Managed to serious tick off someone today (saddle fit)

[Tee]

So there’s this gal at our barn, has her new 6 year old Paint mare in training to be restarted under saddle. In the meantime, she is searching for a saddle to fit her mare. I guess she’s tried a few and they haven’t worked. Mare is not very big or wide through her shoulder.

I was riding today when she came out, and had another gal meet her with a saddle to try. R asked me if I knew about saddle fit, and I said yeah, some. Already the gal with the saddle isn’t happy. I kept riding and then when R asked to borrow a pad, I said that was fine, but I’d try the saddle on first without the pad. If it doesn’t fit w/o a pad, you aren’t going to make it fit (except minor things) with a pad. So they put the saddle up and I hopped off to look. This was a super nice Champion, but built weird, in my opinion. It was built up where it sat on the side of the withers, so it sort of hung in the air. And there was about 1.5" of gap from her shoulder to the saddle on both sides. Did. Not. Fit.

This gal is ranting and raving about how this is a FQHB saddle and nothing else will fit and it’s fit everything she’s put it on (of course, if she thought it fit this mare, I’d question that…). And of course it isn’t going to fit w/o a pad and she should have an expert look at it, blah blah. She was seriously pissed.

After she left, I showed my saddles to R and showed how the one I was riding in fit Remy thru the shoulder and back and everywhere else. Nothing sticking out anywhere. And hopefully she can use that next time she looks at a saddle.

But wow… made someone hate me in less than five minutes. I think that’s a record. LOL

[Draftmare]

I would guess that the person with the saddle was thinking that it was for sure sold, or was mad that she thought her sale was going to fall through. Oh well!

[js]

Something to consider: Since the person that was buying the saddle has a horse that is just getting back into training and restarted under saddle, the horse is likely not very fit so the horse’s back will change shape, add more muscle and fill out. While the saddle might not fit initially after a few months of riding and conditioning it may have been the right choice. If it was initially too wide, a pad with wither inserts could have made it a better fit until such time that the horse was more fit and in shape. Of course that doesn’t mean the saddle would still be a good fit but just saying it was something that should be considered.

[Tee]

And we discussed that. But this isn’t a gal that has a lot of money to spend, and would be better off waiting to see if the mare does fill out, rather than buy a saddle hoping for the best, and then not having it work. If it was just a little wide, I would agree. But she’s not going to fill out enough to take up 3" of space in the shoulders.

[ReSomething]

I take my wire form and stuff it up there. The pony takes FQHB and just try to find an English saddle, so every once in a while I’ll go to the consignment shop with the form and test a few. If they are an A on top of my round form forget it, and if that paint is a little narrow A forget it.

Now if it’s a little narrow round thing maybe, but if the shoulder itself is too narrow it’s never really going to get wider, you’re going to have to make a thick round pad, and I just don’t see that all the padding in the world is going to make that saddle truly fit. It’s always going to need a breastplate and be a problem at mounting time. I gather you told her this wasn’t the one, and I agree.

[offtracked]

If she finds a saddle to buy that fits now, but later it no longer fits, she can sell it to finance a new one. I’ve done that. She just needs to have it in mind that whatever she buys isn’t the one she is stuck with forever.

[Doctracy]

[QUOTE=Tee;8373703]
And we discussed that. But this isn’t a gal that has a lot of money to spend, and would be better off waiting to see if the mare does fill out, rather than buy a saddle hoping for the best, and then not having it work. If it was just a little wide, I would agree. But she’s not going to fill out enough to take up 3" of space in the shoulders.[/QUOTE]
FQHB tends to be much too wide for horses other than old,bull dog style.