Her saddles look great! wish they were available in the US – price point isn’t bad. Thanks for the pointer!
Sheephams have a used one and they ship to the US:
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Just saw this on eBay. $650 and from a business and not an individual seller ( i think). So maybe when you know what he needs size wise you will find something without too much trouble.
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Thank you! Have folks on here had good luck buying expensive things like saddles from eBay? I admit to being a bit skeptical about the quality of sellers / goods on the platform, due to the number of cheapie knockoff hucksters using it…
Wither tracing stuff should arrive today so I can start getting this figured out.
In the meantime, local upper-level dressage person who is also riding my guy to help train him has an Albion Platinum with a custom tree (325? whatever that means) that seems to fit him reasonably well, though it rocks a bit on him – but at least is not too narrow. I am hoping to borrow/rent it from her until I get more professional help on all this.
I personally have bought 3 saddles off eBay with no issues at all.
The seller of the saddle I linked here also has a 100% positive feedback which is important when I purchase anything on eBay!
No matter what, saddle shopping is an experience I would rather avoid. I hope you get him situated with a good fitting saddle. He is such a nice boy!
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Thank you for sharing your experiences – and thank you for your kind words! Two weeks on, with multiple rides by me, barn owner, and local dressage trainer, he’s proven himself a good egg, steady, willing, and trainable. I learned what his spooks look like a couple days ago, with snow sliding (LOUDLY) off the metal roof of the arena in which we were riding - he would ‘scoot’ a couple steps forward or possibly one sideways, and then was back with the regularly-scheduled program. Mostly made me giggle.
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To expand on this for further advice: I lunged my guy in this loaner Albion Platinum 17" 325 saddle today, and the cantle was bouncing up and down at the trot…also seemed like the saddle ended up sliding forward a bit too (not that I girth super tightly when we first get started). Should the saddle be bouncing at the lunge when no one is in it?
It shouldn’t bounce. Shouldn’t slide forward either. But a loose girth could contribute to both of those. More the sliding forward than the bouncing in my non professional opinion and experience.
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Sounds like it might be too wide and maybe too much curve to the tree. Cantle should not bounce up off his back. Im not familiar with the 325 but Albions usually fit well on a variety of horses, IMO. I’ve had an SLK dressage as well as a Legend close contact and now a Legend K2 AP that fits bothe mares reasonably well.
If you know what you need, Albion and some other brands can be purchased for cheap from the UK
I’ve bought many saddles on eBay and never been totally ripped off. Of course check feedback. Shops that list their saddles on eBay often give a better price or trial policy if you buy from them directly.
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Recommendations from my saddler for my hard to fit horse included the Albion K2 or Platinum, also Black Country Vinici (difficult to get hold of, they get snapped up fairly quickly), or GFS monoflap, or an Equipe.
I tried an Equipe Olympia which fit him perfectly but unfortunately I hated the knee rolls.
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@outerbanks77 and @Nous, thank you for the advice and thoughts! I lunged my guy in my (old, too narrow KN) yesterday, and there was no bounce at the cantle.
I’ve done a wither tracing and taken all photos that Janie at Pelham Saddlery asked for, so…crossing my fingers. In addition, since he’s turned out to be more green than represented, he’s going into a month of full training (no doubt this will change his shape 
). At this point, I’m really hoping a decent synthetic saddle can work for us for a while, since he will undoubtedly be shaped really differently by a year from now, and reselling a used leather saddle seems like it could take more time than a synthetic…
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When I was in a similar situation with a round four year old, I bought a Thorowgood synthetic saddle to buy us some time. My well-respected independent saddle fitter came to check it out and told me it would work.
As he matured, I upgraded. I have a pretty good eye for what works for my horses (saddle fitter wanted me to work for/with her to handle some of her overflow clients), and this particular horse – while a good, cooperative boy – wears his heart on his sleeve, so it’s easy to see when he’s happy.
I liked this saddle, especially for the money, and have kept it on hand as a spare.
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I am totally fine with buying synthetic…I just don’t have a good sense of what will fit him (not enough experience). I have wither tracings on hand now too. I’ll check out Thorowgood’s site to see if they make it easy to try a saddle. Thank you!
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They have a list of stockists – there’s quite a few in the USA, although none in my state. Dealers include Trumbull Mountain, Smart Pak Equine, etc., so you might well be able to trial one.
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Hastilow stocks those and will review your tracings. I thought their trial policy was good
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Actually, the more I think about it…his shape is going to be changing All. The. Time. for a while (he’s in full training for at least the next month, maybe more), so I’m wondering why I bothered getting wither tracings…wouldn’t it be best just to get him a saddle with interchangeable gullet plates (like Thorowgood or Bates) for now?
The problem with the adjustable gullet saddles is that they still may not fit your particular horse. The width of the saddle (which adjusting the gullet addresses) can be changed but the shape of the tree from front to back cannot.
So if your horse has a curvy back and the saddle’s front to back shape is straighter, adjusting the gullet won’t help you. Or, worse, you may think it’s helping you and as you use the saddle, it makes the horse’s back really sore.
So the wither tracing should include a longitudinal tracing (i.e. withers to last rib) that can be useful for figuring out if that adjustable saddle will in fact work.
There’s a detailed description of how to take a wither tracing like a pro on the Dutchess Saddle site
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Not a waste of time. The shape will inform you on whether the adjustable gullet saddles are a viable option or not. They don’t tend to have a lot of space up near the wither, so going to a wider gullet just makes the tree point angles more obtuse, but that doesn’t really help if there’s not enough space up at the top. In your shoes, I think I would try to find something with the right longitudinal shape, and about a size too wide (the trick is finding something that is wide all over, not just a very flared tree angle, which will concentrate weight up near the withers), and then use a shim pad to make adjustments as he changes.
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@Posting_Trot and @outerbanks77 - thank you for the advice! Glad to get the perspective…and I guess I’d better send some tracings off to Hastilow or someone. I’ve emailed a bunch of photos and info to Pelham 4 or 5 days ago but have not received any reply yet.
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What Posting_Trot just said is exactly why I suggested TreeClix. Most adjsutable saddles are fairly A-framed. TreeClix are available in a much greater range of shapes, including hoop trees. They are available in all new saddles from Harry Dabbs, Frank Baines, and Jeffries, among others. Those three brands I just mentioned have a combined total of dozens of different tree shapes. You can almost certainly find one that fits your horse, and the TreeClix will allow you to adjust it to whatever size you need.
Here’s videos to show how they work:
This one was made by the inventor, it sort of explains how they work but it doesn’t actually show the TreeClix! https://youtu.be/wVW9nsS7qFA
So I made this one after getting them on a saddle from Frank Banes: https://youtu.be/Qp3dESO7mNE
