Princess and the pea fitting stories

[SuzieQNutter]

@endlessclimb

I’m not saying “suck it up.” I’m saying that you can spend 10k on a saddle and still have an unhappy horse because you don’t know how to ride it the way it likes to be ridden. I’d guess that the horses that are impossible to get a “good fit” as far as the horse’s attitude have some other issue making them uncomfortable - either with them physically, or the riding style of the owner.

@SuzieQNutter I agree. But a saddle that fits does not need to be fully custom, which is what this OP is alluding to. You can spend a fortune and still have nothing that works. It’s totally ok to get “close” and then use halfpads to make up the difference. I don’t buy that this horse “hates halfpads”.

I agree. I have never bought a custom saddle. I found a saddle going out on sale that has adjustable fronts. One we started using straight away. The other is now being used after hubby tried on every saddle we own on a different horse. I also got him to buy a wedge as the horse is getting older and now has a sway back. That is to balance the saddle not the horse.
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[Dutchmare433]

@strangewings

I am certainly not alluding to anything of the sort. I am looking for examples like those provided by no.stirrups and Guyot that will help me prepare questions for my fitter. Hopefully an adjustment to the current saddle will suffice, but I need to be able to communicate what is wrong, since the static fit is good. I am trying to avoid going down a long expensive shopping route.

What kinds of fitting issues have you successfully ameliorated by padding up?

Ah, my mare is another who static fit is a pretty poor indicator of actual fit. Her back moves so much when she’s working through her body, something that fits when she’s standing in the aisle is a big fat nope from her once she’s moving. She’s also in a hoop tree and is another one who likes it to fit a bit wide and wear a half pad. She has a significant wither, but immediately behind that is quite flat side to side and front to back. She likes what she likes and who am I to argue. She also wears an anatomic girth with sternum relief–not for any specific reason initially, but I didn’t have it with me one day and put her in a regular girth. She flatly refused to do a right to left flying change. (And this is a change machine.) Back into the fancy girth the next day and back to normal.

[Lostcoast]

My prince made me spend 2+ years trying saddles😡. And it wasnt because I couldnt make him suck it up and deal. We went thru many brand and a couple of fitters so I second putting in everything even if logically it shouldn’t work. What he ended up being happy in has memory foam panels with flocking and sits slightly too high in front. He wants me sitting back towards his loins on his short back. When I tried leveling the saddle he reverted to pissiness. The saddle also has cutouts at the shoulders which made a difference for his meatiness right there. And dont ever put that saddle too far forward…if anything put it too far back and he is happy.

[eightpondfarm]

so about hoop trees…Would that be an appropriate direction to try for a 'mutton shaped wither’ed mare? She has huge shoulders, not much dip and her back is med wide. And she’s uphill. (my profile pic btw)

[GreyDes]

Yup, that’s a classic hoop tree conformation!

[endlessclimb]

@no.stirrups

Very simply because he is too broad for a standard tree. I unfortunately started my saddle search by contacting people who represented brands that didn’t have hoop trees, people who didn’t believe a thoroughbred could possibly need a hoop tree, and people who didn’t listen to me when I told them he needed a saddle that was more open and more flat than they were trying to sell me (“hoop tree” wasn’t in my vocabulary at the time). I believe it was the 5th saddle fitter I worked with who finally put something on him that he could move in. It wasn’t a difficult case to work out for someone who has the tools and listens; it isn’t rocket science, and he is not a difficult fit as these things go, yet it took me two years to find him a saddle. It makes me a little angry just to think about it. But it was the motivation to start my business, and now I solve situations like his in minutes or hours rather than months and years.
Just for fun, here’s a picture of my current horse. He’s been a whole new adventure in saddle fitting! I know this will sound braggy, but the fact is that the first saddle I pulled out of my van for him, the first time I saw him, fit those withers and that curve like a glove. So I will repeat my advice from the earlier post: “my advice is to work with a fitter who has access to lots of tree options and listens to the horse.”

Good god, you can tell he’s a nightmare to fit just by looking at the picture. What a strange back!

[mychestnutvalentine]

I have a Standardbred gelding that has been tough to fit- he’s short backed, has prominent withers and 15.1 slender frame (minus his hay belly!). I was all in with County- 1 dressage, 1 jump to discover- he is not a wool flocking horse. He likes a lightweight saddle and after striking out with Devoucoux (which I loved, he did not), Prestige (which he loved but was not right for my leg), we are in an Equipe that is slightly wider than I anticipated him going in but he LOVES! Placing it on him, you would think it’s a no but the way he trots, he really used his back so it must fill that extra space.
While I saddle searched, I rode in an Wintec Isabel. Neither of us were crazy about it but it allowed me to sell my current saddle, trial others with the money gained from the original saddle when it sold and still be able to ride my horse. I sold the Wintec in a day after I found my Equipe.