I just got my mother a 15.1hh Kentucky Mountain Horse for her Christmas present after she lost her Peruvian. We have tried all the Western Saddles around the barn and everything sits directly on his spine and I can slide 2 fingers down the length of his saddle between it and his back without touching. He has high, sloping withers and a back as straight as an arrow. He needs to gain weight but even when he does he’s always going to be a A-frame, slap sided type horse. I come from a long line of rotund horses and am not sure where to start! My Mom trail rides around the property a few times a week and that’s the extent of it. She’s 70 years old and tiny…5’ tall and 100lbs so she needs a lightweight saddle she can lift easily. She likes a horn but otherwise is open to whatever. So…any directions you can steer me for a high wither, slab sided, straight backed horse? Maybe an Aussie style would be better? - mule saddle? I ride dressage and am well versed in dressage saddles for hard to fit horses but am out of my element for western/trail saddles for the troublesome fit. I think we had semi-QH bars on him today and the angle of the panels wasn’t even close. The only contact the saddle made was with his spine. Oy!
I had a similar issue with my husband’s TWH - the angle of the QH tree bars just did not work for him. You likely need a gaited tree, which is designed for that slab sided build.
Take a look at the Tucker Gen II saddles. They’re built for gaited horses, and the Gen II tree works on straighter backs than the Gen I.
I’ve heard things about Summer at Saddle Up for fitting gaited horses, but have not used her myself. http://www.saddleupshop.com/
I meant to type - “I’ve heard good things about Summer…”
Try the Tuckers, and make sure you have a saddle pad with pads down both sides and a clear spinal channel… absolutely nothing down the center.
The Lettia Western pads (or at least the ones I have seen) have memory foam padding along the spine, that can serve to lift a saddle above the spine. You might find what you need at nationalbridle.com - they have a variety of lightweight saddles.
What is wrong with the edit feature on CoTH??? I wanted to edit my previous post, because I realized I put the wrong URL in. Look at http://www.nationalbridle.com/tennessean_saddles1
Yay, I was finally able to edit the earlier post.
If the horse is underweight I’d defer a saddle purchase until you the horse to a better BCS. Until that time do the ground work necessary to prepare the horse for uses your mother has planned.
Good luck as you go forward.
G.
Vintage Imus saddle would work BUT: fix the cheesy nails in the swell with screws and fix the breast collar tugs with screws too.
(ahhh the voice of experience…)
