Saddle vs. multiple horses

[sterlng&sierra]

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!).

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

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.

 

[Countrymom]

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.

 

[()relics]

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.

 

[Oklabarrelracer]

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?

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.

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

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.

 

[Cara]

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!

 

[Oklabarrelracer]

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.

 

[Cara]

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

 

[Oklabarrelracer]

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 !!!!