Has anyone tried this? I am intrigued…
Used/endorsed by fine-used-saddles.com as well:
http://www.fine-used-saddles.com/saddlefit.htm
Would love to hear any thoughts, good or bad! Jn4Jenny?!
I haven’t used one, but what a neat idea! Takes the old wither tracing method and puts it into 3D! :yes:
I used one for a Richard Castelow saddle. Easy to use and well worth the money… perfect template of the horse’s back (*at the time of use… *and at a standstill, of course).
I had one & used it to find a saddle for a few different horses with good results. While it works well, as far as getting the shape of the horses back, care must be used when fitting a saddle to it. It is still slightly flexible after it “sets” so it’s possible to make it fit a saddle, rather than have a saddle fit the mold. You can’t just set it on a saddle rack & plop a saddle on top to see how it fits.
My saddle fit lady likes them also. She tends to use a solid wood type saddle rack & places a (small) rolled up towel in the gullet area of the mold, this helps it keep the correct shape.
They are nice when you can’t get horse & saddle together in one place.
…
When I am using the EquiMeasure to find a saddle that fits I turn the saddle upside down and place the mold on it upside down. Mommy peanut is right, there is a little bit of flex, but not much. This works!
I don’t post much on COTH. One could say that I lurk. 
- Patricia, Fine Used Saddles
It sounds like you can use this multiple times- any idea how many uses one can get from it? Thanks.
The instructions say “up to five times”.
Not bad, that’s about $20.00 per use. Although I am sure that that sheet of stuff is no where near as expensive as they are charging. I think it would be easier than my idea of using paper mache!
I’ve had clients send things like that to me, and they always seem to get crushed or warped in transit. One arrived after spending a week shipping in the summer from AZ, and it was nothing but a blob by the time it reached VT. IME, an accurate template and a good conformation shot are the best bets.
I am concerned that the horse I want to use it on won’t stand correctly for the amount of time needed for the material to harden. I’m thinking the “poor man’s” and “impatient horse’s” substitute would be use a flexible ruler to get trace the spine to the last rib (marking “3 fingers back on the spine as well as 2-3” increments as you go back to the last rib). Then do a wither tracing “3 fingers” back from the shoulder blade, do tracings of back every say 2-3 inches (coordinate to spine measure with tape). Then cut vertical slots in back tracings so spine measure can “fit” into the back tracings. Wither and back tracings would fit into spine tracing at 90 degree angle.
Should result in an accurate model of the horses back for cheap. And it would not melt either! I’m going to try this and see how it goes. I will report back later.
The biggest problem I see with something like this is that you are fitting the saddle to the horse while the horse is at a standstill. Not when the horse is moving. Some horses will really lift their backs when in motion, so that a saddle that fits at a standstill will pivot once the back lifts up. I have a horse like this - he appears to have a slightly scoopy back when he’s standing still, but he lifts his back so much when he’s in motion that the panels start to pivot around the canter point, causing saddle pads to go shooting out the back. I have solved this problem by having a saddle with fairly flat panels, so that it bridges a TINY bit at the standstill, but when he moves, it conforms to his back. that solved my problem of shooting saddle pads.
Not saying that this device isn’t helpful, but just saying that it only takes into account a horse’s back when motionless.
Hello,
I have tried the Equimeasure kit for a custom saddle. It was sent to me by the saddle maker and I studied and followed their instructions very carefully and also watched an instructional video several times. Although it looked easy in the video when the saddle maker was demonstrating, these were the challenges I encountered:
You need to have a good quality modern oven that is capable of holding the 190 degree temperature and heating evenly and this set up needs to be in close proximity to your horse. You will also need a willing handler who can wait around until you get the thing to the right consistency.
For me, the sheet deformed and stretched out easily when I handled it according to instructions. This meant the measurements drawn on the sheet in the factory deformed as well and in addition, the edges of it were then hanging over the baking sheet that came with it and it stuck to the oven grates.
When it was on the horse, it retained ripples on the sides and as they dried the corners curved inward and poked into the horse’s shoulders.
Needless to say, I had to try it again. The saddle maker said I should take it back to the oven if there were ripples and reheat it. Well I would not recommend trying to reheat these. They are very difficult to reheat from a concave shape back to a flat one without making a huge mess. The withers refused to reheat and the rest of the sheet wanted desperately to stick to itself. I have never been able to use it since reheating it and I had to pay several hundred dollars for it.
I called another customer who had used one recently and they had experienced the same problem with deformation and also had problems when they had to reheat the kit.
These are endorsed by the saddle maker and the manufacturer as easy to use but they are not at all easy to use, and if it doesn’t come out right the first time, what do you do with a piece of plastic taffy that cost several hundred dollars and is non-functional? So far neither saddle makers nor manufacturer take any responsibility for what happens when they need to be reheated. (Later, I read on the Equimeasure website that they are not responsible for the quality of the sheet after it is reheated although the saddle maker mentioned nothing of this.)
In theory, making a mold of a horse for saddle fitting is a great idea, but in practice the technology could use some improvement. For instance, a sheet that does not require the use of an oven at all and does not deform, stretch or stick to itself so easily.
If anyone has encountered similar experiences with the Equimeasure kit and has figured out a fix, it would be great to hear about it.
