resolve with a ready made product.
Any pad that you can shim in front could help or you can experiment with a dishtowel folded in thirds and placed over your pad in the tree point area. I have also used shims made out of yoga mats for fitting purposes to see if that helps.
