Saddle fitting issue with cob

wibble

Active Member
Feb 8, 2006
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Herts/Essex border
I am having a nightmare getting a saddle to fit my cob. I knew my saddle didn't fit her properly so I called out the saddler and paid her £20 for her to tell me it didn't fit:confused:

She then came back with a selection of saddles (thorowgoods and wintecs) The only one the actually looked like it fitted was the Wintec wide. I rode in the school and it felt fine. The problem is it slips really badly. She spooked the other day and it slipped round and because she is hogged I had nothing to hold onto so off we came.

I checked that the girth was tight enough and used the outer of the 4 straps. I am still trying to sell my last saddle (which is only 4 moths old) so don't have the budget for a brand new leather saddle (£370 is about the limit).

I rung the saddler today and she is coming back out (another £20!) but explained that I was always going to have some slippage because she is a round cob.

Liv has given me a bucket load of confidence back but I need a saddle that I can rely to stay on. Plus at the moment despite her being 15.2 and me being 5,9 I have to mount from a gate because the saddle just slips if I even touch the stirrups on mounting.

Does anyone have any advice on saddles or ways of keeping the saddle on her.

Thanks
 
Wow... My Luso was the same was a nightmare.

He's got an istobel (wintec) and the wintec 2000 at the moment both with interchangable gullets he's 6 (2 more years of growing) and already on the white ex wide gullet !! But they are great saddles and i've not had a problem as he has no with and is a ball of roundness !

I've stressed to my saddler what am I going to do when he grow's out of these and thats where he said,,,,you'd better hope he doesn't...oops.

My friend has a cob and the same problem, I'm afraid to say she had to get the saddle made for her in the end. costing £1000.

Good luck sorry i'm not an awful lot of help.
 
I have a very round cob, when I used to use my treed saddle a conform saddlecloth/numnah helped a bit along with neoprene girth.

Got cheesed off with it all in the end so went treeless :D
 
Hi Wibble

I have a very round Dales type cob, I had difficulty in getting a saddle to fit.
I now have the Thorowgood Griffin Cob Xwide but also have to have a gel-eze saddle pad to prevent it from slipping round.I have to use this in place of a numnah at present, although I have been warned that I may need to experiment as he changes shape according to the amount of work we do.

I think there have been other threads about the benefits and disadvantages of different types of saddle pads (impact, limpet etc) that you might want to look at.

Hope this helps:)
 
experiment with different combinations of the girth straps see if one combination works better than others, and you may have to use an anti-slip numnah aswell such as the impakt or limpet pads
 
If money wasn't an issue then I would suggest one of these air filled saddles. My preference being the WOWs. Because they are air, they can be adjusted quite often to get a completley accurate fit whilst your horse develops and changes shape. They are expensive, but you need to weigh up how much you spend on changing saddles and things. Also if you seel your horse, you can keep the saddle and get it re adjusted for yoru new horse. The carbon fibre trees can be changed EVERYTHING.

However seeign as money is an issue, then experiment with grippy numnahs. I'm not an expert on tack (except WOW saddles! I'm pretty clued up on them!), is there any tack which helps hold saddles on? Cruppers/Breastplates? I know these attacth...are they actually designed to hold the saddle on in place?

You could also try an overgirth...
 
What padding are you using underneath it now and what kind of girth? I have a very wide cob and have learnt that I have to be very careful what I use with saddles, with my wintec wide and others I've had. Thick saddlecloths guarantee slipping, especially polypads. Best thing is a thin plain saddlecloth/numnah or some kind of sticky pad. Wintec girths seem to work a lot better for helping keep the saddle in place than any kind of girth I've tried, cheap neoprene ones are terrible. I've never found using the first and last girth strap helps with slipping, I'm using the middle two at the moment and haven't noticed any difference, would be worth trying different combinations to see which works best. Checking you have the right gullet plate in would be a good plan as well, if the fit isn't exactly right then the slipping will be much worse.
 
Just about every Wintec I know, on anything other than a TB type, slips. It'd just the design, which is pretty pants. The trees a stupid shape :rolleyes:. I bet the saddle lifts at the back when your trotting? If not, the saddles probably too narrow - it's not MEANT to lift at the back, but invariably does unless the saddler has fitted the gullet too narrow to sort the balance - which is a common occurance:(

The biggest cause of slipping with the wintecs is a too narrow gullet. Because the tree is too curved, when the gullet is the right width the saddle sits too low at the front and the back rocks up. So a narrower gullet is put in, but this perches the saddle off the back and cause it to slip (and pinches the withers too:()

I had the same problem with Pink, to the extent where I couldn't canter her as her saddle just slid off when we went round the corners:( Even with a non-slip pad it was a real danger. I was spending so much time shifting her saddle back into the middle that she eventaully got a sore back for the twisting. I then tried a Thorowgood cob which almost solved the problem. The panels at the back were stupidly narrow but the slipping all but vanished. But I eventually got fed up with the ridiculously narrow panels at the back (not good since she often had heavy riders on her) so invested in a WOW. This is the first saddle I've tried that I don't even need a none-slip pad on. Even during galloping-20m cirlce-tantrums the saddle stays where it's told:D

Saddle slip is cause by poor saddle fit and design. On a flat cob any saddle will slid a little, but it shouldn't be noticable. There are many factors contributing to a sliding saddle - main one being shape and width of the panels at the back (wide gullet and wide panels that are the right cambre for the back slide less)

I'd have a look at the gullet first and make sure it's the right width. If it IS too narrow, then you 'll probably need a front raiser pad to adjust the balance.

Doing the girth really tight doesn't help at all - all if does is make the horse uncomfortable.

If you can't afford to get a new saddle you will just have to do the best you can. A GOOD non-slip pad will be your very best friend. I've got a limpet pad and a Impakt pad and an VERY impressed with the Impakt pad (limpets OK though) and wish I'd known about it years ago. They are however expensive:rolleyes:

Other option would be to have the cair taken out (a big cause of slipping cos the panels are usually a stupid shape) and replaced with good quality soft flocking so it can mould to the back shape OR have it fitted with Flair, which helps greatly, but is expensive.
 
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we had (well, still have) a wintec 500 for my mare, a welsh cob, and it was a good fit but she wasn't really flat backed and had some wither. My cob has a Jeffries Hawk Event and it really doesn't bugde one bit. it's a super fit on him. I've also got a thorowgood cob dressage saddle, again a nice fit but if i were being pernickerty IMO it's a smidge too wide hence i pad it out with a sheepskin 1/2 pad.

you can get anti-slip pads which may help but i'd maybe shop around and try a different saddler if you get no joy when this one comes back.
 
I am currently riding with a very thin numnah on the advice of the saddler.

We tried several Thorowgoods but they just didn't fit her at all.

I have tried 3 different girths to see if it makes a difference, it doesn't! I also don't overtighten it.

I do seem to spend my time shuftying it back to the centre which is not helping me or her.

The saddle doesn't have cair in, I am not a fan of Cair at all so purposely asked for the flocked version.

I currently loan her but am hoping by February next year to buy her as well as investing in a well fitting leather saddle. As you say in the meantime, we'll have to make do with the budget we've got and try our best to get the most suitable combination.
 
help for you! slipping saddle

I am having a nightmare getting a saddle to fit my cob. I knew my saddle didn't fit her properly so I called out the saddler and paid her £20 for her to tell me it didn't fit:confused:

She then came back with a selection of saddles (thorowgoods and wintecs) The only one the actually looked like it fitted was the Wintec wide. I rode in the school and it felt fine. The problem is it slips really badly. She spooked the other day and it slipped round and because she is hogged I had nothing to hold onto so off we came.

I checked that the girth was tight enough and used the outer of the 4 straps. I am still trying to sell my last saddle (which is only 4 moths old) so don't have the budget for a brand new leather saddle (£370 is about the limit).

I rung the saddler today and she is coming back out (another £20!) but explained that I was always going to have some slippage because she is a round cob.

Liv has given me a bucket load of confidence back but I need a saddle that I can rely to stay on. Plus at the moment despite her being 15.2 and me being 5,9 I have to mount from a gate because the saddle just slips if I even touch the stirrups on mounting.

Does anyone have any advice on saddles or ways of keeping the saddle on her.

Thanks

Hello there im a pretty new rider had same problem myself lol cobs are very round ive got a new wintec saddle allso go to the equimix site & order a thorowgood non slip saddle cloth or numnah they do both i gaurentee it wont slip anymore hope this helps! Emma xx (imapartyanimal) :) :p heres the link if it works lol (http://www.equimix.co.uk/product.php?xProd=818)
 
go to ebay!!!

I have the exact same problems. a dales x welsh sec D mare. The thorowgood 'cob' saddle didnt even go near her!!

She wears a wintec wide with the widest gullet in and .... heres where ebay comes in a LIMPET pad. I bought mine off ebay for £10.... theyre normally alot more expensive. Saddle.does.not.budge. :D
 
i have a wintec wide cob,as my 3yr old cob keeps changing shape i can change the gullet easily .when hes finished growing i will invest in a english leather saddle suitable to show in,i do have an old thorowgood dressage saddle that fits a treat whatever his shape,just my ars* doesnt fit in it!!!!:D
i also dardn't get on from the ground just incase it slips,i ride ALOT of the time bareback!!!
 
Yes but all cobs have different shaped backs! You cannot compare one to the other! Dexter has large withers for a cob, the thorowgood cob saddle was far too flat on him, he needs something with a cutback head to clear his withers and Ive never had a slipping problem, but a wintec would be totally the wrong shape. My friend had a thorowgood cob saddle that actually sat on her cobs withers which had been fitted! It also slipped round awfully and her saddler told her it was his shapes fault. I wouldnt accept that, sometimes I think you can learn more from reading books than what most saddlers know, they just want to sell u a saddle.
 
Have you looked around at 2nd hand leather saddles? Ideals generally fit round cobby types well :) Otherwise a limpet or impakt pad is your best bet for the short term, but if the saddle doesnt fit her well enough, nothing is going to make it stay there!
 
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