Hennessy

[Hidemechanic]

Hennessy,

in another post you mentioned a foam lined skirt. This peaked my intrest because I have been pondering just that idea with a saddle fit issue I am dealing with.

I'm wondering if you or others have had success with an orthopedic approach for hard to fit horse?

My issue is a Tenn. Walker, mid teens,high long wither, hollow shoulder, peaked spine and long broad backed.(7+- foals)

The owner called me out to her place to look at her horses as she has had trouble fitting them. The mare has been the big problem.

I tried several saddles and several trees and the one that fit the closest was (I hate to admit) a saddle that I pieced together(from spare parts)in a hurry once and never intened to be seen or used by a customer. I call it my Johnny Cash saddle( remeber the song 'One Piece ata Time'? "It's a '57-'58-'59-'60 Cadillac automobile"?) The tree is a semi-Q SFBowman. (HadFox if I recall)

My issue at the moment is convincing the owner we aren't there yet. After reading another post I suggested she try a dressage saddle on the mare before going too much farther, but the owner can now ride the horse with my Johnny Cash saddle and wants to work with it to 'fine tune' it. It is still not a good fit,just better than what she has seen to date.

I've never been crazy about using padding gimmicks to fix a fit problem and I have thought about using padding on the skirts to get a more orthopedic fit for the problem backs. But haven't done it yet to know what success it would have.

I have built endurence and trail saddles with a foam lined skirts but the foam and the skirt followed the lines of the bars.

In this case I would be padding up the high edge of the bars to fill where the area that is lacking on this mare ( her back muscles are far below the top of her spine) as well as fill for the shoulders.

I'll probably have to get some pix to make sense of this for you.

Question is, has anyone had success with using an orthopedic approach to fitting a problem back whether it be on the saddle or with the saddle pad?

look forward to hearing your experiences.GH

[Echo4V]

I had a similar issue with a walking horse that had exactly the back profile you are describing. I took 1 and 1/2 inch thick felt pad and cut out the shape of the bars from it. Then I sewed these to the top of a cheap cut back saddle pad and put my saddle on top of that. ( One trick is to use spray glue to attach the pads at first so that you can unstick them and replace them till you get them in the right place then sew them down) I used that pad to ride her for a few months until she developed a rounder back that would fit a saddle without needing the extra build ups.

Hope this helps

David

[Hennessy]

Hennessy,

in another post you mentioned a foam lined skirt. This peaked my intrest because I have been pondering just that idea with a saddle fit issue I am dealing with.

I'm wondering if you or others have had success with an orthopedic approach for hard to fit horse?

My issue is a Tenn. Walker, mid teens,high long wither, hollow shoulder, peaked spine and long broad backed.(7+- foals)

The owner called me out to her place to look at her horses as she has had trouble fitting them. The mare has been the big problem.

I tried several saddles and several trees and the one that fit the closest was (I hate to admit) a saddle that I pieced together(from spare parts)in a hurry once and never intened to be seen or used by a customer. I call it my Johnny Cash saddle( remeber the song 'One Piece ata Time'? "It's a '57-'58-'59-'60 Cadillac automobile"?) The tree is a semi-Q SFBowman. (HadFox if I recall)

My issue at the moment is convincing the owner we aren't there yet. After reading another post I suggested she try a dressage saddle on the mare before going too much farther, but the owner can now ride the horse with my Johnny Cash saddle and wants to work with it to 'fine tune' it. It is still not a good fit,just better than what she has seen to date.

I've never been crazy about using padding gimmicks to fix a fit problem and I have thought about using padding on the skirts to get a more orthopedic fit for the problem backs. But haven't done it yet to know what success it would have.

I have built endurence and trail saddles with a foam lined skirts but the foam and the skirt followed the lines of the bars.

In this case I would be padding up the high edge of the bars to fill where the area that is lacking on this mare ( her back muscles are far below the top of her spine) as well as fill for the shoulders.

I'll probably have to get some pix to make sense of this for you.

Question is, has anyone had success with using an orthopedic approach to fitting a problem back whether it be on the saddle or with the saddle pad?

look forward to hearing your experiences.GH

i have not worked too much with the high density foam but will be from here on.years ago i did boot n shoe repair for a way to supplement my merging into making rodeo gear.i got to putting hush puppy soles on cowboy boots n heels,absolutely the most comfortable sole ever.10 years later the boot co's started doing it n still are.it seems to me fixin a problem basically is doin whatever,it takes to effectively overcome.some people wont pay into a huge bill for a custom tree, but would pay for modifications that work ,which is where you are now i think.foam might add heat to the back and smaller skirts might eliminate some of that,i see no reason why you couldnt rearrange bar angle with foam[good density].i have a world champion trainer riding a saddle with a forward double d and foam under skirt.he was an old rodeo'r a bb'er and he gave me a shot at makin one my way,he is very complimentary,has a pad that you can add inserts too,between the two he claims he's fitting everything.his horses are free'r and winning.i'm gonna build an aussie hy brid soon,i wont block skirts but will add an extra piece of leather under bars on my skirt ,then light plug edges and 1 in foam skirts.i believe the skirts were intended to be load bearing,i can be wrong,but i like to get clear of the scapula,on any breed,also helping people thru modification builds rapport etc adios peter john