# Saddle vs. multiple horses



## Chickerdoodle13 (Jun 7, 2009)

This question is mostly just for curiosities sake, but we are beginning to see an issue with our horse to saddle ratio! I just figured I'd find out what everyone else does, as its always been a question on my mind.

So I know several people have many horses, whether it be four or huge farms with 20+ horses. Either way, I'm wondering what you do regarding the saddles. Do you have one saddle for each horse, or do you use one saddle for several horses? I imagine it would be fairly pricey to do the first.

I've been at both ends of the spectrum. I've had years where I am completely obsessed with saddle fit and others where I wonder how exactly the ranches with 50 horses fit their saddles. We currently have four horses, three of which are rideable. Unfortunately, two of the horses have high withers with bony backs and the third is just completely round. We actually do have quite a few saddles (Our barn is starting to look like a saddle shop), but it seems like there are so many little things you could pick apart with each. The one I really love is the circle Y. It's fairly versatile with all of the horses, but it still has some minor downfalls. However, that one is better for the high withered bony backed horses and my wintec seems to fit better on the round muscular horse. 

I understand that a poor fitting saddle is a bad thing for a horse. I would hate to walk in shoes that were too big or too small for several miles with a 100 + pounds on my back! However, what do all these big ranches do? Do they just see horses as disposable and use any old saddle so that they are lame early on? I can't imagine that would be very efficient. I've had people tell me that a horse with a poorly fitted saddle will act like a devil, yet I've seen horses act perfectly fine with some very badly fitted saddles! On the other hand, I have a gelding who acts up no matter what kind of saddle is on his back. (He likes to throw his head, which I've been told stems from saddle fit, but I believe more and more his issue is behavioral!) This horse is what really started my saddle fit concern. However, my dad is the type that believes saddles are all made the same. I'm trying very hard to sway his opinion of that and it's beginning to work. However, I just want to know what the heck everybody else does?


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## haviris (Jun 7, 2009)

I have MY saddle which I pretty much use on who ever I ride. At one time we had several saddles, but I'm the only one that rides these days, I generally ride my horse, but do occationally ride one of the others. There are horses that have "special needs" when it comes to saddle fit, but ours seem to be pretty similar and so far I haven't run into any issues w/ this. Our horses are mostly QH and Paints. 

Now if more then one person wants to ride at a time, we're in trouble, because I'm the only one that has a saddle now.

Now I do have our two mules that will be started this fall, not sure just yet what I'm going to do about saddles for them, because I have a feeling my saddle will not work w/ them.


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## lupinfarm (Jun 7, 2009)

We've always used one or two saddles on multiple horses, if we found we had a new horse that neither of our two bog standard either the wide tree for the drafts and draft crosses, or the "average" tree for any other horse, we would hit up the horse auction and sit out the tack sale a few times, you could always pick up a good all-purpose english or a good western for $100-$250...

if we had an inbetween, we used whichever saddle fit best and filled out with pads. When you're not rich and you have more than one horse, you really gotta do what works for you. Every horse had its own bridle and pads of course, and if we'd been wealthy enough to buy multiple saddles we would have, but fact is we were just scrapin by boarding out LOL. You CAN fill out with pads, and there are pads made specifically for this purpose..The only places i've ever known to carry tons of saddles on site were riding schools, one i road at had 40+ schooling horses and every one had their very own wintec saddle. i've used for about 10 years the same all-purpose saddle that fit a 16.3 hanovarian on my haflingerxbelgian...she was a very wide hanovarian LOL.


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## Bronco Hollow (Jun 7, 2009)

Throwing ones head would most likely be other issues.. bit fit or teeth... I'd be looking there before saddle fit as a reason for the discomfort.  

Has the horse had wolf theeth pulled or dental exam?  Some bits are painfull - what are you using?


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## laughingllama75 (Jun 8, 2009)

I always have more saddles than horses, LOL. but 3 horses and 5 saddles is not the same as 15 horses and 15 saddles, I understand. I try to fit the saddle to each horse, as every horse is different fit. I have a QH now, that was a ranch horse, he has white scars on his back from an ill fitting saddle. Pretty sad.


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## Chickerdoodle13 (Jun 8, 2009)

llama, That is the same as our gelding. He has the big white spots on his back. I know that whatever saddle we use on him will never be worse than what MUST have been used on him previously.

Bronco,

We have the horses teeth floated and inspected by the dentist every year. The first time we had him done was probably the first time in his life. He did have some issues and I do believe they had to pull his wolf teeth. I'll have to ask my dad about that one though. 

As for the bit, we've tried a few different kinds. He likes to play with the bit ALL the time. Right now we are using a broken snaffle that we bought from one of the trainers at a show. Its made of iron I think, because it causes the horses to hold on to the bit rather than fight it (I guess they like the taste) It also has some square edges rather than round on the inside of the bit for a little extra control when we need it, but it is not harsh at all. Out of all the bits, he does a little better with this one. For the most part, we don't have to put any pressure on the bit at all, except when backing up. So basically we just needed something he wouldn't mind having in his mouth and that we could use in an emergency when leg and neck pressure just don't cut it. (I.e. When he's acting up)

I do think a major contributing problem to the head shaking is the fact that he just hates ring work. Typically, he acts up the most at the jog and lope. However, if you go around a few times and work it out of him you would think he was the perfect horse. He also, interestingly enough, seems to hate kissing. If you kiss, rather than cluck, he throws a head shaking tantrum. He's gotten a little better with all the extra work we've put into him this summer so far.


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## laughingllama75 (Jun 8, 2009)

it's hard when you don't know the exact history on a horse. My guy thinks going in the ring means go at a dead gallop. the people before me had him 4 years, and only did speed stuff with him. if you try to slow him down in the ring, I get the same as you. You can see/feel the confusion in them.....like, WHAT do you want me to do??? poor guys. Patience and TLC, that's what it will take.


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## Bronco Hollow (Jun 8, 2009)

Our one Morgan - he'll carry you through thick and thin, very brave and courageous.  Put him in any environment - from crowd control to extreme trail and he just does it... but don't put him in an arena.  He shuts down, you can't get him to do anything.  

We had our saddles custom made and they are Regular trees.  So far they have fit everything I put them on.  I have lots of good saddles in the tack room... kinda like collecting shoes I think LOL but I need to sell them off as they are not being used at all.   
Work your horse to get a sweat pattern - that will tell you where you have hot/dry spots.

The tree is critical.
Semi is 6"
Regular is 6-1/2 to 6-3/4
Full is 7" or just a tad more
Draft is getting up to 7-1/2 to 8-1/2
Circle Y for instance markets their trees as Full, but it actually is a Semi and it poorly fits or don't fit most horses.  A lot of trees are coming out of Georgia - inexpensive but they wobble - probably kiln dried so they are warped.  A good tree costs around 200+. Circle Y and the plastic ebay saddles use a tree costing 30.  I've seen some saddles made in Mexico using pallet lumber for trees.  
Twist in the bars is also critical - they have to be the same on both sides and often in production saddles are not.  I had a production saddle that 1/4" off on the right - no wonder I was having problems!  Gullet width is bar width, gullet height is an option.  Sometimes it is hard to tell on a finish saddle what the bars are - kinda an x-ray process without taking the saddle apart.

Sorry don't mean to sound preachy... just trying to point out some the pitfalls in getting a good fitting saddle.


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## wynedot55 (Jun 8, 2009)

the horse you ride the most should have a saddle that fitts him to a t.a saddle fitted to the horse is best for horse an rider.no 1 wants to sitt in a small or oversized saddle.


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## nightshade (Jun 8, 2009)

I have 2 saddles and a bareback pad. I only use one saddle though my old beat to crap one. Hubby got me new fancy one from X mas this year but frankly I just don't really feel comfortable in it to really use it a lot yet.


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## sterlng&sierra (Jun 9, 2009)

We have many saddles (We're working on selling some. Anyone want a Wintec 500 or a nice Ortho-Flex?) and five horses. My hunt saddle (a Crosby) fits my Arab wonderfully, and our felible-treed Circle Y fits all our horses great. It is fine for open shows, too, and silver could be added to dress it up some more. We have an ortho flex saddle that fits all our horses, and a nice Timberline trail saddle that fits all of our horses, plus a Timberline western saddle that fits most of our horses (It perches on my Arab's shoulders). Wintecs we've had some good luck with too, but I prefer the conventional english saddles to the exchangeabe gullet ones; you can't restuff panels blown up with air. 

If you have many horses, such as a training barn with many schooling horses, or many horses and only one rider, get a nice saddle that can fit many horses, such as an Ortho-Flex or Timberline; there are also english brands that have settings (not interchangeable gullets) for the stirrups and gullet width for huntseat saddles (I think it is Rembrandt I'm talking about, but correct me if I'm wrong!).


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## Chickerdoodle13 (Jun 10, 2009)

It seems as if english saddles just generally fit horses a lot better than western saddles. I have a lot easier time finding english saddles to fit my horses than western ones!

I find all this information fascinating though. I think a lot of people are misinformed about saddle fit (Such as my dad) and I do like learning about it! 

Unfortunately stetson (our ranch horse) has such a thin, high withered back, that it makes saddle fitting very hard! We are trying to bulk up his back with some good exercise, but that will take some time. There's not too many brands of saddles that fit his high withers, and many of them are very very pricey. That's not to say we won't pay the money for a good saddle, but looking for one can be such a pain, especially with my dad! LOL (I have to cut him a break, because I've been working with horses for a lot longer than he has, but sometimes he's just so resistant to new ideas!)

My favorite saddle was my little barrel saddle. It was a couple size too small for me, but it was sooo comfortable! It fit my horse ok (This was years ago when I had my first horse) but could have used some improvements. It didn't have any huge issues though. That horse had a nice back for a saddle though. It wasn't too skinny or too round.


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## Countrymom (Jun 10, 2009)

Circle Y has had one heck of a time over the past 10 yrs or so.  They have gone through a couple of owners and at one time they even took a few 100 saddles and cut them clean in half and dumped them in their dumpster.  I know, I live 20 minutes from their operation.  Overall they have declined in a major way in quality.  Tex Tan has had it's issues also.  They had a big fire a few years back and it took them some time to get back into the swing of things.  However, they were never as or are as bad as Circle Y has become.  I own a couple of Circle Y saddles that are like 25 years old. LOL  Great youth saddles that fit very well on a Quarter Horse.  With the help of a wonderful now retired manager of Double J Saddlery, they were converted from a barrel saddle to slide the fenders forward for cutting.  

We have quite a few saddles, but I picked up a custom saddle about 3 years ago that I dearly love.  My oldest is showing in it now, but I ride it whenever I ride.  I have ridden in a LOT of custom saddles being on cutting horses warming up.  I don't like some of them.  I am most impressed with the newest cutting saddle from Double J, but then they finally got the tree right.  They have done many in the past that just missed something.  Oh, and my custom saddle is by CJ Koen.  I believe he is out of Lousiana, but not sure.  

Also, when you do saddle up, don't forget that your saddle pad is really just as important as your saddle.  A poor quality saddle pad is not going to be very comfortable or help your saddle fit.  There are many different types of saddle pads that are also built for that high whithered horse and have extra padding in that area.  I call them lift pads, but have heard many different terms for them.  We spend at least $100 for our pads - usually more.  And I have a few of the plain felt under pads.  Had a horse that had a stab wound in his back right where the saddle sits (he likes to rub up under a certain tree with long hanging branches.)  It was healing, but we didn't want to rub the skin.  So I cut a whole in the felt pad to keep the pad itself off.  Worked like a charm.  

I also have a thing about neoprene pads and girths.  In fact, I threw out a girth I found in my tack supplies just the other day becasue it was neoprene.  I have had more problems - and been told the same by many trainers - of rubbing and lack of the ability for the horse's skin to breath with them.  Lots of skin fungal infections caused.  

Chickerdoodle, I would suspect your horse is just a bit lively and trying to get into the right mind set when he is tossing his head.  Especially if he quits as his work time progresses.  Know a little mare that is absolutely hilarious with her head until she gets warmed up.  Even sticks it out and tilts it sideways as she is trotting in the warm up pens.  Just her quirk.


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## ()relics (Jun 11, 2009)

We each have our own saddle here.I've gotten tired of changing saddle set-ups for our different riders.  Also my kids had a rough time with my saddle, the weight,seat size,etc., so we now have a saddle just the right size and weight for each rider.  We all ride barrel saddles for everyday rides but have 1 larger trail saddle for some of the longer rides.  Left unsaid good saddle pads all around.


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## Oklabarrelracer (Aug 9, 2009)

Chickerdoodle13 said:
			
		

> This question is mostly just for curiosities sake, but we are beginning to see an issue with our horse to saddle ratio! I just figured I'd find out what everyone else does, as its always been a question on my mind.
> 
> So I know several people have many horses, whether it be four or huge farms with 20+ horses. Either way, I'm wondering what you do regarding the saddles. Do you have one saddle for each horse, or do you use one saddle for several horses? I imagine it would be fairly pricey to do the first.
> 
> ...


Hi, I have 2 barrel saddles because I run 2 horse's. I am looking into a stock / ranch saddle for my young horse's that I get back from the trainer. If I ranch ride my retired barrel horse, I ride in my barrel saddle. I am like you that I went round & round with saddle fit.For me it is so important that the saddle fits my horse's well, as them being competition horse's, they must feel their best. Through trial & error, I found Ammerman saddles to fit great or Allen Ranch saddles. Pads are also important. A good quality pad can help with a saddle that doesn't fit as good as it should. I swear by 5 star pads.They are 100% virgin wool & not only keep the back cooler, they provide alot of cushion for the back.
  As for your horse's head tossing, have you had his teeth checked ? If his teeth are good your horse may need a tie down or a training fork. Some horse's are just head tossers.My palomino mare, Snickers is like that. She has to run in a tie down & even trail riding she will toss, so I use a fork then.Sandi on the other hand doesn't throw her head, but wears a tie down when she competes because she likes to balance herself on it.But when trail riding she doesn't require anything. First I'd check teeth & go from there.Sorry my post was so long.


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## Chickerdoodle13 (Aug 9, 2009)

No problem! I love reading about horses, no matter how long the post!

Stetson hasn't been so bad with the head tossing lately. We actually had a friend riding him the other day and he was a perfect angel. 

I do think their teeth have to be done though. Its been about a year since the last time. My dad will probably have the dentist out in the Fall. 

I'll have to look into those saddle pads. I do know we need some new ones. I'd rather sink some money into a good pad then buy a cheap one that'll fall apart quickly.

Luckily my new horse has a nice round back and my circle Y fits her very nicely. I might need to pad up in the center a little bit more, but the sweat mark it leaves behind is typically very even and covers the whole area of the saddle. She has a lot of room between the pommel and her withers, even when I'm in the saddle, and it sits nice and evenly along her back. I haven't tried my synthetic on her yet, but I have a feeling that will fit her fairly well too. She just has a nice back for saddles. I still miss my old barrel saddle though. Even when I wasn't barrel racing, it was still the most comfortable one I've ridden in...and it was about two sizes too small for me! LOL Sure kept me in the seat though.


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## Cara (Aug 9, 2009)

The cowboys on our ranch have a couple or three saddles each, and they wouldn't ride anyone else's saddle any more than they'd wear someone else's boots.  Typically they always use the same one.  Since the horses are all bred here, they are all built pretty much the same.  Occasionally there is one with particularly high withers, but nothing that can't be fixed with a contoured pad.

I promise you the horses are not made to work in ill-fitting saddles.  For one, most of them probably wouldn't.  A guy that insists on using an ill-fitting saddle wouldn't last long, the cowboys do not own the horses the ranch does, and they are expected to take good care of them.  If not, they can take a hike.  

When I was living in England, it was not unusual for each horse to have its own saddle and to sell it with the horse.  However, a good English saddle is still significantly cheaper than a good Western saddle.  I thought my husband was out of his mind when he insisted that we had to buy a horse that fit my saddle, but luckily I haven't found one that it didn't fit yet!


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## Oklabarrelracer (Aug 9, 2009)

Cara, It sounds like you have a very nice working ranch. I totally agree with a working horse having a well fitted saddle. Those ranch horse's work hard & have an all day work day. I have much respect for ranch horse's. 
  I have always wanted to go to England.Always wanted to ride in the fox hunts, but just for the senic beauty & the ride, not to get the fox.I'd probably let it go LOL or lie about which direction it ran  LOL.  But I hate to fly & I know that's the only way to get to England. It is so beautifull there.


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## Cara (Aug 9, 2009)

It is so beautiful there, and the greatest thing is... there aren't any venomous snakes to worry about!


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## Oklabarrelracer (Aug 9, 2009)

Cara said:
			
		

> It is so beautiful there, and the greatest thing is... there aren't any venomous snakes to worry about!


Well that's one great reason to move there.This has been a nasty year for us with snakes.We have killed 6 copperheads, 3 rattlesnakes "1 was on our county road,not on our property, but hubby got him anyway" & 2 chicken snakes who killed my favorite hen & her 3 baby's     I HATE SNAKES !!!!


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