I have an M. Toulouse saddle that is extremely comfortable for me, but doesnt fit any of my horses at all. The M. Toulouse has a moderate/wider twist. Anything with a narrower twist is extremely painful. Kind of wanting to upgrades saddles anyways, but all of the fancy French saddles seem to all have narrow or extremely narrow twists? Anybody know of any nicer saddle brands that offer moderate or wider twists? The horse needs a narrow or even an extra narrow tree. Does a narrow tree with a wide twist even exist??? I think that I like a flatter seat, but undecided on that part yet. So bonus points if the saddle has a flatter seat, but not a deal breaker if it doesn’t.
Cowpig-Smith Worthington has several saddles with wider twists. The have a nice website.
My CWD had a wider twist with a flat seat, but that was years ago. Hopefully that option is still available.
Tad Coffins tend to have wider twists and flatter seats than most french saddles.
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I’ve found many Childerics to have a wider twist, might be certain generations (the ones I’m thinking of are 2001-2006 or so) but worth looking into if you can sit in one.
My 2014 CWD SE01 also had a wider twist, I would say it is among the wider options in the French saddles. I now have a Voltaire Palm Beach and it is less wide but very comfortable.
County and Black Country have too wide of twists for me. Pessoa I feel is in the middle.
Antares has a wider twist. I had a beval natural andca county stablizer xtr that felt like i was sitting on ac2x4 turned on its side, if you know what i mean. My antares is heaven. It also stopped my knee pinching. I found out later, that if you have flat inner thighs, you need a wider twist, orcyou will always be trying to pinch with your knees, due to nothing to get your thighs against.
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Yup, of all my tack, the TC has the widest twist. I find it a fairly comfortable saddle and a lot of horses really like it. It does tend to be a wider saddle in general, though, so it doesn’t work for a lot of horses.
Another vote for Antares- I think I opted for an even wider twist.
Harry Dabbs is available with either a narrow or wide twist.
Frank Baines has a medium twist and a waist that is on the wider side of medium. Their Reflex with the broader seat option is my favourite but I recently tried an Edessa that I really liked and was bummed didn’t fit my pony.
You might like some of the other UK brands like Ideal or Fairfax. They seem to have a mid to wider twist and wider waist that goes hand in hand with trees to suit slightly broadet backed horses, even in their non-cob-specific models, which my pelvis really really likes. I’m seeing a lot of people in my area are trading in their French saddles for Ideal and even Loxley (by Bliss) because neither they or their horses are happy with the narrowness of the French saddles anymore.
