I have finally, after 3yrs, got the QH mare I've been dreaming of but... how do I fit a western saddle on her?

I've read all the theory but I don't know it in practice. Her saddle looks like it fits but I have no idea what size it is and if it is spot on. She came with a Big Horn saddle and I think I read on here that they're not the best made? I don't know what size it is and when I asked her previous owner she just said "it's a wide fitting" which didn't help me.

The thing is I'm in Scotland and I can't find anyone trained in fitting western saddles. I don't have a box at the moment so I won't be anywhere to see anyone (although the show I watched before didn't have any trade stands selling saddles at it). I don't want to guess a size...

How do I know if she is full/semi or just QH bar and what rigging etc? When I rode western in Oz they were of the thinking that the saddle just had to fit the rider and would fit every horse but that's not my way of thinking...

We're not going to be doing much so I don't want to spend a fortune on show tack or anything like that. Her saddle seems to fit her and her back is fine, is there anyway that I could measure her saddle and from that figure out bars/rigging and what fitting they are?

Any help appreciated!

Thanks

well first of all, congratulations on getting your horse! Saddle fitting can be a bit of a headache, compounded by the fact that we have so few saddles to choose from in the UK, and not many people qualified to fit them. If you have no good trainers etc where you are, I think I would be inclined to make an appt with a really good english fitter - usually they will want to see the horse being worked on/off the lunge with and without saddle, and then evaluate the horse's movement with the saddle and without. They will be looking for any signs of shortening of stride, lifting of the head, rushing, tail swishing, ears pinned, etc etc etc. This will tell them how comfortable the horse is, regardless of the type of saddle, ie english or western. They will of course look closely at the saddle on the horses back as it will be obvious if it is tight across the withers, or too wide thus sitting without clearance. I reckon that would be your best course of action so that at least you know one way or the other, and can proceed with confidence.
As for the make, Big Horn is ok, the reason people go for shall we say the more expensive and sophisticated saddles is that they start to get choosy about their position, comfort etc especially if they start to specialise, and as in any sport, the equipment becomes more and more important. As long as it fits the horse and you are comfortable and in the position you want to be in, that's fine!

Thank you! She only arrived on Thur and I love her to pieces already, she is really my mums to hack since I have my arab (and hopefully a tb ex-racer soon) but I am allowed to play on her and hopefully we'll get out and about to things in the not too distant future.

I don't have any pads for the saddle so haven't ridden her yet (have 2 on order) but her back is fine and when I went to try her she rode ok apart from being rusty.

Because there are no saddle fitters in scotland that stock western saddle (that I know about) how can I get a few saddles to try? My mum is going to be hacking on her and I would like to try a bit of everything so what style of saddle should I be looking for; trail, pleasure, reining??

How do I know what size the saddle she is wearing is? I can't find any measurements on it, how would I know what the bars/rigging are?


Thank you for your help and sorry for the silly questions :-[ I've tried to learn as much as I can over the past 3yrs about western but it's totally different in practice! I think once the saddle "problem" is cracked we'll fine; for a wee while anyway

Edited to say: I'm struggling to find a good saddle fitter for my arab (english) so wouldn't hold my breath on them doing western...

Hi,

Have you thought of sending out a template of your new horses' back to one of the reputable western saddlers by post?

The traditional way is fiddling around with wire coat hangers but I got an Equiform (reusable, mouldable 3D template) and was very impressed:

http://www.flair.uk.com/equiform/equiform%20intro.htm

We used it to take a template of my horse, then took it to Westways when we were driving past (but it would easily have been couriered in a box, bulky but weighs hardly anything); from that we could choose two likely saddles. As it happened, my horse then went to Bruce Lawrence's yard for a couple of months and Westways popped over to try the two likely saddles "in the flesh" (of which one was a very nice fit).

I thought it was a very useful little gadget to have available and although nothing can compare with trying the actual saddle on the actual horse, I think it would be very useful for someone in a position such as yourself.

Best of luck!

Hiya,

We have a centipede type moulding device that we mould to the horses back and then try it in all the saddles - it is very effective. It is really tough, I do know where you are coming from! I was in the same situation 8 years ago but I live in the New Forest. So I took myself to France and Germany to learn and made a business out of it

Good luck