Home Current News News Archive Shop/Advertise Ridecamp Classified Events Learn/AERC
Endurance.Net Home Ridecamp Archives
ridecamp@endurance.net
[Archives Index]   [Date Index]   [Thread Index]   [Author Index]   [Subject Index]

[RC] tree sizes - K Owens

Just a couple of ideas that might help...

He's a pinto half-Arab, and I'm told he's fairly stocky and short-backed.
One thing that is important is to not look at the whole body of the horse for saddle fit, but the area where the saddle sits.
If you isolate that part, then you are more likely to find one that fits. This area would start at the rear of the scapula and go back to about 4" in front of where the hipbones start(if you drew a line up from that point). So many look at the muscling in the chest, the shoulders themselves and the butt and say, "Wow that is one stocky horse!". They then get a saddle for that body type and it doesn't work. For example, my sister bought a quarterhorse gelding. He is one stocky individual, with muscles bulging out all over. However, she tried a quarterhorse tree on him and it slipped back and down...really squirrely. Closer look, he's probably a Running Quarter with lots of Throughbred blood, because his actual saddle area is quite narrow. He has good sized withers that are somewhat steep. I fit him with a narrow tree and he's happy as a clam. She rides all over the place and the saddle does not move one iota, she's secure and everybody's happy. There are a couple of ways that will give you a hint about what tree your horse might take. Look at the withers. If your horse is fairly low/mutton withered and you have a difficult time even finding the rear of his scapula, no hollow behind, the rest of the back is almost a table top,possibly with a hollow down the spinal area, your horse would lean toward a quarterhorse set in the bars(wider angled). CMK horses are often like this. If your horse has a medium wither, there is a pocket behind, the rear of the back angles down from a spine a bit, then a semi-quarterhorse tree might be appropriate.
If your horse has high withers, a pocket behind the scapula, back angles down from the spine a bit, then you could be either a semi-quarterhorse or a throughbred tree. The later is somewhat rare in ready made saddle trees.
18-19" seat size (if English).
In western or endurance that could be a 16" seat. Hope this is of some help to someone.

Katee
Advantage Saddles




=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=


Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp

Ride Long and Ride Safe!!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=