Um, mommy has already come on to defend daughter dearest. Please keep up! :lol
Oops—just saw your post, Capriole. Welcome to crazytown, right?
Thank you for making my point for me. 
Moral of this story, learn to ride bareback and then you don’t have to deal with saddle sales reps and the lot! :lol:
I’m starting to realize why everyone dreads the awful “saddle fit hell.” :eek:
I rather think that the moral of this story is “actually ride in your saddle when you get it, and then contact the rep in a reasonable time frame to get changes made.” I know several Trilogy owners who have had no trouble getting adjustments made to their saddles by the rep, and/or the company. Odd, don’t you think, that they’re just ignoring you?
[QUOTE=AMDressage;3208243]
I think you have snarky confused with being a bullying bitch?[/QUOTE]
Why does that always happen? Some people just don’t understand that snarky=sarcastically funny, not obnoxious asshat.
Just my two cents.
I think you would know. 
I don’t know about anyone else, but seeing as how AMDressage’s mommy has already thundered to her rescue, I doubt a time out is in the offing. 
Sure, ESG, a saddle CAN be perfectly fitted and still shift forward.
No, slc, it can’t. A perfectly fitted saddle doesn’t shift. If it does, it isn’t, by definition, perfectly fitted.
Have you ever had a horse shaped like a beer barrel?
Just askin’ I don’t see how proper fitting is going to keep a saddle in place if there’s nothing to stop it from sliding forward.
(not that he’s supposed to be shaped like a beer barrel. I already have people threatening to kidnap him and put him on a crash diet and clip his feathers.
You’re wrong, ESG. ‘Perfectly fitted’ saddles shift all the time. Ever ride up a hill?
Of course they do. ‘Perfectly fitted’ is not synonymous with ‘won’t ever shift, regardless of what the horse or rider does’.
To top it off, VERY few horses have an ideal ‘saddle piece’. Many represent a problem and a compromise to even the most skilled saddler.
We’ll have to agree to disagree on this. I say you’re wrong, you say I’m wrong. Draw.
Grow the hell up!
Truthiness and AMDressage need to take their personal battles and childish comments offline. ESG sounds like a 12 year old with the language about AMDressage’s “mommy” and other sniping comments. HRSPWRs post was at least sensible and adult-like, and who cares (and who knows) if she is AMDressage’s mother. Why does Capriole or Truthiness care?
I hope the moderators delete the childish emails and let the OP re-take her thread back.
Ambrey, what you and slc don’t seem to get, is that phrase “perfectly fitted”. You two are describing saddles that aren’t perfectly fitted, because if they were, they wouldn’t shift.
And yes, I have had a horse shaped like a barrel, and no withers, to boot. I did have a perfectly fitted saddle on him, too. But, because of his ever changing shape, I had to change saddles periodically to make sure they were perfectly fitted.
Semantics, ladies - just semantics.
I have a no wither, round barrel Arabian who has been a nightmare to fit. I can’t spend the money for a custom saddle, so I went to a treeless dressage saddle. It is working very well for us. I may need to make a change as he moves along, but for now it has made so much difference. It takes some adjustment on the rider’s part, but the horse is in saddle heaven.
I don’t know enough about saddle fitting to offer anything other than I hope you get your saddle fixed correctly and this custom saddle doesn’t turn into a nightmare situation for you.
Not semantics, it’s just a disagreement. The only way to get a saddle so ‘perfectly fitted’ that it never shifts no matter what the horse and rider do, is to put it on with Super Glue.
In fact, if the horse and/or rider is off balance, even the MOST ‘perfectly fitted’ saddle will move.
More importantly…and the root of the problem…why did the rider originally decide the saddle was not now suitable?
Did she try it once or twice, and then not get a chance to really ride in it for a long while, and THEN it felt bad?
Did it feel alright for a few rides, and then after a rather short time it seemed to feel different? How?
Did someone tell her the saddle didn’t fit properly, and convince her to fix it
[quote=ES
A chubby beer barrel with no wither and a forward girth slot. The well-fitting saddle and anatomic girth help keep the saddle in place, but there’s not a whole lot for it to hold on to, if you know what I mean.
This is my old saddle:
[IMG]http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x182/estarianne/saddle2.jpg)
See how putting the girth any further back would not work because of his shape? Yet, when the girth slides forward, the saddle wants to come with it (that’s physics ;))
And the saddle is right on his shoulder.
There really isn’t any anatomical structure there that would prevent a saddle from slipping forward other than his neck. And as you can see, his sloped shoulder means that once the saddle hits that, it has already started interfering.
How would the saddle be changed to prevent slippage? The new one has a front point girth, the girth is shaped, etc., but it doesn’t stay back where it won’t interfere (luckily it has short points, so it’s no longer the end of the world).
I see your problem. I have a horse with almost identical conformation, and had the same problem. The only thing that worked with him, is a saddle with a point billet. That is, a billet that’s in a fixed position (usually inside the knee roll/block) at the front of the saddle. It acts as a foregirth and doesn’t allow the saddle to move forward - at all. I also tried the shaped girths, crossing the billets, etc, etc, etc - to no avail. The point billet is the only thing that works. And there are plenty of saddles, non custom saddles, out there, that have them. Mine is an ancient Dover Freestyle that I bought used from a client. But I have seen Windsor, Niedersuess(sp?), and several other brands of saddle that have the point billet. Just look around, and I’m sure you’ll find one.
JME.
Yep, my new one has one It’s a great saddle and I think it will work, but sheesh- it’s been a journey
This is the one I have.
So glad that you were able to find something that worked. It is a journey, isn’t it?
The real irony for me, was that when I finally did find a saddle that fit my gelding, it was just about the same time that I discovered that he really wanted to be a hunter, and is much better at that than he’ll ever be as a dressage horse. Talk about “too little, too late”, huh? :lol::lol:
LOL.
Smokey would rather be a professional hay tester, but he gets no choice in the matter.
I think he’d rather be an eventer, but that’s way beyond my bravery index
[QUOTE=AMDressage;3208243]
I think you have snarky confused with being a bullying bitch?[/QUOTE]
I was so enjoying the bitchfest and keeping my own thoughts to myself about this thread but this post has made me start tapping on the keyboard.
Any intelligent person can read between the lines and put this story together.
AMD tried a Trilogy saddle. She loved it, she ordered one. She got it, took receipt of it, rode in it and loved it. She posts all over another board how her life has changed. Then AMD gets a new trainer (the posts are all scattered between this and another thread) that hates the saddle. Doesn’t like the blocks, doesn’t like how AMD rides in it, or where her leg lies. AMD now hates the saddle. She has other saddlers look at it and tell her how it isn’t right. I wonder why those other saddlers would bad mouth the competition. That doesn’t seem right. The Trilogy saddler at this point can’t make the saddle anything other than a Trilogy, whatever model it is. It’s a saddle. It’s not magic. AMD now comes on a different board apparently with new (and am I to understand multiple?) names and talks about the poor service, being mislead, and even says she was stolen from?
So I was lied to and stolen from.
Honey, you bought the saddle. Took delivery of it, rode in it, and raved about it. At this point it’s your saddle. Just because you changed your mind about it doesn’t mean anyone tried to steal from you.
Most of us have bought saddles that didn’t work out either over time or very quickly. There are not very many companies or people who will take a product back after a sale is made, delivered, and used. Most of us admit we made a mistake, suck it up, and either sell the product or give it away - hell, I threw away an expensive saddle pad once that promised to make my saddle fit my horse but didn’t; I was so disgusted with it I trashed it.
The more expensive the mistake, the more it hurts and the angrier we may be. Why did you not take thier offer to take the saddle back minus the $1000? $1000 is 1/4 of the cost of the saddle. You are at least 1/4 culpable. It sounds like a fair offer and an attempt at a settlement.
But, and here is the point of my even posting on this ridiculous thread, calling someone names like you just did is beyond infantile! You say you are young? Are we talking teenager? I have a 14 year old daughter that would be grounded from the computer for a month and making some apologies, if she posted what you have posted. I’m to understand that your own mother is condoning your behavior? Amazing!
Oh, and AMD, I don’t see any brass balls. I see someone lacking in experience and wisdom who is making a bad situation worse and digging themselves a very deep hole. You might consider handling these matters in a more private manner. Your mother should be teaching you these things!
Bravo.
And this is why I don’t sell saddles anymore
Because horses can and do change full tree sizes between the time a saddle is ordered and the time it is delivered. And, it is not the saddle maker’s fault. Nor the fitter’s fault.
I came to the conclusion that I did not wish to own a bunch of saddles that did not fit the horse once it was delivered, through no fault of my own. And, I did not wish to own saddles that came and did not meet up to the customer’s seat/flap expectations or my own, due to poor documentation of size differences. In the latter case, the customer did not own the saddle, it was not what was expected.
And, in the first case, the ever-changing horse, I truly believe that it is not the saddler’s problem nor the saddle fitter’s problem that someone has a horse whose back does not remain consistently the same shape. Why someone expects that they should not own all the saddles that their ever-changing horse needs is beyond me.
I could not predict the future. Some horses will muscle up and where there was fat, there will be muscle. Same tree size. Some horses will lose fat, and their withers will come up…not same tree size. Some horses who have been in WAY too tight saddles, will go up a tree size or even two when fitted in the next size up.
I’ve experienced all of those in my own riding experience and barn. But, I own saddles in 4 tree widths and I use the one that the horse needs.
I personally hope to never need anything custom. So far, I’ve been pretty happy with stock models, even when I had to wait on a non-standard size. Now, I merely fit & flock my own saddles, nobody else’s. I happily send people on to local saddle fitters, who are quite competent.
