Saddles for downhill horses

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horsecrazychick

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Dec 23, 2004
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Will likely be looking for a new saddle before too long and I was wondering if there are any particular saddle brands that work well on horses that are built downhill- english and western, on the cheap side of the price range. :D Both of my saddles slide forward and pommel is WAY lower than cantle. :rolleyes: Oh and my horse is (I think) a semi-QH western and wide tree english.
 
Actually, it sounds as if you're using saddles that are too wide. Even if he is downhill, your saddle should still be reasonably balanced.

However, if you have an extremely downhill horse, the best thing to do is to have an English saddle flocked to fit (balance of the saddle should be taken into account), or have a Western tree custom carved.

Is the horse young? Is he downhill because he's growing?
 
Well, I don't think the english saddle's too wide- the western one definitely might be. The english one has an adjustable gullet, and I've tried adjusting it to narrow, medium, med. wide, and wide. All of them sit downhill on her. (I didn't ride her in all of them! Only the wide fits now that she's gained back some of the weight she lost.) Maybe it's just a cheap saddle? Or the fact that I'm not changing the actual tree? I don't think she's extremely downhill at all, and she's 9 or 10 yrs old. I'll attach a pic when I switch computers later.
 
Jazzy isn't really downhill much at all as far as I can tell- didn't even notice until trainer said something. Is it just that she's traveling downhill, since she hasn't yet developed much of a topline? There's also a pic of the saddle- as you can see the nail has rolled to about the middle of the saddle, yet the back is several inches higher than front. Is that just how my saddle's SUPPOSED to fit? My trainer said the raised cantle is pushing me forward out of my jumping position when I try to close my hip angle over the fence...
jazzy1.jpg

jazzy2.jpg

jazzysaddle.jpg
 
horsecrazychick said:
Well, I don't think the english saddle's too wide
Click to expand...

It's possible that, though you can change the gullet in front, the panels themselves are poorly shaped for the horse. So if the panels are much more narrow than your horse is, the saddle will tilt forward as if the saddle was too wide. It's not necessarily that the front is too wide, just that it's wider than the rear.

Sometimes in a horse with a broad build but a narrow wither, it's near impossible to find a saddle that will sit well--English saddles can be adjusted & flocked to fit :) though.
 
Yeah that makes a lot more sense! Wide back+ narrow withers describes her pretty well too. So would the best solution be to find a wide tree saddle that fits well, then get it reflocked so that it sits even? And it will still fit the same, right? Do you know how I would track down someone that reflocks saddles and how expensive it normally is? If it's expensive I might just have to ride bareback forever and give up with shows/ pony club. :eek:
And then with a western saddle I don't care how it sits since I'm only doing gykhanas, so long as it fits. Is it possible that it is fitting correctly even if it's tilting forward? Or do I need a new western saddle too?
Thanks a ton, you explain things very well! :D
 
I had the same broblem with my wintec and slightly downhill pony (wide but with withers). I'm now looking at treeless for her.
 
sorry, but now you've lost me. I already have a saddle that fits in front(my adjustable one) but the problem is that the back of it is too narrow for her. The only part that fits is the gullet. Surely getting the saddle reflocked won't make the tree wider for her back....
 
galadriel said:
Sometimes in a horse with a broad build but a narrow wither, it's near impossible to find a saddle that will sit well--English saddles can be adjusted & flocked to fit :) though.
Click to expand...

I'll toast to that... that's what's caused all my saddling woes! He even surprised the saddler with how wide and deep his barrel is and he had to go back for a 56 inch girth!

I DID find a saddle that fits him beautifully though, it's designed for that build, once it arrives I'll tell you what the manufacturer is. It's pricey though.
 
The width of the tree in the back isn't all that important, when you're dealing with panels. It's the shape of the panels. Having a saddle reflocked can allow the fitter to completely re-shape the panels, to make them sit more flat on your horse's back. They can even be taken apart and widened and re-attached to the tree.

The tree *must* fit in front--the back can be altered to fit.
 
If you are looking for a western saddle, I would try a Featherlight or a Bighorn. They are both extremely lightweight, but stong. The Featherlights only weigh about 17 lbs!

Anyways, Jazzy is beautiful! We used to have an Appaloosa, but someone poisoned him....
 
I'm so confused now. I thought that the ONLY reason my english saddle didn't fit was because the tree was too narrow, but it's not that important??? It is awfully close to her spine. I guess I'll just have the saddle fitter out and ask her to tell me eaxctly what saddles I need to look for. I'm going to be broke by the time I find a saddle though. Either that or I'll have already out grown my horse. >.< Anyway thanks for trying to make me understand...
 
An English saddle tree is an interesting thing. There are some pics here:
http://lorienstable.com/articles/z-fitting/weight/

See how the front of it goes around the horse's shoulder, but the back lies flat against it? It's very important that the front be the right shape for the shoulder. Too wide or too narrow at the shoulder makes a huge difference. It must fit at the shoulder.

However, the tree itself doesn't entirely determine the shape of the panels once you get behind the shoulder. It's not so much the tree, but the panels. One of the things I frequently do is to reflock/reshape panels that *fit* at the shoulder--but behind the shoulder, they really don't resemble the horse's back at all! Often they're too narrow, and only touch the horse's back a little. Once I'm done with them, they lie flat on the horse's back, the way they should.

The tree does still have to be the right shape for the horse--if it's too straight/curved, or otherwise wrong for the horse, then the saddle can't be made to fit the horse well. But if the only problem is that the *back* of the saddle doesn't sit flat on the horse, oh, that can be easily changed :)
 
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