Saddle shopping questions! *UPDATED WITH PICTURES*

[Belmont]

My horses back is changing since moving barns and getting into shape. My old saddle just doesn’t cut it for either of us anymore, and my casual search has turned into a REAL search for a saddle. So, I have a few questions…

1. How do you measure or trace for the correct tree and gullet size? I’m on a limited budget, so I can’t afford the extra $200+ to have a saddle fitter come out. I would rather have that extra $200 to put towards the saddle.

2. He is a wide shouldered QH with a large wither, however he is starting to fill out more along the back… Is there something in particular that usually fits these types of horses better?

3. Are monoflaps a good idea? Adjustable trees?

Any other ideas, tips, and tricks for an amateur that is used saddle shopping? Any good sites that have good deals on used saddles that offer trials?

[Jo]

In your area, I would call Tess Wheat. The $$ you pay for an appointment will quickly be earned back in the shipping $$ you will spend trying saddles. She can tell you exactly what will and won’t work for your horse and make spot-on recommendations. (I speak from personal experience working with her on my hard to fit but nearly perfected conformed mare.)

[SnicklefritzG]

There is also a kit you can buy for around $80 where you make a 3D mould of your horse’s back using a sheet of plastic that you put in the oven to soften.

You can take that with you to tack shops to get a better idea of what would work and what won’t. It gives you more info than just a simple wither tracing.

If you are on a budget, I’d avoid trying things through the mail because you could easily burn through your budget.

[Belmont]

[QUOTE=SnicklefritzG;8346617]
There is also a kit you can buy for around $80 where you make a 3D mould of your horse’s back using a sheet of plastic that you put in the oven to soften.

You can take that with you to tack shops to get a better idea of what would work and what won’t. It gives you more info than just a simple wither tracing.

If you are on a budget, I’d avoid trying things through the mail because you could easily burn through your budget.[/QUOTE]

Thanks! I will look into those, but I’m not sure they would work. The barn doesn’t have an oven, and I live over an hour away. However, I did read Trumbull Mountain’s fitting guide, and they suggest using a drafting curve (however I read somewhere else that someone used a metal coat hanger) to get wither shape and to trace on a piece of paper. That is something I could do to get an estimated saddle width.

Unfortunately, all of my “local” tack shops are western. I am going to go to a feed store that is near my horse that carries SOME English stuff, and I will check to see if they have anything on consignment. Unfortunately, going back and forth between my horse and Austin would cost just as much money as shipping.

[IndyEquestrian]

The drafting curve is the way to go. If you would like to send me a few conformation pictures and a pic of the tracings, I would be happy to help you find something suitable!

[jaybird660]

Here is a short video we have that explains how to do a tracing:
http://www.trumbullmtn.com/saddle-fitting/instructional-video-how-to-do-a-backwither-tracing/

Then, you can either take your tracing and conformation shots to shops that carry saddles or work long distance with a fitter. We offer that service for a small fee if you just want an assessment of what might work and what options you should look for and I know there are several other fitters that do the same thing. The cost is far less than having a fitter come out if you are on a limited budget.

[jaybird660]

I can tell you that the wire coat hangers are much harder to work with but rubber coated electrical wire that is stiff enough to maintain shape is another option.

[Belmont]

[QUOTE=jaybird660;8347969]
I can tell you that the wire coat hangers are much harder to work with but rubber coated electrical wire that is stiff enough to maintain shape is another option.[/QUOTE]

Yes, I caught onto that yesterday. I didn’t have time to get the drafting stuff, so I improvised with some wire. It didn’t go super great, however I did get a rough draft to give me some ideas.

My trainer wants me to try a few of the saddles she has, that way I can ride in some different stuff and see different stuff on him. I rough estimated him at MW with my ghetto hanger. Trainer thought by looking at him he might be a MW.

Jay, could you PM me a price for a distance fitting. I’ve been looking all over your website and have not found it. I’m probably blind!

Does anyone have any suggestions or advice on the other questions? Or something random to throw in about saddle shopping? :winkgrin:

[jaybird660]

PM’d you as requested.

[no.stirrups]

If there is a particular brand of saddle that you like you can also send your tracing to a rep for that brand and get some feedback from them specific to what they can do to fit your horse, along with some saddles to try.

[Belmont]

Updated my first post with some pictures of him. Hoping to get tracings done this weekend.

ETA: I’ve been looking at Bates, Beval, Duett, Harry Dabbs, Crosby, Circuit, Ovation, Kieffer, Passier, Schleese, Philippe Fontaine, Thornhill, Prestige, and a few others that I can’t think of.

Any big NO’s out of that list?

[Jo]

You are looking for a jump saddle, right? I personally didn’t care for either the Duett or Schleese jump saddles I tried.

[Scribbler]

I’ve done the back-tracing route with my saddle fitter, and absolutely it was worth it. What I also learned was that the width at the pommel is just one part of the puzzle. You also need to think about the “drop” of the panels along the whole back, and the curve of the panels from front to back. Our saddle fitter used a drafting curve to take tracings at two-inch intervals along the back, and also the curve of the back, which she then transferred to paper cutouts.

Theoretically, anyone could do this. But actually there is a lot of precision involved. I had one friend who tried on her own, then compared to what the saddle fitter did, and realized how much she had been off.

Our saddle fitter leaves the tracings with the client, so you can go shopping and at least make a preliminary decision to try or reject a trial saddle. She only charges about $100 for the tracings.

My experience has also been that pretty much any saddle you buy, you will need to get the flocking altered and quite likely completely re-stuffed which then ran me about $200. So for me it, it was completely worth it to have the saddle fitter involved in the process from the beginning.

[TheBrownHorse]

I’d rather spend $200 less on a saddle, and get it properly fitted, than to risk buying a saddle that doesn’t fit just because it’s “nicer”. You can find LOTS of NICE saddles at a decent price, get it fitted, it’s worth it.

[Belmont]

[QUOTE=TheBrownHorse;8357279]
I’d rather spend $200 less on a saddle, and get it properly fitted, than to risk buying a saddle that doesn’t fit just because it’s “nicer”. You can find LOTS of NICE saddles at a decent price, get it fitted, it’s worth it.[/QUOTE]

I never said the extra $200+ would be for a nicer saddle. I currently ride in a very flat, old Crosby PDN that is too small for me and doesn’t fit my horse the best… Anything is nice than this saddle. The extra $200 allows me a better variety of saddles. The list of the saddles above are all within a $800 price range. Move that range down $200 (or more for some fitters) and suddenly my list becomes VERY restricted.

It has been suggested by multiple COTH’ers and fitters on COTH to do a distance fit, if I can’t dish out the extra $$$ for a fitter to come out. I know it won’t be exact, but if I do it according to video and very carefully, I think we could get a very good idea. Yes, I do have emails out to fitters within the area. The closest one to my horse is more than 2 hours away, except for an old site that said they now have fitters in San Antonio. Depending on the area of SA, they might be closer.

@Jo;8356863

You are looking for a jump saddle, right? I personally didn’t care for either the Duett or Schleese jump saddles I tried.

Thank you!

[NoSuchPerson]

[QUOTE=jaybird660;8347969]
I can tell you that the wire coat hangers are much harder to work with but rubber coated electrical wire that is stiff enough to maintain shape is another option.[/QUOTE]

I have sometimes found that drafting curves aren’t stiff enough to maintain their shape during the “tracing on a piece of paper” process. I’ve had better luck with the coated electrical wire. It’s stiffer than a drafting curve, but not so stiff that it’s difficult to work with, like a coat hanger is.

[TheBrownHorse]

[QUOTE=Belmont;8346578]

1. How do you measure or trace for the correct tree and gullet size? I’m on a limited budget, so I can’t afford the extra $200+ to have a saddle fitter come out. I would rather have that extra $200 to put towards the saddle.
   /url][/QUOTE]

I was referring to this. $200 extra dollars to have towards a saddle (assumable that a $200 extra budget will incur a “nicer” saddle)

[Scribbler]

If you can get very accurate measurements to the distance saddle fitters, then I’m sure they can be quite useful. The validity of the whole process would depend on the accuracy of your measurements.

I am not sure how you could get a saddle reflocked at a distance, though I suppose it is done.

If you are doing this long distance, then you are going to be a very crucial link in the process, even more so than if the saddle fitter is visiting. I’d suggest browsing through the many saddle-fitting websites, and getting a sense of the different measuring systems and things to take into account. Saddle fitting guides on the websites of specific brands of saddle are not reliable. They tend to either mystify or minimize the elements of saddle-fitting, in large part because no one brand can fit every horse: each brand tends to have a specific tree shape it uses. But the saddle companies don’t want to be upfront about that, they would rather sell you a saddle and claim “we can make it fit anyone.”

Trees are like brands of sneakers. For instance, I don’t seem able to wear any Nike whatsoever; the arches are just too high, in every model. But I am fine in Reebok or New Balance.

I would absolutely budget in a total reflock as part of the purchase price of a saddle. You may not need it, you may only need a tweak. But most older saddles have rock hard flocking, and it could even be a negotiating point for a lower price.

This is assuming of course that you are buying a saddle with wool flocking. Foam cannot be reflocked. In general, high end British saddles use wool and high-end French saddles use foam. Also, in actual practice, “wool” is a catch-all term for “fibres, not foam.” I have seen some scary things. Inside an old German Passier saddle (from the 1970s): multi-coloured carpet fibre remnants. And one old County opened up to have weird horse-hair matted stuff inside it. Both were hard as rocks.

I should say that my 2001 Passier (bought secondhand basically unused as few years ago) is stuffed with nice clean white wool, so I don’t think the newer saddles have this problem. Ditto the 20 year old County I bought & had restuffed: the wool was packed flat and hard, but it was real wool. So I don’t want to slur the brands, they happen to be my current favorites (or at least the ones my horse prefers).

Saddles should get stuffed and restuffed with good pure new wool, carded but not spun. And a new saddles, or a restuffed saddle, will need tweaking as the stuffing settles and packs.