Awesome. Thank you!
[QUOTE=Madison;8377744]
I came back to riding after a long break, and the saddle I used on my retired hunter fit NOTHING. I too need an 18 or 18.5, and the only saddle at the barn I could use was slippery and not helpful to my position. I also need a long forward flap. Used saddles in my configuration were hard to find, and I actually ended up having to buy a new saddle, but I have never regretted the purchase and it really helped my riding. I bought a CWD SE01 and the tree has a 4.5" point-to-point measurement, and has fit almost everything I’ve put it on, with help from a shimmable half pad for easy adjustments. The reality is you need a saddle you can comfortably ride in, and that means you need to buy one. So, find something you like, buy it, and ignore the questions - you have good reason to buy one even if you don’t own a horse. The only caveat is that in this situation you have to recognize that if you later buy or lease a horse that it doesn’t fit, you could have to find something else.[/QUOTE]
Yes, and that might be a happy problem to have! So jealous of your CWD.
[QUOTE=Wonders12;8377821]
More or less echo-ing what others said:
Yes, a med-wide or moving to the wide side is going to be your best bet.
Invest in some good pads if your instructor doesn’t have a bunch you can borrow. The mattes pad with shims mentioned above might be a good choice.
Get good at saddle fitting. I don’t mind when students want their own saddles, but if I need to custom fit your saddle to every horse before every lesson, I’m going to be a little frustrated. I’ll always check it, but I’d prefer if you already have it fitting well most of the time.
Accept (in practice, not just in talk) that your saddle isn’t going to fit everyone. Again, I don’t mind if students have their preferred saddle, but it’s not ok to try to force fit a saddle onto a horse it doesn’t fit. I see a lot of students looking at the fit and trying to justify why it will work. The difficult part is, most aren’t doing it maliciously, but it’s easy to become bias. So be extra aware of that.[/QUOTE]
It’s just hard sometimes to get three very experienced horsemen (women) that I trust to agree on things! I’m getting conflicting information from my trainers at two barns I ride at (hunter and dressage) and they are very respected in their fields (pardon the pun). I’ve also perused some websites for fitting instructions. I think our local fitter is quite expensive but it might be worth it just to further my education. Right now I’m learning about monoflaps, lol.
[QUOTE=snaffle635;8378673]
^^^ This.
I’ve never seen a school horse with a really nice, custom-fitted saddle*. I’d venture to guess that the saddle you buy for yourself will be nicer and more comfortable (for you AND the horse) than the average school-horse saddle.
Go buy yourself a nice saddle.
*oops, I just lied. I did see some college school horses with their own, very nice tack once.[/QUOTE]
There is one nice Toulose I try to grab but the rest are standard well-loved Collegiate’s. I have ridden at bad barns and good barns in three states and this barn is the best in its care and attention to its lesson riders and horses - but unless you have mega-money, no barn can afford the lesson saddles the boarders have - which are predominantly CWD and the like. With care and attention I think the horse would appreciate a nicer newer saddle!
With the exception of the most delicate, overly sensitive, wildly picky horses, most horses aren’t going to go crippled in the span of a lesson or 45 minute schooling ride if the saddle doesn’t fit absolutely perfectly. Riding all day, every day in an ill fitting saddle, sure, but something that fits moderately well and that the RIDER fits in well, for a couple of rides a week should not be bad.
And an integral part of saddle fit IS how it fits the rider. I run into this a lot at work- “oh, I don’t care how it fits me, as long as it fits the horse!” No. That’s not how it works. Even a custom fit saddle can be bad if the rider is poorly balanced and struggling to sit properly.
So the horses don’t even have assigned saddles, you just pick whichever one you want and put it on a horse, and the riders are giving you a hard time about buying one that at least fits you? Tell them to go take a hike because that is totally ridiculous. I mean, it’s one thing if any attention has been paid to their saddle fit, but you can’t mess up what isn’t there to start with.
In some barns, it’s very clear that X saddle goes on Pookie and Y saddle goes on Dobbin, even in the lesson program and the rider’s butts just have to deal. If that’s not the case in your program then there’s absolutely nothing to think twice about, buy yourself a saddle.
Most pros I know ride all of their client horses in their own saddle unless there’s a specific reason to use the horse’s saddle (i.e. horse is a hard fit and has a full custom saddle.)
This is NBD. Get a saddle. Your butt will thank you.
I am picky about my saddles and for years I had a saddle, but never my own horse. If the saddle came close to fitting the horse I was riding, I used it, if not, I didn’t.
The last barn I took lessons at had several wintec all purpose saddles and I hated them. But to be fair, they fit the horses worse than the saddle I was using on them.
[QUOTE=Lolatwinkletoes;8379082]
It’s just hard sometimes to get three very experienced horsemen (women) that I trust to agree on things! I’m getting conflicting information from my trainers at two barns I ride at (hunter and dressage) and they are very respected in their fields (pardon the pun). I’ve also perused some websites for fitting instructions. I think our local fitter is quite expensive but it might be worth it just to further my education. Right now I’m learning about monoflaps, lol.[/QUOTE]
A good saddle fitter is worth their weight in gold.
So you are riding at a H/J barn and a dressage barn- which type of saddle are you planning to get, a CC or Dressage?
Monoflaps are nice, the only issue I see is that at a H/J barn, you’re not going to see any monoflap-friendly girths in the lesson pile, so you may need to purchase a girth or two as well.
Not sure if it’s been mentioned, but I highly recommend getting a nice/high quality used saddle. If the time comes where you lease a horse and you do need to buy a different saddle, nice used saddles can hold their value quite well- I even sold my Antares that I had for 4 years for $200 more than I bought it for!
[QUOTE=roamingnome;8379391]
A good saddle fitter is worth their weight in gold.
So you are riding at a H/J barn and a dressage barn- which type of saddle are you planning to get, a CC or Dressage?
Monoflaps are nice, the only issue I see is that at a H/J barn, you’re not going to see any monoflap-friendly girths in the lesson pile, so you may need to purchase a girth or two as well.
Not sure if it’s been mentioned, but I highly recommend getting a nice/high quality used saddle. If the time comes where you lease a horse and you do need to buy a different saddle, nice used saddles can hold their value quite well- I even sold my Antares that I had for 4 years for $200 more than I bought it for![/QUOTE]
My dressage instructor has a beautifully gorgeous dressage saddle I ride in that fits both her horse and my butt perfectly. It’s my hunter barn that I need a saddle.
Yes, I thought the same thing about the girths! It’s just that I saw a used Amerigo Vega in my size with short flaps (for my short legs!) and it just looked like it would fit me great. But it’s over $2000 so I’m trying to figure out everything in my house I can sell to buy it! Anybody want a brand new lawn mower?
1 Like
[QUOTE=french fry;8379350]
Most pros I know ride all of their client horses in their own saddle unless there’s a specific reason to use the horse’s saddle (i.e. horse is a hard fit and has a full custom saddle.)
This is NBD. Get a saddle. Your butt will thank you.[/QUOTE]
It’s my healed broken pelvis I worry about more than my butt! My husband made me promise as I was lying in the ER last year, no more falling! And he said something about no more jumping but I didn’t hear that part. 
