Western saddle brands for wide, as well as short backed horses?

[mountainhorse]

I am running into a lot of issues finding western saddles that cater to
#1) super wide horses. Are there brands that offer hoop trees to accommodate naturally wide horses?

#2) Short backed horses, where even a rounded skirt isn’t enough.

I am a fitter for English saddles, and there are so many brands offerings upswept panels, shorter panels, and a variety of twists and trees to accommodate different conformations in the English saddle work…
I am having a much harder time locating brands in the Western world that offer similarly comparable options for these horses…or even brands that are willing to accommodate custom options for these horses!

Any luck I am just missing the right brands or options? I would love any insight into this-thanks!

[Pocket_Pony]

My mustang is wide and I ride him in a JJ Maxwell - he really keeps the skirting to a minimum and that helps with the length of the saddle. But you can’t just buy those off the shelf, they are made to order. I did have a Crestridge saddle once and I think those also come in very wide and shorter skirts. Alas, it didn’t fit my horse well (bars were too flat), but I know other people like them.

http://jjmaxwell.com/

http://www.crestridgesaddlery.com/

[aktill]

You’re describing the reason I learned to make western saddles.

http://www.rodnikkel.com/content/saddle-tree-blog-from-shop-and-desk/increasing-our-repetoire/

Became:
http://www.easphotography.com/Carly/NewSaddle/2.png

Really wide saddles are tough to find with western trees. I gave up and built my own.

[NoSuchPerson]

Ready-made wide western saddles are hard to find. I’ve got a mule who comfortably wears a Wintec wide with the smallest of the gullets that come with the saddle, so, wide, but in the English world, not that wide.

I’ve had a heck of a time finding a western saddle to fit him. I finally found a Dakota draft horse saddle that is OK, but it’s none too wide - I can’t use my thicker saddle pads.

[Flash44]

I want a Specialized Saddle for my very wide Chincoteague pony.

[mountainhorse]

I would be interested in finding a saddle company that would like to work with me as a fitter to tackle this issue. This is a huge gap in the western horse world…

[Pocket_Pony]

[QUOTE=Flash44;8698879]
I want a Specialized Saddle for my very wide Chincoteague pony.[/QUOTE]

I had a Specialized saddle as my first western trail saddle and liked it very much.

[meaty_ogre]

Arabian tree saddles tend to have shorter skirts that work well on short backs, and some have wider angles to their bars that are more accommodating to wither-less horses. I had an older simco Arabian saddle that I would describe as having a “hoop” style of tree. But, it really wasn’t all that wide…just shaped like an upside down U.

[aktill]

You won’t find a “company” because production trees don’t go that wide. They’re outside the bell curve.

A custom saddlemaker working with a custom tree maker would be the only real route possible.

As a single example, the Icelandic that I was fitting needed a 105 degree fork cut. Wide is 93 degrees, and EXTRA wide is 95. Combine that with way more rock than normal and the fact that the tree bar twist was over a shorter range than normal, and there was no way.

My current mount takes a normal 93 degree, standard rock tree. Easy peasy.

[clanter]

for wide, as well as short backed horses described our Morgan … had a 1950s saddle that fit great but was stolen, replacement was none existent so had to have the replacement custom made.

[wireweiners]

Fabtron makes a haflinger western saddle for short backed, wide horses. I think Circle Y makes a haflinger saddle too but I’m not sure.

[beau159]

I have two very wide “beefy” Quarter Horses. I’m lucky that they both go well in the Circle Y Flex2 saddle in the WIDE. I barrel race so I use the Lisa Lockkhart version; also works well for their shorter backs.
http://www.horsesaddleshop.com/circley-contender-barrel.html#.V2nOPr7S1aU

I can’t quite recall exactly, but I know the bar angle on the Flex2 wide was around 105 to 110 degrees.

[californianinkansas]

You might want to look for western saddle makers that advertise to endurance riders and/or the Arabian, Morgan, or Icelandic horse communities, as these breeds tend to have short wide backs.

I have a saddle made by Len Brown, which my oil-barrel-on-legs grey Arabian gelding likes. http://shop.protectorpad.com/

My husband’s saddle is an old Billy Royal saddle, which also works well with my Arabians.