I will shortly go back to riding in my spare saddle which is a Thorowgood t4 high wither synthetic model. Not great for rider positioning, but my horse can be ridden in it while I figure out what to do with my regular saddle.
My dressage saddle fits my horse well. It has a cutback head and full front gussets. I tried to take some photos tonight, but they didn’t turn out well since it was at night and I was using a flash. I’m still getting used to my new camera. lol.
For people that are familiar with the T4 high wither saddle, my dressage saddle has full front gussets similar to that.
My current jumping saddle is a Black Country Quantum which has great balance for me, but there is very little wither clearance so it doesn’t work for my horse. When girthed up, the saddle barely has two finger widths of clearance and that’s pushing it. Another problem is the lack of clearance on the side. It is a very tight fit. If you put your finger on the side of the withers, you can barely get one finger in there. If you move to one side or the other by weighting one stirrup, the saddle presses against the horse’s withers.
Using a riser pad keeps the saddle off the front, but tilts the saddle back. using a thicker pad to get more clearance in front and back just raises the saddle up and make it look like it is floating on the horse’s back. So obviously, this saddle has to go.
I’ll be riding exclusively in my dressage saddle for now, but need to find a new jumping saddle asap. Ordering custom is out because I don’t want the wait or the frustration of having another order go bad (tried in twice, won’t do it again). I’ve been looking around places like fineusedsaddles.com, but haven’t seen anything that I think might work for a high withered horse, at least with the combination of flap position and seat size that I’m looking for.
I’d rather not buy new if I don’t have to. I’m reluctant to spend more than $3k because if I have to sell it for some reason down the road, I know I’m going to lose money.
Whats brands have full front gussets and maybe a cutback head that I could easily get off the rack, new or used?
