Ok so I purchased an APHA from an auction as a buddy for my warmblood. She’s 4yrs old and I am going to turn her into a hunter/jumper. My question is what kind of saddle do I train her on?
Do I get a western saddle for training and wait until she gets around 5/6 yrs old to purchase her “big girl” English saddle?
Do I get an inexpensive English saddle?
We’ve been using my competition horse’s jumping saddle but it was expensive and I don’t want there to be an accident and somehow break it.
Is she already broke, I’m assuming?
I started my AQHA and ApHC babies in western saddles, but quickly moved to jumping/close contact saddle since that was their ultimate goal.
I still have a western saddle and occasionally attempt to ride in it (as my homegrown gelding also does “go Western” more or less (will jog and kinda lope, but not show-worthy). We mostly trail ride, so I like the comfort of the saddle, but he’s trained off of my seat and leg and it’s obvious the saddle gets in the way of our communication. He’s much happier in the close-contact jumping saddle.
All that to say, if she’s broke, I’d go for a less-expensive (if you think she could wreck it) English saddle. JMO.
She’s broke but still very much learning the correct cues.
A decent saddle of either kind is going to cost roughly the same, so if your goal is for her to go english I’d just start there.
I have recently had the same conundrum. I don’t need a million saddles so while, for safety, I’d kind of like that saddle horn, I have very cheap used wintec jumping and dressage saddles. I figured at least the dressage saddle would be a bit deeper so maybe safer? 
I got incredibly lucky though because oddly enough, after trying on a bunch of the trainer’s english saddles, the wintecs actually fit the shape of his back best. So that’s where we’re starting while he grows up. I’m not a fan of either saddle so I will get nicer ones once he’s older–IF he behaves enough for me to want to keep him around! Gotta remind myself, its not a fashion show, utility first!
I always felt safer in an english saddle - if things went wrong I felt there was less to get hung up on.
AQHA’s usually need a hoop tree as their shoulders widen up but I have had good luck with Excelle (sp?) for an economy english saddle for the quarter horse shape.
The best saddle to use will be one that fits her the best. Don’t settle for some cheap saddle that makes her back sore!
Unless you like to work in a Western saddle, there’s no need to get one just because she is (may be) used to one. The saddle is far less important than the aides she was taught
Get a quality saddle. If it needs to be “cheap” for now, get well used but a quality brand. No new saddle that’s cheap is quality
A whole lot of QHs are mostly TB. Many of them have a lot of TB. Some of them are Foundation-bred and are more likely to need something like a hoop tree.
The breed is far too diverse in phenotype for “usually” 
I bought my mare as a coming 4 year old and expected her to change a lot. Started her in an inexpensive used (but reputable quality brand) English saddle that fit her well and me tolerably enough. The tree could be widened by a saddle fitter (Prestige) so while she did grow and change, I bought myself ~2 years with that saddle by widening it once.
At nearly 6, she was physically more mature and changing less so I bought a mid-level saddle that suited both of us well and figured I could upgrade to a ‘performance horse’ saddle once we started competing and doing bigger stuff. Here we are 5 years later and that hasn’t happened yet (kids, work, life…) but the saddle is still comfy and fits well so it suits our purposes well 
I vote English, semi-adjustable, and decent-ish quality but not high-end. I ended up selling the used saddle for only $100 less then I bought it for…there are brands that hold their value nicely!
If you have the means I’d get a $2-3,000 well known brand, wool flocked, used English saddle that is professionally fitted. Typically, that price point used holds value and you shouldn’t have a hard time reselling for about what you paid as long as it receives standard care in a few years. Let someone else take the hit of what was a $4-6k saddle and unless you keep it for a decade and then even still you should be able to get it back.
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