RE: [RC] Really wide-backed horse and saddle fit - Ranelle Rubin
Evelyn,
I could serve Christmas dinner on my Polish/Crabbet 8yr old gelding! I tried many treed saddles, none of which worked..even a hinged paneled saddle did not work with his very short back.
I have ridden him in a Freeform and now a Bandos for over two years. The FF worked well for the first year, until he got withers. He has a very long sloped shoulder which ended up causing a rub right at the base of his withers with the FF. I switched to the Bandos in August and it is great! It has a front design much like a Barefoot Cheyenne. You can move the stirrups forward and back like the FF, and the plate that the stirrup leathers hang from is dinner plate sized, which I understand was meant to disperse the weight better than the smaller ones on the FF.
Feel free to email me privately if I can help in any way.
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Date: Sun, 9 Dec 2007 14:12:22 -0600 From: totaleclipse2007@xxxxxxxxx To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [RC] Really wide-backed horse and saddle fit
I have purchased an Arab/Saddlebred gelding, 15 1/2H, who has a really broad back (and I mean "really" broad), although he does have a nice wither. He is not in endurance condition, but I hope to have him in easy 50-milers by mid-summer. My dilemna in the meantime is what saddle to use (despite the fact that we probably own at least 10 saddles from western to dressage to aussie to endurance!)? I don't really think any of the saddles we presently own will fit him very well, although I am considering starting him in the adjustable gullet Wintec Dressage to start (and I know the drawbacks there) until he is ready for some serious mileage. I would really like to avoid that whole, huge, messy saddle fit problem if at all possible. It is very hard to figure out what ones will work well once you start heading up into bigger mileage ie: Reactor Panel, Synergist, etc., so I'm trying to avoid spending thousands and thousands of dollars on saddles that just won't work for endurance, even if the ads claim they will. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated - you can e-mail me directly if you like to avoid problems with too many saddle discussions on Ridecamp. Thank you.
