My current saddles don’t fit my young horse well and I’m not sure which brands to try on him first. I currently have a medium Voltaire Palm Beach and a medium-wide L’Apogee. I’m not an expert on saddle fit, but the Voltaire looks good to me in the withers, but sits too low in the cantle. The L’Apogee is too wide and still sits low in the back. He doesn’t have huge withers, so I’m not sure why they’re all sitting so low (and yes, I push the saddle back to the “sweet spot”). As long as I pad up the back of the saddle, he is happy, but I’d rather buy a new (used) saddle that fits him properly. Any ideas on which saddles to try on him? I prefer soft, French leather with a narrow twist and a flat to medium deep seat.
Buying quality used is the way to go. But realize that every quality saddle has been originally made semi custom to a particular horse and rider pair. So every single saddle is unique. Also these brands come in different tree widths and some in different tree shapes. And panels are custom whether wool or foam.
So we can’t say xxx brand will fit.
You need to get back tracings and then start popping those into saddles to see how they compare.
If your saddles are low in the back my guess is they are too tight in the withers.
Also it could be a matter of topline. Get an independent saddle fitter out if you can. Paying for advice now saves so much expense later.
1 Like
Try a Meyer, they fit a lot of horses well. It’s hard to find them used but a couple of the bigger resellers have them. Sounds like your gullet is too wide
Definitely get an independent saddle fitter to help you with finding the proprer saddle. The shape of the tree might not be right for your horse and you might not be able to fit either of your saddles even if you widen them or make them more narrow.
It took me over 2 months and 3 different fitters to finally have a saddle that fits but it is all worth it at the end for the sake of the horses well being 
some of the big used saddle sellers like Double Oak Tack and Redwood tack will give you suggestions if you send pictures and measurements. Sounds like the gullet is too wide. Meyers saddles seem to fit a lot of horses.
I realize this was a month ago and the OP may have already resolved this, but I would explore with the Voltaire rep whether your existing saddle can be modified to fit before I moved on to buying another saddle. I had a nightmare experience with CWD on that front, but Voltaire seems to be better at it, and the way the Voltaire saddles are made seems to make modifications easier. I don’t know whether they can fix your exact issue or not, but it is certainly worth checking given the cost difference between that and finding a replacement!
