I’m starting to ride a horse at the barn with really big shoulders and her saddle doesn’t fit me. She’s the most unusual whither pattern I’ve ever seen. Rather than a nice smooth curve from one side to the other, her shoulder blades stand out away from her body. There is probably 1/2 - 3/4 inch of a “shelf” on the top of her shoulders. The thing is she could wear a medium tree if not for her shoulders. Unfortunately the bottom of the tree on my dressage saddle pokes into her shoulders.
So what is the best way to fit her? Get a wide/extra wide big enough for her shoulders even though the top of the tree won’t be supported right by her withers? Or am I stuck with treeless as the only option? Any other suggestions? TIA!
I had a Clydesdale/Standardbred cross mare that had shoulders the size of Nebraska and was wide.
I went thru 2 years of trying saddles before I contacted a County rep. Oy, I should have done that 2 years prior. Nothing but custom was going to fit her big shoulders, wide body and short-coupled spine. I tried three dressage saddles… the third one was the charm. My butt was in heaven and the mare actually LIFTED THRU her back for the first time since I bought her.
Save yourself the hassle and get a fitter out.
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You have to fit the shoulders, both in terms of width and angle as well as the lateral and longitudinal shape of the back first, and then make sure there’s also wither clearance.
This can easily mean using shims to fill in the hollows beside the withers.
It may mean a hoop tree, or at least a tree that’s more upside down U, than A frame
Do you have a couple of pics? Straight side view, and then one above and behind to see the lateral shape.
The same principles apply with treeless. The good ones still have some sort of tree, it’s just not rigid, and not all suit all shapes, despite what some try to claim.
When you say you’re riding this horse - are you leasing? A school horse? Who owns the horse?
I’m leasing the mare. So I don’t want to get into major $$$ for a custom saddle. I’m just trying to figure out where to start looking so I don’t spend too long looking at the wrong options. She’s wearing a Black County right now, but I can’t even sit in the saddle comfortably. I will post pics as soon as I can. Thank you for the help.
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BC and her shoulders likely means it’s the hoop style, and that comes with a wide twist which is likely why it’s uncomfy for you. This is part of what most don’t look at when buying horses - can they comfortable straddle the horse. It’s really, reallyreally hard to impossible to find wide hoop saddles without wide-ish twists
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Sorry for the delay, but here are pictures of her back. I didn’t realize how asymmetrical she was until I was taking pictures. Any suggestions?
First off, pet peeve of mine, you don’t fit the saddle to the shoulders of a horse. The structure of the saddle should be behind the scapula, so therefore it doesn’t really play into the tree fit. What is does do is indicate how the horse carries itself.
Also that horse is not a hoop tree horse. If you put a hoop on it in the correct size, you will struggle with it staying up in front or lateral roll of the saddle. To get it stable in a hoop, it will have to be too narrow.
Acknowledging to whom I’m replying 
Yes, the point need to be behind the scapula, but the whole shoulder apparatus is more than just that bone
By “shoulder” I think most of us are talking to include the muscling that goes along with it, and the combination dictates the shoulder are under which the tree points sit
Does that seem fair?
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I wonder if this mare has broken the top off her withers? It can make them appear quite asymmetrical depending on where the bone tips end up, and fool the eye into thinking they are wider than they really are.
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It’s quite possible. I haven’t done any specific diagnostics. She’s not in pain from what I can tell. We’re still working on getting to know each other, but she’s super sweet and I don’t want to hurt her unknowingly. Thanks for the info!
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I wouldn’t worry about her hurting, if that is the case. There’s a lot of perfectly happily functioning horses out there who are missing the tops off their withers. I’ve owned two of them. One had a distinctly asymmetrical look to her when you knew, but it was further forward and didn’t affect saddle fit, and my current guy has no asymmetry, just a “well would you look at that!” top line over his withers.
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