Real Life Rider:
Newly Off the Track
THOROUGHBRED
Today we are going to look at Joe, who after
some layup time, has been in work for less than 6
months. He is still putting on weight, muscle, and
topline. His rider is about 5’ 7”.
While Joe has a lovely uphill build which will very
much suit the jumper ring and a big shoulder, he
has the typical prominent, narrow wither. So not
only is his wither high, it is narrow under the tree
points, with a depression behind the shoulder. To
fit Joe we will look for a saddle with additional
thickness in the paneling in the front and under
the tree points. This will support the saddle on either
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Fitting a
side of the wither and ensure good spine and
wither clearance.
The first saddle we tried was an 17” Antares Evolution
with a 2N flap and medium thickness paneling.
The Evolution is designed with a cut-back
tree which is predominately fits horses with big
shoulders, but also large withers. It was still a touch
wide but fit nicely with a half pad, and Joe was
moved freely and happily. However, this saddle is
not working for our 5’ 7” rider. Her knee is almost
over the standard N flap and the flap in general
is simple not big enough. She will struggle to
maintain her position in this saddle and hinder her
horses way of going in the long run (Photo 1).
The next saddle we tried was a 17” CWD SE03 with
a 2C flap (forward). This saddle has pro panels
- standard paneling with no specialization, a good
choice for riders who ride multiple horses, lease
horses, or who have young and growing horses. I
liked this saddle more for our rider but it didn’t fit
Joe at all. It was simple too wide in front and without
paneling to support the saddle in either side
of the wither, the saddle tipped forward, pressing
on his wither and lifting behind, once it was
girthed up with weight (Photo 2). When we look
at the saddle from behind, we can see the panels
are lifting off the back and not making contact
(Photo 3).
For our rider in this particular CWD, she looks like
she is too far in the front of the tack because the
center of balance of the saddle is too forward.
While the flap is much better, in a perfect world
I’d like the forwardness to be more in front of her
knee and less in front of her thigh (Photo 4).
On this particular day we did not find a winner for
our horse and rider. However, we did end up finding
a Antares in the barn with some specialized
paneling (build up under the tree points where the
dip behind the shoulder occurs) that fit Joe and
his rider beautifully! The panels look a lot like this
saddle in Photos 5 and 6. Notice how the saddle is
much narrower under the tree points than it is dot
to dot, or in the very front of the panels.
Photo 2
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