saddle dilemma

[Susith@aol.com]

I've been endurance riding for about 9 years. In that time I have owned five 
saddles, three of which I still have. These span three horses.

The Crump Endurance saddle I started with began to exhibit fit problems on my 
wide backed Arab mare when I moved from 25 to 50 miles, and I replaced it 
with a Stubben Survival which fit perfectly through all kinds of back changes 
and is very comfortable. I sold it when the mare retired as it didn't fit my 
narrow, slab sided, high withered gelding. For him, I went with a Synergist 
that after about three fittings, fits him really well. He's one of the 
hardest conformations to fit. I love that saddle for him because he shies and 
leaps around a lot and I can stay with him - most of the time.

I thought the Synergist would be great for my young mare -- short backed, 
wide -- and it fits her, but I'm not comfortable in it, on her. So she has an 
SR Saddle that fits her really well. The flexible tree allows her to reach 
out with her big stride and fits me well.

If I was to do it all over again, I would try to fall in love with horses 
that were easy fits, and had similar conformation. That way, I could have 
just one saddle. As far as padding goes, I use either Skito and Toklat 
woolback pads, they seem to work the best.

The person who said you just don't know what saddle you'll be riding in next 
is probably right. 

Susan