Western saddle for wide, big shouldered, high wither horse.

[AppyMom]

I’m looking into getting a used western saddle to trail ride in. The horse is a hunter horse, but I like to use a western saddle on the trail plus I don’t want my expensive jumping saddle to get scratched up or wet out on the trail.

I’m just curious as to which saddles tend to fit a big bodied, big shouldered, high long withered horse. She is an appaloosa, but bred for jumping and is built like a warmblood. I use a Black Country Quantum on her for jumping with a MW tree and wither gussets to raise it off her withers.

I don’t want to spend more than about $700 or $800 on a trail riding saddle, so I’m most likely going to look for something used. Any help would be appreciated.

[Rusty15]

I was going to suggest a meleta brown (her new tree) but you definitely won’t be finding one for $800! Maybe you could find a used Lynn McKenzie Nueva or wide. There might be some more trail-specific saddles out there that I’m not familiar with.

[beau159]

I’ve got a Circle Y Flex2 wide tree saddle that fits my QUITE quarter horse quite well. Being a barrel saddle (mine is the Lisa Lockhart) it’s got plenty of wither clearance, but I do know they have this tree available in other saddles as well, including trail. Not sure if you can find a used one for $800, but doesn’t hurt looking.

I will second the Meleta Brown saddles. That saddle also fit my gelding very well with tons of wither clearance, but I did not keep it because the seat was too flat for my liking for barrel racing. But they’re going to be more spendy … but they are REALLY nice saddles with nice leather.

Is there a reason why you want a western saddle? Why not find a used English saddle that you are familiar with and know will fit your horse, and trail ride in that if you don’t want to use your show saddle?

Having had to fit both types of saddles, I personally feel like English saddles are much easier to tell if you have a good fit, than a Western.
http://www.rodnikkel.com/content/tree-and-saddle-fitting/factors-that-affect-tree-fit/
http://saddlemakers.org/id193.htm

[craz4crtrs]

I would look at barrel saddles for the wither clearance. If you see any Courts, try them. They fit big shouldered horses well and some fit extremely wide like my horses. There are used ones very reasonable if you search.

There is a barrel saddle group on Facebook. I was a member while trying to find something to fit my impossible to fit mare and there was a lot of good possibilities.