is flaring up again! Moved to a new facility that has trails around the property and I would love to find a nice trail saddle.
Found a lovely little barrel saddle that fits both of us!! Medium oil, square skirt, but still very lightweight. Can’t find a brand name, but appears to be pretty nice quality and hey - it fits!
Now on the hunt for a nice headstall/breast collar set. (Saddle slid back a tiny bit during some on trail antics of the “do a 180 spook and take off” variety!)
Welcome to the dark side.
Unfortunately, the best way to find a saddle that fits is to try several before deciding what to buy. Also work with a good saddle fitter. Again, unfortunately, western saddle fitters are few and far between, it seems.
With that being said, if you want lightweight with a rounded skirt, start with barrel racing saddles.
[QUOTE=bluemooncowgirl;7195171]
Welcome to the dark side.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=bluemooncowgirl;7195171]Unfortunately, the best way to find a saddle that fits is to try several before deciding what to buy. Also work with a good saddle fitter. Again, unfortunately, western saddle fitters are few and far between, it seems.
With that being said, if you want lightweight with a rounded skirt, start with barrel racing saddles.[/QUOTE]
I was afraid you’d say that! Yup, I am also thinking barrel saddle . . .
If I measured the width of my hunt saddle - would that measurement be useful as a guide for what might fit in a western saddle?
Not really, because where are you going to measure? Different english saddles have different tree points (some are shorter or longer than others) so you may even get different measurements within one type of saddle. Same goes with western trees. It isn’t that it won’t work, it just won’t give you a definitive answer. It would probably be better to do a wither tracing/cardboard cutout that you could take with you to stores. But even that only tells you a fraction of the story.
I’m an english rider trying to find a western saddle as well and I cannot tell you how much more frustrating it has been for me than trying to find an english saddle! I’m finding that there’s so much more to western trees than english trees and I’m kind of stuck in this loop of not knowing how/where to proceed after spending hundreds of dollars on shipping back and forth to try saddles and lots of time driving around to stores to sit in things and still not finding one after trying lots!
ARG!
Sorry to hijack, but this is not a fun process - but I wish you luck!
What Pocket said.
Luckily I got blessed with a fellow barn manager who is very knowledgeable about western saddles and appropriate fit, so I had some good “eyes on the ground” to help me back when I actually had horses.
Where are you located? Maybe others in your area could chime in with recommendations for tack shops/fitters.
Thanks guys - there are several saddlefitters in the area (NW suburbs of Chicago), so in that regard, I think I will be OK. (I would hope at least one of them can fit a western saddle.) Luckily, I also have a few shops in the area that handle used western saddles - I guess it will just be a matter of taking a wither tracing with me - at least that would be a start.
Try Abbeta saddles most of them seem to have some pretty good pommel clearance and are synthetic (easy to clean and lightweight!). Also they have quite a few different trees to choose from and as a bonus they are mostly sold in round skirts. Big horns are ok saddles for the money as well and I once had one with a TWH tree that was designed specifically for high withers that fit my TB ok… not great, but it wasn’t sitting on his withers like some other saddles and it was mostly used for parades. Generally I just ride english (close contact saddle) all of the time though; I mostly ride endurance now but will use it for the occasional barrel run or sliding stop. I also take the lesson kids on trail rides in english saddles.
There are lots of videos on you tube if you look for western saddle fitting, watch as many as you can and you will begin to get the idea of how the saddle should fit, what it looks like when it does, and when it does not.
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