Difficult saddle fit?

[dianneS]

I have a recently adopted OTTB gelding. He's big and has extremely high withers. I think the poor guy has been a victim of poor saddle fit in the past due to the white hairs on his withers, his hunters bump, the deep hollow areas behind his wither, and the poor muscling along his spine. I have a feeling someone put him in a narrow treed saddle in an attempt to keep the saddle off of his withers and instead pinched his back causing muscle wastage.

Anyway, I'm trying to get him back into condition and I don't want to do the same thing to him. I can't get him a custom fitted saddle at this time as he will be changing shape a great deal in the near future. I'm riding him in an adjustable Wintec. I also ordered him a wintec comfort pad for wither relief.

The wintec fits as well as could be expected, but its not perfect. The problem is that if I put a wider gullet in the saddle, it sits flat on his wither. Narrower keeps it up off his wither, but is too narrow for the rest of him.

I don't know what the best solution would be? Go somewhere in the middle and use the wither relief pad??

 

[FlaRocky]

Hello,

I was going to suggest a Wintec, good call. Try calling Wintec Co. for help. What kind of riding are you doing with him. Have you thought about trying a treeless saddle unti he gets built back up? Do you know any of the T Touch methods? Look up Linda Tellington-Jones ,I thinly that ous how you spell her name. She developed training exercises to help the horse lift its back and help develop the back muscles.

Hope this helps,

Maye

 

[LauraM]

For horses like this, with a high wither and where you feel he will put on weight/muscle and change shape, I will use a slightly too wide saddle and add built up pads under the saddle to keep it off the withers and level. There are a number of pads out there both English and Western that have pockets for shims to be placed in them in different areas. Then, the shims can be removed as the horse changes. Something like that with the adjustable Wintec may make him comfortable while he's getting in shape.

 

[dianneS]

I was considering a treeless saddle, but I'm concerned that it will sit on his spine too much. His back is pretty thin.

I measured him with the wintec gullet guage and just sort of "imagined" where the muscle should be and went with that size gullet. I also got him a wither relief pad, not a riser pad really, but just a foam comfort pad, also from wintec. I put the pad on his back and measured him again with the gullet guage and the pad in place. I got the same gullet measurement.

I've been riding him like that ever since with the foam comfort pad on top of a large quilted pad. His hair is nice and smooth when I remove the saddle and it looks like nice even contact all along his back. The comfort pad is keeping the saddle off of his wither as well as just giving extra padding and filling in the "hollow" areas.

Seems to be working for the time being. He seems happy and I've got to say that foam pad makes the ride even more comfortable for me too!

I'll check out t-touch and I've got a friend who does t-team. I'll look into that for muscle conditioning. Right now I'm just schooling him to get him back in shape, get those muscles built up, hopefully this time next year he'll be back to his fightin' weight!