Saddle issues, please help COTH collective!

[Chestnut_Mare1]

I bought my mare with her custom fitted Schleese JES Elite saddle. It was purchased brand new for her by the previous owner. It has been a great saddle and has held up well, it is now 10 years old.

Mare had mystery lameness and lost topline due to not being in work. When she came back into work I used an Ogilvy pad for support. 6 Weeks later she started getting white hairs in the hollows behind the wither. I stopped using the Ogilvy thinking that was the problem. That was 4 months ago. The white hairs didn’t go away but then she started to get rock hard bumps near the spine and back panels on both sides. One side is bigger than the other. The hair around the bumps are turning white too. This is when I called the saddle fitter…

I get the saddle checked every 18 - 24 months. First time there were no adjustments needed, second time more flocking around the shoulder panels, third time a lot more flocking around the shoulders. During the last adjustment a week ago, saddle fitter found the tree to be VERY bendy, clearly not broken, just very flexible. She thinks that is the reason for the lumps on the back. She recommended a sheepskin pad for now and to plan on buying a different saddle in the future.

What do you all think think about this?

Edited to add: Saddle fitter let me do the same “flex” on a brand new Schleese and there was a bit of give, my saddle just had more. There is no squeaking or any sudden difference, my horse still moves well and does not have a sore back. She has had chiro just in case.

[Scribbler]

If your saddle fitter is a Schleese rep get a second opinion from an independent fitter.

You might also ask her or the Schleese website how a plastic tree gets bendy.

Has your horse built up more topline again? In that case you would need to have flocking removed.

[Chestnut_Mare1]

Do you think it is broken? Do the older models have plastic trees?

[Chestnut_Mare1]

Saddle has an “adaptree”

[GoodTimes]

Not much help but I spent a year trying to figure out why I felt so crooked in the saddle. A fitter, chiro and massage for horse and myself, etc. Finally took it to get some stitching fixed, they took one look at it and told me the tree is twisted. It’s so subtle, I really had to inspect the saddle to notice. She said that most people and most horses might not notice, but someone who rides well or someone with a very sensitive horse (or both) would be driven bonkers by it.
I’m having a rep out tonight to look at new or new to me saddles. Sigh Merry Christmas to me I guess.

I’d have several fitters look at it, and maybe even someone who does saddle repairs.

[Scribbler]

@Chestnut_Mare

Do you think it is broken? Do the older models have plastic trees?

Well, you’d need to send the serial number to Schleese and ask them.

Whatever they say, polyurethane resin or whatever, is plastic. it’s not wood, like a County or older Passier.

All the “adjustable” Schleese are plastic, and at one point I read a blurb from Schleese saying they try to steer clients away from second hand saddles for blah blah blah, but obviously there’s a limit to how many times you can slap a saddle in a press to try to adjust it, without damaging the metal gullet plate, which is the thing you are tweaking.

[soloudinhere]

It’s not at all surprising to me that a saddle made for a horse 10 years ago would not fit that same horse now, even without the tree-bendy-situation.

I would guess that it is either broken, or it has worn out to the degree that the plastic is now flexible.

[jaybird660]

Just curious if she dropped the panels to actually look at the tree’s integrity. That’s not necessarily something you can do on site but do on her work bench.
Additionally, there could be fit issues such as wrong panel, shape, gullet channel, asymmetrical conformation aspects and so that could be contributing factors.

[crthunder]

When you say bendy which way bendy? Front to back (holding pommel/cantle in your hands) or bendy left to right (almost like you can bend it narrower). When the adjustable plate (for lack of a better word by me) snapped on my Schleese it was the latter. So to check it like I would have for a traditional broken tree it was fine. This apparently was a later known issue of the ones built on Hennig trees but it was under warranty so other than a couple weeks of riding in my jump saddle, no harm done since I had been given the heads up by my fitter to watch for the problem.

Did the fitter ever adjust the tree or just add flocking? I suspect that Scribbler is right on that its tree adjustments days are over and no it won’t get better. I guess that it the lucky thing with the hennig version… it didn’t ever really get “bendy” it just snapped! So other than mailing it back to Schleese to have it opened up I don’t think it will get better

[Chestnut_Mare1]

I had an independent saddle fitter look at it this past weekend. The tree is NOT broken but is more flexible than some other trees. The flex is in the pommel to cantle not side to side. Now I finally know why my mare is so wiggly and hard to get straight.