I just went out and measured him with my Wintec gullet gauge, and he’s on the smaller half of wide. I might try changing the gullet in my Bates and seeing if that fits him better. I’m actually surprised he’s only a W, since those things tend to fit small. My mare, who LOOKS less wide than he does, measured right on the line of W and XW last I checked. She’s 19, so the only thing changing is muscle tone from having several foals, high withers, and getting older.
buck, I checked into the air pad, but I don’t think that would fill enough space in the front. I’m using a ProLite front riser right now, with one of the ProLite shims and one I cut from wool felt. I wish it had a pocket for a rear shim too. The Mattes pad and shimming seemed to make the fit worse, oddly enough. I’m contemplating making something from one of those foam rubber exercise mats that feels similar to the ProLite. If it fails, I’m only out $10 and some time.
