I’m not getting too much luck with trying to fit the above horse. I have a dressage saddle that fits her well but wanted to get a western saddle for hacking only. Much easier to get on and off if we are on long trail rides. So far I have not found one that fits. The latest Big Horn saddle fits her withers but when I lunge her in it the back bounces up like crazy. Can anyone recommend saddles to fit a wide, short backed horse. I’m in Canada so saddles that I can get here preferred.
I have a wide-sprung, mutton withered, short backed mare. Crestridge Saddlery deals with mules, gaited horses and horses with my mare’s proportions. They worked with me using lots of photos, some tracing/measurement, conversation on the phone and via email. I have a trail saddle of theirs; 10 years later, it still fits that mare beautifully.
Have read reviews saying this Bob’s saddle fits wide, short backed horses:
http://bobssaddles.com/saddle-detail.php?target=1017
They make them in all kinds of finishes, with any rigging, fenders, tooling or seat someone may prefer and also keep some already finished ones.
Bob is very good answering questions, he would know.
I second Bluey’s suggestion. A good friend of mine has a reining bred mare that is insanely wide and insanely short backed. The only thing that fits her is a Bob’s with the DL tree. She said that the Buster Welch tree was also very wide, but the particular model that she tried was too long.
Continental also makes a short skirt saddle, and their extra wide quarter horse tree has a 7.5 inch gullet. I have been told that they are very light weight as well. My friend’s daughter uses one on her reining horse, and has been very happy.
I use a Pard’s reining saddle on my draft cross, but she is not at all short backed. I am looking into getting a Continental to help with the whole “heave ho” situation I have while trying to tack up my tall girl.
I use a Western Rawhide on my short-backed Arab. It was the only saddle I could find that fit him well. He isn’t very wide, though. Western Rawhide is a Canadian brand and there are always many used saddles on the market. Should be easy to find if you want to try one.
I have a Dakota trail saddle with a Steele tree with AW bars for my short and wide mare. I ordered it from horsesaddleshop.com and it was $50 extra to have that specific tree put in.
Editing to add that she is also fairly flat-backed.
I have wide, short-backed QHs and always use Fabtron saddles, which are synthetic and around 20 lbs. Ralide tree, not the flex tree. Get the FQHB.
BUT- I always found my english saddles much easier to mount from the ground. I’d just run a leather all the way down and haul it up again after I was mounted. You can’t do that with a western saddle!
I have a wide short-backed horse that is a typical beefy quarter horse. My Circle Y Flex2 WIDE (Lisa Lockhart) barrel saddle fits him perfectly.
I ended up buying a Rocking R reiner to fit a VERY wide/round and ultra-short backed Arab mare last year. I have since sold the mare, but I love the saddle so much that I’m hanging on to it and hoping it will fit the next horse!
I just bought a “Denver Treeless” saddle from www.equinnovations.ca (in Sask). Made in Germany. The pommel and cantle are fixed, but the rest is leather. Looks like a “normal” saddle, and feels like a normal saddle, but my very wide, short backed and big shouldered mare goes very well in it.
Previous to that I had an Arabian treed abetta. An Arabian tree might suite your horse.
we have old style Morgans who are short backed and wide… we used the Wintec synthetic saddles as they were available in wide trees (and light weight at 17 pounds) . We never ever had anything fail on those saddles and we put many thousands of trail miles on them
Show saddles were impossible to find so were custom built
I use a Tucker High Plains wide trail saddle on my Haflinger - classic old breed type round withers, short back.
