I think I hate saddles (XW, short back, tall rider)

[Warmblood1]

I think that could possibly work OR be incredibly frustrating and never quite right - more likely the latter. It would also be a very hard resale. I’d also quite how well the saddle would hold up.

Is there a large city near you you could go to and hit up several tack stores? Sit in several saddles? Do trials with the store? If you go to a store that sells Prestige, you can have them take a picture of you in a Prestige saddle and then send that pic to Prestige - Prestige will then be able to tell you the flap and seat they recommend (extra long, extra forward, etc.,)

[RJC]

I live in a bizarre pocket in which there are 10+ boarding barns in a 10 min radius of me, but zero tack shops within an hour. I can go to the Chicago area as a day trip to sit in saddles though.

I’m bringing a cheapy “almost right” saddle on trial to see if my fitter thinks it can be massaged into working well enough for the rest of summer. I contacted a local saddle-fixer and he said that replacing the knee blocks was beyond him, so hopefully I don’t hate them as they are.

[outerbanks77]

@RJC

Would it be the behavior of an insane person to buy a very affordably priced 17.5" XW Verago with standard blocks…and then butcher the standard knee blocks to try and create a half block, then have the flocking worked a bit by my fitter to reduce the pressure from the very back of the panel?

In general I’d say better to fully remove the block and replace it with a velcro patch and use a velcro block rather than trying to reshape the existing block.

[RJC]

That seems doable. (goes off to google how to buy knee blocks that I can attach velcro to)

The saddle is priced low enough that not being able to resell it isn’t a terrible loss if I can get it to work well enough to finish out the show season.

[Posting_Trot]

Have you tried working with a tack shop that will work remotely? If you haven’t tried a place like Pelham Saddlery, you could do that. They can evaluate tracings and photos and make suggestions about what saddles might fit from their inventory of used saddles.

Worth checking out:
https://www.pelhamsaddlery.net/fitting.html

[Sue_B]

I use a Trilogy on my horse. He has insanely high withers, curvy back and HUGE barrel. The Trilogy by all standards is too long for his back and the fitter wanted to flock it to fit his curves. Horse, however, prefers a bit of bridging, so that he can lift his back up without hitting the saddle. Creative flocking has resulted in a saddle that finally, after many years of “making do” with a saddle that fit him okay and me not at all, we have a saddle we both like. My only wish is that it had short blocks, but it’s not worth ruining my lovely saddle just for that one wish.

[outerbanks77]

@RJC

That seems doable. (goes off to google how to buy knee blocks that I can attach velcro to)

Bates has velcro blocks. Kent and Masters might sell them separately too.

[RJC]

In case this wasn’t already enough fun, I found a saddle that cost more than I really wanted to spend, but made me and my horse feel amazing, but we had just gone through a barn move, and pony lost about 100 pounds in 4 days and now the saddle slips back and is all jangly on him, and I’m unsure if he will put the weight back on or not in his new lifestyle…

The weight loss is not a health concern (he’s always been on weight watchers) but he’s now pretty lean and the weight added back would take up my leg better. But I have to decide whether to keep the saddle in the next two days. Weeeee!