Oh good, thanks!
Sounds a lot like my mare’s back. She’s wide and curvy. She takes the widest RP tree. The cool thing about their construction is that the panels that contact the horse ride on hard velcro’d discs (which are how the panels stick to the tree), which are completely moveable, so if your horse has big ass shoulders like mine does, you can ensure that the saddle pressure is behind those shoulders not on them.
The EQ/RP saddles are not cheap, but they are a great resource for people with hard to fit horses.
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They do have their downsides though. For me, right now, they’re way too complicated. I need simpler.
Dunno about complicated. You measure the horse, you get the saddle with the tree you need, you get it fit to your horse, and you now have a usable saddle. Frankly it doesn’t end up any more complicated than any other saddle – the start-up part is the onerous part.
If you have a horse with a challenging back, getting a saddle that fits right is going to be more difficult unless you get super lucky, and this is one pretty straightforward way. Better than trying twenty saddles and not having any of them work.
I’d say that if you live in an area with EQ or RP saddle fitters, go for it, if money is not the main consideration. If not, then yes it isn’t so easy particularly the first time. I recently refit my RP saddle with the company owner via Zoom. Neither of us had a good connection so we spent a good half the time just thrashing with the damned app. But if not for that, it would have been pretty straightforward.
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Great post. Besides my physical issues, I don’t want a really heavy saddle on my horse, also. Agreed that even leather saddles are not breathable. Along those lines, though, I prefer a contoured pad to the regular rectangle, especially in the summer. Why cover up more of the horse and make them sweat more. I can’t help further on the saddle, though, because I love the Wintec Pro.
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Good points - thanks!
You might have already made a saddle purchase, but I just ordered an ElCampo shorty with DP’s extra wide, U-shaped tree. I had an ElCampo delFlor that I sold recently, as it was too long for his short back. I loved that saddle but even at a wide setting, I found it pinched behind his shoulders a bit. Not HORRIBLE, but a bit.
After looking at a lot of hoop and U-shaped tree saddles (I didn’t know DP had that option for the ElCampo series) but mourning the loss of the ElCampo I sold, for it was the most comfortable saddle I’ve ever sat in, I visited the showroom a local DP rep and fitter.
I’d taken my tracing and a bendy bar as well as pics of Felix’s back and conformation. She showed me one of DP’s extra wide tree saddles, I bent the bendy bar to my tracing, and BINGO. He needed that tree.
Once it arrives, this will be the twelfth saddle I’ll have tried on him with the third fitter. He’s been a nightmare to fit.
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My first RP saddle did put me in a chair seat but the one I have now, the Heraldic, keeps me quite correct. My teacher (also known as Legs Back!) was quite impressed.
I’m breaking in a new El Campo Shorty right now. Horse loves it, and I like it better every ride. Very comfortable for everyone who’s sat in it.
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