Dont know where your Karma went but I have just given you some back! I really appreciate people's opinions - how else would I have realised the saddle didnt fit (apart from my gut instinct about it of course!)

So that leads me onto my next question - although the saddle doesnt fit Bimmey, its a nice almost new saddle for an English (or just less bus like) horse, so where should I sell it?!

Thanks Liz - that's a great help (and maybe your karma might re appear???)
I am going to get someone to video me riding this weekend so I can see for myself what I look like and then assess where to go from there! Will also look at my saddle as you suggested.
Thanks again

Re English V western , ive been told by English riders that western saddles restrict the horses shoulder is this BS or partly true ....

English riders need to be slapped. Ok, not all of them, but the dense ones for sure.

In my most humble opinion...

It is absolute BS with a capital BS...

a well fitting western saddle frees the shoulder better then any English saddle, as the design of the English tree almost seems like it HAS to wedge in behind the shoulder blade... and if the western tree was so bad then the Roe Richardson people that developed the Reactor Panel line of saddles would not have based the under side of their English saddles on western panels...

A poorly fitting saddle however... yeah, that is not going to help the cause... the fact that so many people new to western are buying cheap & nasty narrow saddles because "their mate that does western says they fit all horses..." of course, that's the best that a lot of English riders will see, novice western riders on English based yards, and possibly western saddles being "fitted" by English saddle fitters/riders that just don't know the way a western saddle sits and fits is different to an English saddle.

I have to say, I really don't miss having to share space with English riders on DIY yards... I was so lucky the last 8 months I was in England to be able to keep my horses with Penny Brommersma... that was the first time in the UK I had ever been on a yard that never once questioned anything western! Heaven.

And now... I am in a great big slice of heaven... but alas, there are badly fitting saddles, and poor riders here... but not quite so venomous about it all... so it helps...

Went to an AWESOME rodeo last night... (some shockingly bad riding there, people kept falling off, and running around...shouting... jeez)

I think we need to be a bit careful before we rubbish one thing over another. Whether it be saddle fit, riding style or anything else. The truth is that there are good and bad examples of anything and we should be careful not to generalise. Otherwise we will be seen as nothing better than bigots and that won't do the Western world any favours.

I actually had a limited involvement in the development of the reactor panel as my ex husband and (behind the scenes) my father were heavily involved in its development. The reactor panel, like any saddling system works for some and not for others. It is not a panecea. The panels are actually based on cavalary panels, not Western ones - but it is an easy mistake to make because many of the original western saddles were adaptations of the military 'hardware' of the time.

Oh for petes sake... here we go.

Did I "rubbish" ANYTHING or ANYONE? No I did not... I was JOKING when I said that English riders should be slapped... (you can tell cause I put the sticky out tongue thing there)...I ride English and western, I'll take a pic of my long leather boots if you need proof, they're next to my cowboy boots in the closet...

And I'm sorry, but did I slip into a foreign language without realizing when I pointed out the poorly fitting saddles bit?

And again, sorry, but if my info on the reactor panel is wrong, it came from the fitters/makers themselves back in the mid 90's when it was still Roe Richardson, which it is no longer...and yea, you are of course right, it does come from cavalry saddles which is where the original shape for WESTERN SADDLES COMES FROM so again, I am so sorry I did not spend 10 minutes explaining that, I didn't think it relevant as frankly, baseline - the panels look western more then English ... and where did I say it's the perfect saddle for all,I like them, I don't like standard English saddles, THAT'S all I said... doesn't mean I have not ridden in them, does not mean I have not owned and loved my English saddles... I just don't think they are made with the horses well being in mind.

Read the post... I pretty much said all this in the last post and my previous post, mainly to avoid people saying I was against English people and or English riding...

I haven't rubbished anyone, or anything, I have not insulted either style or equipment... now if only you could spend some of this energy and track down the English riders that told Roland his beloved sport was bad for horses backs, then we'd all be better off.