Does anyone have experience with Kuda Saddlery? www.kudastore.com
Are they breed or discipline specific? Anything they have isnāt anything Iād be interested in. The only thing I did see, they have a Mormon bit which is popular in my area.
I dont know much about western saddles as my discipline to date has been dressage. I am currently looking for a western saddle after borrowing one and liking the security and comfort. My horse is a short backed Andalusian and has been a fitting nightmare. I am currently riding in a Tucker trail saddle and, as my horse is getting fitter, its just too wide. Plus its pretty heavy.
I am definitely open to and appreciate any suggestions.
Check out Steele saddles (https://steelesaddle.com/ ). They will customize a saddle to your specifications, and they will work with you to make sure it fits your horse. And, you can get a saddle to try out for a couple of weeks before you decide to buy.
I love my Steele saddle. I can ride for hours and my knees never, never, never hurt. When I bought mine I had to wait a couple of months for delivery but it was totally worth it.
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Kuda is popular with the Paso Fino folks. A couple of my friends have the flex trail saddles and they really like them.
If youāre a dressage rider you might like a McCall Wade or All Around style saddle. Iāve got a McCall Wade and it puts me in a fantastic position. (Tuckers tend to put you in more of a chair seat.) The nice thing about the Wade and All Around styles is that they have short/rounded skirts so can work well with shorter backed horses.
The McLite versions of these saddles are in about the 25 lb range, not sure what you consider to be too heavy.
(McCall is the saddle brand, Wade and All Around are the styles, with McLite being the lighter versions of those styles.)
Not sure if anybody has showed you the āeasyā way to swing up a heavy western saddle but it makes a big difference! Granted carrying them to the horse still sucks compared to a dressage saddle. 
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As said above they are popular for Paso finos, Iāve only ridden in the more gaited horse specific ones but I found them to be extremely comfortable, lightweight, and they have a high quality feel to them. Iām definitely tempted to inquire about getting one of their custom western/endurance saddles for whatever horse I end up with.
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I will investigate the McCall Wade. Also, thank you for the video - I will definitely try this. Know anything about that grey horse in the video? He is lovely!!
I tried this once on my horseā¦slammed him in the ribsā¦he said āOooooph!!!ā and gave me a look Iāll never forget. I need to practice to get the hang of it, but I donāt want to beat him up while Iām trying to get it right.
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He made it look so simple and the saddle just seemed to float up onto the horse. I am definitely going to try this. I am of the heft, grunt and shove it up the side of the horse and my saddles are not heavy. I just have shoulder issuesā¦
Those saddles look interesting. What about the Paso Fino makes it so popular with your friends @leather?
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Kuda carries traditional Paso Fino tack (bits, headgear, etc.) so itās one of the go-to places for Paso people. Their saddles are lightweight and sized right for Pasos - it can be tricky to find a saddle for an adult rider and a āponyā sized horse combination. 
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Not personally - he was a training horse that Warwick had in a while ago. If you search through that channel for Andalusian there are a bunch more videos with him (there is a full series), they might have more information.
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I kept wanting to tell that man to pay some attention to the looks on that horseās face. He didnāt say a word about rider height and upper body strength.
I would recommend speaking with Staci at Allegany saddlery. The saddles are semi-custom, and the fitting process involves videoing and photographing the various trees on your horseās back, with Staciās review and recommendations.
In general, the AW tree fits my PREs well, and the seat position itself is balanced. (Not really a western rider myself either.) Many different skirt styles and cinching options; I have the Cascade Wade model.
If youāre looking more off the shelf, Iāve had luck with Circle Y.
Good luck in your search. Those short backs and big shoulders can be such a challenge to fit.
greys
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I cannot saddle a horse the āWarwickā way- the boobs and the tubby middle get all in the way LOL.
I have never heard of Kuda.
I do have a good opinion of Alleghany Mountain saddles, as well as Eli Miller/Henry Miller. Iāve owned both and been really happy with the quality, lighter weight, shorter length of tree for my husbandās subcompact SSH. I do NOT like the āsuspendedā seat you see Eli Miller and others offer on some models. IMO they set you up and away from the horse in a way I find disconcerting. They are great for riders on pacey horses doing field trials and riding like a sack of potatoes, though.
NOTE: Anything with āWadeā in the name of the style is going to be HEAVY unless otherwise noted. We have the Cascade Wade from Alleghany, and it is not heavy, but I hate that stupid fat horn, LOL- it is so in the way of my hands. Happily, itās his saddle for his horse, so my opinion matters not 
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at 2:30 minutes he notes that the horse just literally came into his barn for training that week, and he had only saddled him once before. Rome is not built in a day and sometimes itās built right in front of you. Iād say WS knows a bit about horse training LOL.
Thatās something that stumped me for a moment when I first threw a leg over. What do I do with all that stuff in front of me? At least the horn is low profile, and the saddle doesnāt have huge swells. (But one can add bucking rolls if desired).
Overall though, I found it easier to switch over to than the other western saddles Iād tried. Quite a learning curve to assess all the different options out there.
greys
Indeed!
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I had a Kuda saddle. Rode in it for a while but I finally sold it. It was a bit narrow in the gullet and the seat size was slightly small for me. This was an older model with a traditional tree. It was synthetic and extremely light weight. It did have a memory foam seat that was comfy.
Kuda has several options as far as tree and design so look it over carefully and decide what you want before buying.
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