Check out the withers on this boy! I have been fighting to find a saddle to fit him since we bought him last January. I initially tried my wintec with the adjustable gullet. It really didn't fit well, it sat very downward in the back and gave hardly any clearance in the withers. After the first declaration of soundness from Dr. Hunt, I searched for a new saddle. I found a saddle seat saddle and decided to try it out on him. It fit ok, but not great and I wasn't really happy with how far back it put me on his back. I don't think he was meant to be a saddle seat horse. This is where the trip down to the southtowns came in.Myself and Joanne, another lady at the barn who had just purchased a gaited horse and was struggling with saddle fit, decided to trailer our boys down to this tack shop and have them fitted. The shop doesn't do custom down to the tree, but they have lots of options for different types of trees and have a good reputation for finding saddles to fit horses. We were concerned because we knew that fitting a gaited horse is very different than just a regular old quarter horse but were assured that the girl doing our fitting had gaited horses and was very familiar with fitting them with a saddle. Joanne took Rocky, a rocky mountain gaited, and I took Savy and we headed on our way down.
Rocky was fitted first. They had a really hard time finding a saddle that fit well and they finally tried a saddle that was one of thier own brand with a medium tree and they decided that it fit. Awesome right? Joanne wanted to try riding in the saddle but they said that they couldn't because the saddle they used had actually been sold already so she just had to go on faith that it fit and place the order if she wanted it. Next Savy came up. Miraculously, the same saddle fit Savy too! I should have known something was up when this happened because Rocky and Savy are two very differently built horses. I wish I had a picture to show you how different but Savy is a 17hh Saddlebred with high withers, a back that is lean at the shoulders and a lot wider at his butt, and hallows behind his withers. Ricky is a 15 hh Rocky mountain horse with a fairly even roundness all the way down his back and is significantly wider at his shoulders than Savy. But we trusted these people who were supposed to be the experts and placed our orders for our saddles.
Fast foward past the aginizing trailer expereince to the day before the clinic. Joanne and I were both taking our horses to the clinic and our saddles came in the day before. We went and picked them up and immediatly took them back to the barn. I put mine on Savy and immediatly knew something was wrong. The gullet was resting directly on his withers...there was no clearance at all! I didn't even bother to get on because I knew it would only cause pain for Savy. Joanne put her saddle on Rocky and everything seemed ok....until she got on him. Rocky started bucking and we knew that there was a problem with her saddle as well.
We both took our saddles to the clinic the next day to see what everyone there had to say and as soon as I put the saddle on Savy, everyone standing around said they could see it didn't fit him. Rocky's saddle wasn't as evident but it turns out that it was too narrow along his spine and was pinching and hitting in all the wrong places. Needless to say, Joanne and I were incredibly dissapointed.
Now a word about the place where we got the saddles. Luckily, they have a beautiful return policy on saddles. You have 10 days to return any saddle for any reason and that trial period can be extended if need be. I don't want to mention the name of the place because I don't want to give them bad press because of my bad experience. Another girl at our barn had a great experience with them and her Quarter horse who had really wide shoulders (the horse is a tank). Do I think that this tack shop can fit saddles? Sure...I have heard of plenty of success stories of people finding the right saddle for thier horse but I don't think they know enough to fit gaited horses. Do I think they push thier own brand of saddle on purpose? Definitely. I have it on good authority that they make 50% profit off of their saddles where as they might only make the standard 25% off of another brand. Would I recommend someone else going there? If you have a gaited horse, no. If you have a standard quarter, appy or something that is still a little hard to fit, maybe. Depends on whether you have the time to trailer your horse down there and it depends on the fitter. I would only ever suggest anyone use the owner or his wife as they seem to be where the success stories come from. Do I still shop there for other horse related items? Of course I do. It was a bad experience and I was mad but I understand that my horse is hard to fit and gaited horses specifically can be difficult. I should have found a gaited horse saddle fitter to begin with.
And that's exactly what Joanne and I did. A lady at the clinic has gaited horses and suggested a guy named John. He works with a company called Allegany Mountain Trail Saddles and actually lives only 10 minutes from our barn. John came out and measured both Savy and Rocky. It turned out that he had a saddle with him that already fit Rocky well so Joanne just bought that off him. John has lots of expereince with gaited horses as he owns a few himself so he taught about the fit of a gaited saddle and also worked with Joanne on learning Rockys gaits. He has been awesome to work with. Because of Savy's high whithers (need another visual?)....
.....we had to have a tree specially made. He had a tree form with him that fit is back but there still was not enough clearance for his withers. He made an order for the tree and had them add 2" to the fork to make it high enough for my funny shaped boy. The tree came in three weeks ago and John brought it out to try on him. First I have to tell you, Savy thought the tree was going to eat him and had a very funny reaction to it - but after the initial snorting and side-eye, John put it on him and it looked great. I got the chance to customized the saddle down to the color of the leather and the leather detail. It was pretty cool. I am getting a plantation style saddle without a horn and with english style leathers. It will be similar the the one below but in a chestnut brown.
I am still not totally convinced that this will fit him just because it would be too good to be true if it does, but I really hope it does because I am other wise out of options. The saddle should be ready sometime towards the end of this month so I will keep you all updated on how it goes.
And now, you are all caught up on Savy and my crazy ride with him over this last year:) I think sometime this week, I am going to make goals for this year because I have a lot I still want to acomplish with my crazy horse:)
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