Saddle Fitting: DraftX, a tall girl & the dreaded chair seat?

[subk]

We are struggling with saddle fit for my 5’11 daughter and her new 5 year old draft cross. Everything we’ve tried so far puts her in a chair seat.

I know it’s probably a double whammy on horse fit and rider fit. The horse measures as a Med/Wide. We’ve tried wides and mediums 17.5-18.5. A thick riser pad under the cantle helps but hasn’t shown itself to be a solution.

Right now the best thing we’ve got is one of my custom-to-me Stackhouses with the riser in a medium (I’m 5’10). The medium is better than the same saddle in a wide. She can’t afford a Stackhouse and I’m not giving her mine. So I’m desparate for some suggestions.

We tried a wide Black Country XLong, XForward, a wide Loxley–we liked the interchangeable gullet in the wide better than the med/wide. And two others I don’t know off the top of my head what they are.

Anyone have any success with this problem? I have next to no experience with DraftXs. Suggestions?

[GreyDes]

Is he wide enough to need a hoop tree (more U shaped than V shaped through his withers)? If so, even a standard wide tree may be sitting too high off his back and the poor balance will contribute to a chair seat.

Have you tried doing tracings and consulting with a remote fitter? I bought a new BC from Patty Merli and had her evaluate one on trial that way.

[subk]

Thanks for responding! He’s not that wide. The saddle fitter that I trialed the Bliss Loxley from fit the actual gullets to him (they are interchangeable in that saddle) and put him in their wide. He definitely was not an extra wide.

I have had another independent saddle fitter do a tracing and she had him right on the mark for a med/wide–but nothing in stock at the moment. She din’t think the problem is the width as much as it is the drafty over developed shoulder muscle. One suggestion was a tree whose points sweep back–but I’m told that’s the Black Country that I have–which is bad–and the Bliss Foxhunter which I haven’t found yet.

If I recall the Black Country I have was built on the U hoop tree–and again that might be the worse of them all. (As far as my personal saddle inventory, it would be a home run if it fit!)

Also I’m throwing a riser into the mix to lift the cantle trying to adjust the balance. But we have to put it in a half pad to keep it in place and that might be effecting the fit under the points. You think you know all this stuff and then in real life everything is so confusing: does the half pad lift the tree and make a a tree wider by sitting it higher of does it make a tree narrower by putting padding between the points and the horse?

Is there a way to stabilize a riser pad under the cantle without putting anything under the points?

The chair seat is the result of the pommel being higher than the cantle? But maybe a problem with her thigh length and the stirrup bar placement–but that gets to technical for me to sort out…

[Highflyer1]

Any riser pad that goes under the whole saddle will affect the fit. They do make ones that go just under the cantle but I haven’t had much luck keeping them in place-- I do know someone who uses one and cut up a non slip pad and glued it to the bottom of the riser pad and has had good luck with that.

The old school foam lollipop pads are probably the way to go, but they aren’t big enough for 18"+ saddles unfortunately. It might be worth trying to custom make your own though.

[Xanthoria]

Long thighs need set back stirrup bars (adjustable if you can find them) and the correct seat size (don’t go with a bigger seat than needed!)

Riser pads mimic set back stirrup bars but aren’t always perfect. Keep trying saddles until you get what you need (I ended up with a 17” Voltaire Stuttgart with an xxx-forward and long flap for jumping and an EQ Saddle Science dressage saddle with adjustable stirrup bars)

[Equibrit]

Maybe try something like this ?

https://www.lemieuxproducts.com/horse-saddle-pads/corrective-pads

Is this a dressage saddle ?

[Natalie]

If you’re looking at wool-flocked saddles, your fitter should be able to adjust flocking so you don’t have to be so reliant on riser pads. There are a few draft crosses in my barn, and I know one goes in two Fairfax saddles (dressage and monoflap jumping) that fit him well. Rider is on the taller side (I’m guessing 5’7" or maybe a bit taller) and fairly long legged.

I’m a bit of a half pad hoarder, and the best one I’ve found for actually adjusting saddle fit and balance without creating weird pressure points where you don’t want them are the Prolite pads. They’re super light, the shims absorb shock but don’t compress, and there’s no extra thickness anywhere. I’m using one on my TB in a foam-paneled saddle that I love but isn’t deep enough in the paneling to lift off his spine right now (typical for a lot of French saddles). The Prolite pad does the trick nicely. Mine is adjusted to lift in the front, but you can add thicker shims to the back if needed.

[Posting_Trot]

I have a 16.3 Irish Draught and I’m 5’10". I think you should look into a hoop tree and use a thicker saddle pad to take up the space. (And remember that with a hoop tree, you usually don’t have the same kind of wither clearance as you do with a regular A frame tree).

For my dressage saddle I have a Balance saddle. They also make jumping saddles. They have a whole process for remote fittings that focus on the rider as much as the horse. It might be worth looking into:
Balance International saddles

Balance only fits their saddles with pads which enables the rider to swap out different levels of padding as necessary as the horse’s muscles develop. With a young horse, that’s a plus.

[no.stirrups]

If you consistently need pads under the back of the saddle, the front of the saddle isn’t fitting properly. Unless your horse is really uphill or low in the back, like sway-backed.
Hoop trees are not only for XW horses. Horses in MW hoop trees are not uncommon. It’s about back shape, not solely width.
If the big shoulder is the problem, maybe try something with a cut-back panel at the front like the Harry Dabbs Future panel.
Once you know what fits the horse and the saddle is in balance, only then the rider can be sorted.

[subk]

Thank you for all the input.

To add a new twist, yesterday on a whim I dug out my old Ainsley Chester Medium. It was old when I bought it 25+ years ago and if you are familiar with Ainsleys it was the original that predated XC specific saddles–back when a long legged ridder couldn’t find a saddle to contain their leg. Its reputation to be great for long femur riders certainly work for me. (I still remember when I tried it out and knew in about 10 seconds it fit me better than any saddle I’d ever ridden in!) I hadn’t pulled it out because never in a million years did I think a draftx could go in the same saddle as a fit upper level TB. It’s the best so far.

Other riders have ridden this horse in their saddles that don’t put them in a chair seat. When we try these very same saddles with my daughter riding in them it DOES put her in a chair seat. I’m beginning to think it is as much of a rider fit problem as anything (which goes against my long held beliefs about saddle fit!) I would also add that the Stackhouses custom to me are also in the “better” category–we just can’t use the same saddle so it doesn’t solve our problem. Her last horse didn’t have the same size conflict so she had been riding in one successfully.

So what are your saddle suggestions for a super long femur?