As many of you know my daughter's horse Lyric has a short,
round, flat back. We have had nothing but trouble with saddles. We
have gone through at least 6 different saddles (both endurance and barrel)
and continue to experience fitting issues. Now some, maybe much of
the fitting issues are due to her young age and changing back. Some,
maybe much of the issues have been caused by her owners inexperience (yep,
that would be me!). I know from this and other lists, this is not an
isolated issue as many Arabs have the same saddle fit issues. Our latest
saddle adventure, well misadventure involves a Bob Marshall treeless
saddle. First I need to say the Bob Marshall saddle is not defective,
it is not poorly made. No, the saddle is beautiful! BUT THE SADDLE
DOES NOT FIT, THE POMMEL IS TOO NARROW. Due to a NEW manufacturing process
the factory is no longer able to widen the pommel ends. In
plain terms, the new pommels are plastic and are not amenable to grinding
to widen the ends. We have compared an older saddle pommel to the new
one and to make matters worse the newer pommels are narrow-er (smaller)
too! So, needless to say I am a bit frustrated with saddles and this
horse! I will be putting the new Bob Marshall up for sale (14 inch barrel
saddle, chocolate suede, stirrups set back 1 inch) and we are looking for a
used one, if any of you happen to cross train your endurance/CTR horse
in gymkhana (did that make it endurance/CTR related?). Anyway, just
remember that the Bob Marshall is not a good idea for those of us with
really wide horses, bummer.... Nancy Reed Lazy J Ranch Elfin
Forest,
CA
