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Re: [RC] Pony saddles - rides2far, but I > am wondering for those of you with kids on horseback, does the conventional cheap pony saddle work in 10-15 mile (training) rides? Does the smaller weight make saddle fit less of a problem? And has anyone use a breast collar on a small saddle? My son's cheap saddle fits his 11 hand pony fairly well, but it only has the front girth and it tends to slip 3-4 inches off center, You don't mention how old or how tall your son is. I used to buy ponies...enough to keep all the neighborhood kids riding with mine. We struggled a lot with making saddles usable. The big problem with pony saddles is that they are perfectly scaled down adult saddles...but kids are NOT perfectly scaled down adults! Children have short legs, compared to their torsos and head size. As an artist, we're taught that an adult is 7 heads tall, but a kid is about 5. When a kid's butt fits that 12" pony saddle, he can't reach the stirrups. By the time the stirrup leathers are right, the seat's too small. If you took off the fenders you could adjust the stirrups right for a tiny kid, but then there's a safety problem. The little tapaderos they put on dont' give them room to put more than the end of their toe in the stirrup, but if you take them off they could get dragged. I'd love for *somebody* out there to invent a proper saddle for a 7 to 10 year old! If I had a small child I might just take off the western leathers and hang English. English safety stirrups would solve the stirrup problem. We tried putting a 12" pony saddle on our horse and the saddle fit was AWFUL. If the kid's 10 or so and hanging over the back of the saddle it really digs in back there. I ended up getting my daughter an English saddle to ride her 44" pony with, then when she started riding the 13 hand one we just put the Ortho-Flex on him. Like you, it was for short rides and since it was an Express we could shorten the stirrups enough. We had more need for cruppers than breast collars with the ponies since they tended to have round barrels. On the English saddle you could just put a big nail crosswise underneath and attach to it. On the western you could have a ring attached. If that saddle's turning the pony may just be round with no withers. Sounds like a good pony for riding bareback...always my first choice with ponies. :-) Angie =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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