Hey all,
I have a friend/P/T student with a 13’2" hand Welsh/WB cross pony mare who is looking for a new dressage saddle - it’s hard to find something short enough (her present dressage saddle is too long so is impinging on her lumbar area) - and one that has “pony panels” (per the saddle fitter, who says that “no one has pony panels”, and that the owner must go the custom route - to the tune of $4,800.)
Ideas and suggestions would be much appreciated! 
Pony panels is really a brand specific terminology from Custom. However their pony panels are a lot of brands standard panels. For Custom it means theoretically shorter and less deep than standard. However I have always found the Custom standard panels longer and deeper than most brands standards panels. Therefor a lot of other brands standard panels are the same depth/length of the Custom pony panels.
For example, Standard panels on a Black Country are typically shorter and less deep then even Custom’s pony panels,
There are a lot of panel configurations and if you are shopping used, you just have to look at how the panels tie into the tree. Plus it gets really tricky if your friend needs a 17.5" seat and the pony can only take a 16.5" tree.
It would really help to know what saddle they are currently riding in to make some recommendations and of course pictures would be even better.
I hope this helps and good luck!
Thank you, very helpful! I’ll have to check with her; she is petite and could definitely do a 16.5, which may be with the mare is already in, though I believe it’s a 17 inch.
Tell her to check out the Ruby Roo saddles. I know a saddle fitter that loves them. They are geared towards children for the most part but saddle fitter I know says she would totally have one for herself if she didn’t need a size larger than what they offer.
I’m a 5’5" adult on a 13.1 pony with a short back. The saddle fitter I used suggested an older Passier with a Baum tree and upswept panels. If she doesn’t mind a saddle with minimal rolls and no blocks, this would be an inexpensive solution. The old saddle I found on ebay cost me just over $300, plus about $800 for reflocking, new billets and making a point billet. She was also able to make the panels a bit more upswept, making the surface even shorter. So, for about $1500 in total, including the saddle fitter’s appointments, I have a saddle customized for me and my pony.
Mine is similar to this one:
So I had this issue but I need to fit a 16.5 inch saddle to a 15 inch piece of real estate on a pony’s back. I ended up going with a Prestige saddle with their upswept panels that were also their ‘pony panels’. I had the saddle semi custom made to fit said pony. Up until then I was encouraged to go with some of the Italian, French or Swiss brands that typically could be found with the upswept panels and avoid gussetted saddles at all costs. This came from 3 different independent saddle fitters. I used to ride in an Albions SLK 16.5 inch seat but the gussetts made the saddle extend to far past his last rib, Passier GG worked length wise but wasn’t wide enough which for many pony breeds can also be the problem so I found an old Roosli Pilatus 16.5 inch that worked reasonably well until I could get the semi-custom saddle made. My semi custom saddle cost me $4000.
Although dressage ponies aren’t super common in the US, it’s much more common in Europe. All those European dressage ponies must have saddles that fit them, right? Googling “dressage pony saddle”, there seem to be several brands that have dressage saddles specifically for ponies - Kieffer, Wintec, Loxley (Bliss of London), Schleese, Hastilow.
I was also going to suggest Prestige as IMO the panels tend to be shorter and upswept
The Collected Pony is a wonderful website and resource, I’m sure you could ask Lara https://thecollectedpony.com/
Thanks, everyone - very helpful!!
Granted, it was 24 years ago, but I found a (then used) pony-sized Albion for my son’s 12 hand POA. It had a 14 in seat and was awfully freakin’ cute if I do say so myself. <3 But the new Albions tend to be full custom, so they might make her a saddle with pony panels. Worth the expense IMO. Good luck!
My mom’s petite, ROUND arab goes in a 17" Custom Constanze. We purchased it second hand of ebay. It’s been great and my mom loves it. It is an XW.
We tried Albion first and it was too curved however it was a very nice saddle.
My friend struggled for years with her pony’s saddle (she had one or two Customs) and finally ended up in an Aviar saddle with pony panels a couple of months ago. So, essentially, she ended up with something still developed by Custom Saddlery, but different enough that it’s made a huge change for her wonderful pony. Her pony is bigger than your friend’s so you might still run into the same issues that Sheltona noted above if Aviar’s panels are also considered standard-sized panels on other saddle brands.
Schleese has panels that barely reach the cantel… has she looked at them? My PRE has a very very short back, and his new saddle has very very short panels…
She says that the saddle the fitter is recommending is like her existing saddle - which is apparently very comfortable and fits her well – so she does not want to venture too from that.
My Loxley saddles all have short panels to accommodate my ponies. They seem to do short panels frequently as two of mine came used with the short panels.
Not sure what shape tree the pony needs but I rode my previous 13.2 with a short back up to schooling 3rd level in a Prestige Lucky Idol. Don’t be put off by it being a youth saddle. It rode like a 17” and my current saddle is a 17.5” and I’m still super comfy in that saddle. You can get them new reasonably and used for between $1000-$1500 typically
My Macrider fits my short backed Connemara. I think it might be a question of sending pictures of the pony’s back to a bunch of different fitters and seeing if they think they have anything that would work.
LetItBe
I think the issue right now is that she would want to sit in/ride in any new type or brand of saddle to make sure that it was comfortable, because she has back issues!
That’s fair. Do you mind sharing which brand she currently rides in? As some have mentioned, certain brands just tend to be “bigger saddles” with a bigger footprint. Custom is one of them. For a smaller footprint, Black Country, older County (and some newer ones too), some of the French saddles, maybe Stubben. It just depends and it means educating oneself almost to the level of a good saddle fitter, lol, which is hard to find these days…most are just brand reps/saddle sellers. Then you have to ride in all of them to see what you like and what fits you. I’d caution anyone with physical issues to buy/order a fully custom saddle unless that trial and return policy is foolproof.
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