I’d say if you have time and opportunity, get some pics of her with your saddle without a pad. There’s a few things that will cause saddles to run up onto the shoulders. Hopefully it can be solved easily with some simple changes.
Edited to ask- The saddle looks new. Does it have a flex tree or a tree with a lot of flare to the bar tips for shoulder clearance?
PS- she’s not ugly she’s just growing,they all go through it while we wonder why the hell we bought or bred it. Lol
I still think she is lovely. She will grow into a nice horse; just squint when you look at her right now.
When she wears a surcingle, does it ride up the same way and rub?
A little, but not nearly as much. The dressage saddle is probably the best for staying put, after I moved the front billet to the point. But she’s froggy, and I want more to hang onto for now 
Edit: but the dressage girths still galled - all different shapes. I hadn’t tried leather yet, though.
I used one of these eons ago, when showing western pleasure. It was on my show saddle so never really on the horse for extended periods of time, but it is padded.
To be honest, though, I would be worried about it catching or pinching really delicate skin that is already compromised.
Oh no, she’s done growing I think. She might fill in a little but she hasn’t grown in height at all in the 6 months she’s been here. She turns 4 this year, according to her teeth.
That said, her neck muscling is slowly changing, and honestly her canter is really nice and uphill. Her trot isn’t too shabby either.
Yeah. I might give it a try but that doesn’t look as padded or smooth as the English counterparts. Maybe it’s just the picture.
I have no doubt that you have already had this thought, but I am going to type it anyway.
Does anyone you know have tack you can try so you do not have to buy stuff to figure out that it will work?
That would sure make it much easier to try all kinds of stuff.
Not in size 26. 
The saddle, maybe. But the girths, I’m pretty well up the creek because of the size she needs.
Seeing how far up on her shoulder the saddle is in that second photo, I would bet a couple bucks its the saddle fit and not the girth being the root cause of the galls. Love that saddle though!
Id like to see the saddle without the pad as well if you can get them. Ponies can be so hard to fit 
Hope it can be fixed with padding because as stated - new saddle is not in the cards, period. That money is being spent on training. She’s froggy bareback, too.
I should be able to get pics either late today or tomorrow.
I’ve owned several mules over the years. Because of the way they are built, saddles almost always ride up and cinches almost always end up jammed in right here behind the elbow. Out of 3 that were riding mules, only one could hold a saddle without assistance from a crupper or breeching. Using breeching to hold the saddle back also helps keep the cinch from riding forward if you attach the side straps to the rings of the cinch, like this:
Right now, your best and least expensive option might be to try breeching. You can find them online for less than $100. Set your saddle back off the withers/shoulders and keep it there with the breeching.
Yes. I know that violates every rule of proper saddle fitting. You should never do anything like that. And I wouldn’t rig my breeching like they show in the link I attached. But sometimes needs must as a short term/temporary solution. Especially since right now, you’re just getting Grundy started under saddle, so you’re lunging and riding briefly and in contained areas.
I agree with this (and others) who have said the saddle looks to be way far forward and up on her shoulder/scapula.
When they are young/not developed it can be a real challenge so I don’t have much advice other than poking around on the Nikkel’s websites for saddle fit.
Original website: https://rodnikkel.com/content/tree-and-saddle-fitting/index.html
Newer/condensed version: Western Saddle Fit
I believe you bought a Flex2 Circle Y saddle, didn’t you?
I agree the ultimate problem is how far forward it is sitting on her. If that cinch is being shoved up into her elbow, there might be nothing you can do to avoid it rubbing.
I agree it would be most helpful to get better pictures of her standing square, with the saddle on, with no pad, to see how it is really fitting.
If anything (on the poor pictures provided so far) it might be a bit WIDE, considering the back is popping up. I wonder if shimming the saddle would help at all? Would need to see better pictures to decide that.
I have a horse with a very well-sprung rib cage and his girth is always up in his elbow as a result. I have used this PC Equisential cinch type for years, and years on him, with no girth galls. I did previously use the expensive Shearling version but it would fall apart in about 2 months. Then I tried the step down Merino wool which lasted a little bit longer but still not that great, until I decided to try the “cheap” version Equisential and it’s worked great. Holds up well, cleans easily.
I tried numerous, numerous cinches before this, including the Shoulder Relief Cinch, which all gave him terrible sores. So sticking with what works!
Correct, it is a circle y flex tree, in semi-QH bars. I would agree that if anything it is wide, particularly in the back half but potentially wide all over. Shimming might work, or maybe one of those pads that has “holes” where the shoulder hollows are might hold it still more?
I have everything laid out to get pictures tomorrow morning. It’s too late and I’m too tired this evening.
She isn’t mutton withered. They aren’t high, but they are there. She just has no “hollows” behind her shoulder blades at all, up she goes.
Ill be happy to hear others thoughts as I am FAR from an expert, but having recently gone through western saddle fitting a wide fjord, this saddle from almost all the photos looks too wide, and maybe just too big for her? It really sits on her shoulder, and if it slides even further when she’s working, I think any girth is going to jam up her armpit.
The crupper idea sounds like a low cost one to try and see if that helps the sliding and the galling, but to me, I think it’s not a great fit size/width wise.
I don’t have great photos of ours, but you can see how differently his sits and the amount of armpit space he still has with the same type of girth here. Caveat, it’s a treeless saddle so its a completely different build type.
You might be about to the point on deciding if you really want to move forward with this horse.
Obviously it’s not awesome to use tack that doesn’t fit, but it’s awfully hard to move forward with a horse who really isn’t sure she wants to be on board with this whole game when she’s not comfortable in the tack. Every time you work her in stuff that doesn’t feel good, you’re just reinforcing and confirming that this isn’t fun for her. And no surprise bareback isn’t better if all she’s known is having a person up feels bad. That’s a lot of baggage to work through before she might even realize things are better.
And I know you’ve expressed before that you expect horses to work through when things aren’t perfect, but you’ve just got no credit here. If things have never been good enough for her to take a deep breath and think things are okay, you’ve got nothing to spend.
Training money isn’t well spent if the tack is working against you and the horse. How about investigating cheap (maybe synthetic?) saddles? It doesn’t have to be sexy, just something that works for this horse for now. This just looks like so much for her. The front edge of the saddle is actually sitting entirely ahead of the front edge of her scapula?
A hard line on not being willing to outfit her with appropriate tack might just mean this isn’t your horse.
I have an Arab mare who really tends to get girth galls the first 30-60 days every spring as I am getting her fit again. Once her belly is tighter and she is fitter, it gets MUCH better.
It would happen with the alpaca cinch and the tsf (but the tsf helps a lot).
I don’t know if you can try to do a centerfire latigo setup to try to pull the cinch farther back. You may be able to rig it with the back rigging, or not.
She does best with the 7/8 rigging and back the the back ring. Plus a crupper, and I keep the cinch on the looser side which really seems to help. Snug- but not so tight to pull it forward.
It is super frustrating though!
@endlessclimb , just my opinion based off your pics veiwed on my cracked phone screen-
As mentioned above, being too wide will cause a saddle to run up onto the shoulders. Also too much rock in the bars. It’s an issue with Flex Trees have and trees made with bar flare or shoulder flare, as it’s marketed as, and it’s BS. Excessive bar flare is not going to free up the shoulder. The tree runs up until it hits the back of the shoulder but yours runs up over.
You asked about your rear skirts earlier. Looking at pictures on the internet, I noticed the Circle Ys with the flex tree and your style of skirt seem to do that. My question is, when you sit in your saddle does it flatten out due to the flex? Are the rear bar pads making full contact?
On a traditional tree I’d suggest feeling up under the bars with your hand(no pad, uncinched) to make sure the bars were making full contact on her back. But I don’t know how accurate it would be as your tree changes with you in the saddle.
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