Please, saddle gurus: wide wither & spine ideas

I am starting a search for a horse with prominent withers and wide shoulders. One saddle I’m excited to try is the Arion with its “shoulder free” technology. https://arion-hst.com/horse-rider-equipment/jumping-saddle-arion/

Peter Horobin is another “uncommon” one to try if you strike out otherwise. Popular in Australia and has a unique tree style that works for some.

Highline tack was wonderful to work with when I was dealing with the same issue. Big shoulder, thick back though more level than your beautiful moose.

We ended up in a Meyer, which has a been working great. Significantly broader than my prior Antares.

I may sound like a broken record but you could try Black Country. They offer template trees which are trees that are semi-custom to the horse’s back shape. If you aren’t in the market for new, there are tons of used ones on FB. I have a seriously wide girl in one of their Vinici models - she looks like IPEsq’s horse, just twice as long :joy: . BC’s panels are very generous in terms of width and spinal clearance - especially if they’re serge panels. I have three horses in BCs now. I’m a big fan.

Highline is on my list: I’ve had good experiences with them in the past, as well as Redwood.

Oh Beowulf, I’m trying to be open minded about BC. I just have never liked them - the ones I’ve tried have been so heavy and just so much saddle. That was a while ago so maybe time to try again. :slight_smile:

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I’ve worked with Highline before as well, and they are great, but it is hard to source truly wide jump saddles used. Inventory is lacking.

I may be in a little better position than you were, as fitter recommends a MW, just with a wide gullet / rails.

This discussion has been so interesting - I never though about the rails before. Figured with the panels they were well out of the way, and I use a thinline as well. I can feel them though, and it makes sense that they’d be an issue when the horse rounds his back. Like when jumping! Argh.

Oh no, that is disappointing to hear. I don’t have much experience with their non-serge, non-monoflap options – if it doesn’t have serge I’m not interested. All mine are very lightweight, but that happens when you forego half the leather, lol!

I briefly rode my extremely wide horse in a Vinici. It was very light and not a lot of saddle, if those are your primary holdups…I just hated it for other reasons :joy: If you end up wanting to explore Black Country, Patty Merli came highly recommended by multiple folks I trust. She’s in Aiken but we did a remote consultation. Didn’t end up going the BC route after the Vinici didn’t work and I didn’t have the budget for something new/custom, but Patty clearly knows what she’s talking about.

I’ll also cosign the recommendation for Highline. I trialed quite a few saddles through them and they were responsive, helpful, and easy to work with. They had a better selection of wide jump saddles compared to Redwood when I was looking (the Redwood girl’s reaction to pictures of my mare was literally “Oh yes that is wide! We don’t have anything that will fit that” lol), although that could obviously change based on what they get in.

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I also don’t like Black Countries either - I’ve found if you love a french saddle and they are a good fit for you, the english/german saddles are just not going to make you happy. It’s a different design/balance/leather quality/etc.

I’m dealing with the same fit issues with my horse - wide wither, very wide spin and flat back, large shoulder… but not a true wide tree as she does have withers and a hollow, and if you go too wide the saddles sit down in front and lift in the back. She wants a crazy wide channel and nothing close to her withers/spine, and the only thing she’s really liked so far is a Voltaire, both the Palm Beach but especially the Blue Infinite. The rep did offer to repanel one of their used saddles with broader/flatter panels than they normally make, as a new one was way out of budget (and I again refuse to buy something that can’t be returned after going against that policy and being burned by another saddle company).

So Voltaire, and as mentioned above, Forestier may be worth looking at, as well as Meyer. Butet also has a very wide channel and their wide trees have a decent amount of room, but the tree can be a bit on the curvy side.

You can also get the panels converted to wool - many people will say not to do that but as long as done appropriately by a master saddle fitter with a saddle that has enough room in the channels and bearing surface on the panels, it will be fine.

I have an independent fitter coming to look at mine today, I’ll report back if they have any insights on other things that might work.

Ahhh! That makes sense. I don’t like monoflaps - except my Butet dressage LOL - so was trying a 2 flap saddle.

Wanderlust, would love to hear what you learn! Sounds like we’re in similar boats. My guy didn’t like the Butet jump saddle I had, though that could have been because it didn’t really work for me. I did try a voltaire years ago and he liked it so may have to try again. I love the French saddles…

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Neither of mine much liked the Butet I had either, fwiw.

Sadly not much insight as far as french saddles go - my converted one was still too narrow for the horse, so we are back to the drawing board.

Maybe look at Erreplus or Prestige for wool options? I also have a used 2012 CWD coming tomorrow to try - from the era when horses used to actually like them.

Have you tried a Tad Coffin? That’s my next stop after the CWD.

We have a good local Prestige person and she’s bringing saddles for me to try in a couple of weeks - I’ll report back. She said that they’re built for this type of back (of course she did - but I’ll still try them).

Haven’t sat in a TC for years and neither of us liked it, but might be worth a shot.

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If your local Prestige rep has the initials JP I have nothing but great things to say about her.

I just used her and she was FABULOUS!

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Wait isnt the one in our area JR?

I think she deserves a shout-out so I’ll type her full name - Jordan Pruiksma.

Funnily enough, we didn’t meet through horses. We met in our early twenties when we both worked at Red Lobster in Aiken - both of us were just trying to make ends meet to fund our expensive horse hobby :joy:

I’ve since moved from Aiken, but she was conscientious and kind then - and I am sure that has not changed a bit. She always puts the horse first, and is also an incredible horse trainer.

Yes. But JP is in our area ATM. I don’t know if she is actively fitting up here.

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We’ve come all the way from Canada to have her fit horses on our ‘team’ 2 years in a row and counting. She really is that good. I had no idea she was also a trainer!

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One other idea - Prestige makes Renaissance saddles now, which are french-like but wool flocked. They look like they have fairly flat panels and wide channels.

https://www.prestigeitalia.com/us/product-cat/hunter-jumpers-us/?f_brand=renaissance

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I’ve got a similar sounding horse who has selected an ancient CTD (so Stubben tree) as his saddle of choice. Balance of the saddle is great, seat is like a block of wood, but he’s lifting his back and swinging again instead of planting and bucking so I just have a collection of seat savers and a mild bitterness about his poor taste.

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