Need a new saddle/advice on fitting my OTTB

[rschaeffer]

I am looking for a saddle or advice on saddle fit for my OTTB mare. My current HDR Advantage is great, but it’s a bit too narrow for her and pads aren’t helping. It also puts me a bit more forward than I would like.

I am 5’3" and fairly short legged. Need around a 16" I don’t show currently so don’t need anything super new or fancy, looking around 500$ Love big knee rolls (I have an old knee injury) but not a necessity, and prefer a less forward cut then my current HDR.

I have had some people suggest different types of Crosby’s, but since they are (discontinued?) it’s hard to find info about fit and especially what is good for an OTTB.

Any suggestions welcome! My mare is 15.1 hh fairly high withers, fairly narrow, but with a good spring of rib. She already has slight back issues/soreness from the track, and while I am working on that separately, I still want her to have the best saddle fit possible.

Thanks so much!

[Melissa.Van_Doren]

Sent you a PM.

[Simbalism]

I have two TB mares. I have a Wintec 2000 AP that seems to fit well for both of them. It came with the whole gullet size kit, but so far they both seem to fit well in the same size. My older saddle is a Pessoa AO which fits well on my older mare. Haven’t tried it on the younger one yet.

[Posting_Trot]

If a saddle is too narrow, then pads don’t help.

You might look at some of used Black Countrys that are for sale on various on-line tack stores. I used to have a close contact Black Country that fit my TB mare very well.

In general, you might be best off doing a set of wither tracings of your horse and sending them to a tackshop that does remote fitting. Then at least you’ll be trying saddles that have a good chance of fitting your horse, and you can focus more on what you want or need for you.

Good luck.

[GoForAGallop]

You will likely need a saddle with skidrow/K panels/wither gussets, like the Black Country mentioned above. However, you’re not going to find one of those in the $500 range.

What I can suggest that might get close to that, is to look for the Thoroughgood Hi-Wither models, which are built in a way to clear those withers and fill in the pockets behind them. New, they’re in the $800 range, but can be found used for closer to $500.

The alternative after that is to start shopping for saddles with trees slightly wider than needed, and fill in/lift over those withers with some creative padding. However, if this is your solution, I strongly encourage you to spend the $50 call fee to get a saddler out to show you how to pad properly, and explain what is attempting to be resolved, so that you are not causing your horse any additional back soreness, which can easily be done. More pads does not always equal better.

[jaybird660]

Can you post conformation shots from the side and looking down on the back as well as photos from the side,back and front see examples:(girthed without a pad),
http://www.trumbullmtn.com/saddle-fitting/fitting-assessment-photos/ to have a better idea of your needs.

As mentioned above, padding up a narrow saddle might make it look balanced but would you put extra pairs of thick socks on with shoes that were already too tight?