I rode with a Stubben Imperator. Great saddle.
I always thought it was a tad narrow at the withers, but like your daughter's
horse, mine had really a great back. Even with a saddle that didn't
exactly fit, the fact that I could ride with a loose girth (once after a vet
check, I forgot to girth back up, so the girth was hanging down maybe six inches
from his belly. Going out, we had to go down a very steep rocky
hill. I had that same weird feeling you get with a flat tire [something
just not quite right] and reached
down. But, considering the steepness of the hill, the saddle was pretty
rock solid).
My horse never had a sore back but, he also never did much
(no trailer, etc) only a few Novice CTR's (20 miles up to one 2 day 40
miler).
I would gladly get another horse with the same back.
Sounds to me like your daughter is going to be very happy.
My daughter's new horse is a tall, leggy horse but the middle of
his back is very wide. I would not call him wide in the wither area. He is not
fat. the backbone is there but the ribs are very well sprung. The back is dead
level. Her OF is leaving a sweat pattern about 2" wide around the perimeter
and a dry strip about 3" across down his spine (she rides with booties. He
hasn't shown signs of soreness but we're really watching. I would think that a
really wide saddle would be too wide in the shoulders. I haven't really had to
deal with lots of trees since the OF saddles have worked for all our
others...we just really have high hopes for this horse and want to do things
right from the start. Choosing a custom saddle doesn't seem so bad when you
think you're going to have that particular horse for a very long time.
So..wide in the loin saddles? A possible alternative is a dressage
saddle since she's planning to take more dressage on him and we wouldn't mind
owning one. So far he's not complaining on the OF. It's just a new sweat
pattern for me.
