High withers - anyone got the same problem?

[seeker]

With their horses, I mean, not personally!

Spirit is very narrow and has very high withers. Dd rode her in a new saddle cloth yesterday and when she untacked her, found a nasty rubbed patch. We went and bought a mind-bogglingly expensive new numnah designed for high withered horses, but when dd used it for the first time it just keeps slipping back.

Is there anything we can do to stop it slipping? And if you have a horse with the same problem, what do you do? Thanks!

we've got mutant withers, which have never been able to show properly in photographs - anyway have been various problems with rugs/saddles/saddle cloths but advice we got from Newmarket (when he got v sore) was to never ever use numnahs or saddle cloths, so we don't

in 'saddle might need reflocking again soon' type situations we use a pro lite riser which is adjustable and doesn't slip

or what about one of those gel things with holes in it?

I mean, other than keeping saddle clean, what are they even FOR?

We have a gel thing with holes for our TB, it is good. Other option is to use an ordinary car chamois leather wet next to the horse - tack doesn't move at all. It is the friction causing the rubbing. If it doesn't move it won't rub iyswim?

HTH

Thank you all.

Alice - did you say a wet chamois?

MI - you have just rocked my universe - of course you need a saddle cloth because - well.......well.....just because - ok? I've never thought of not using one - I just assumed that they need the extra padding.

Technically, if your saddle fits correctly you don't need anything.

Yes to a wet (rung out) chamois. They get used on the racehorses to stop the tack slipping back. Being on the slim side it tends to happen a lot!

Thank you - we'll try it. Sorry for checking - I wanted to be sure it wasn"t a typo for white or something and I made myself look an idiot at the stables with my wet chammy!

Hehe

You can get saddles that are cut back at the front to accomodate for high withers - might be worth looking at instead of padding

I don't like saddle cloths. There, I've said it.

You pay 1500 quid to get a saddle fitted and then you stick a cloth under it which then causes the saddle not to fit? Bonkers.

We didn't pay 1500 quid for the pony never mond her saddle!

We've just had some extra stuffing in the saddle as high withered pony has changed shape a bit. Might that help with yours? (only cost £35)

Her saddle was restuffed in January - but she may have changed shape with more work - I'll get it checked again. Good idea.

older that's great to hear - mine needs re-stuffing and tbh I had no idea it would be as cheap as 35, not sure why but with everything else being so damned expensive with the nags I just assumed it'd be a 200 quid job!

Be careful though - the call out charge can add quite a lot.

At our stables we get together and fix a time for the saddler to come out then we can share the call-out (ours is £60, which is apparantly quite cheap)

Re-stuffing cost us £30 plus a tenner for call out.

Thanks for that seeker - I hadn't thought of that. Now what to do? The guy I bought it from is about 20 miles away in Germany who obviously did the original fitting, the local girl is supposed to be very good ... but, everyone who calls her out ends up being "talked" in to a new saddle.

I think I might just nip it over to Germany to see what the guy says - I know exactly where it needs flocking. Bah, gimme a leather needle!

My dd wants to be a saddler when she grows up - could you wait a few years????????

haha well due to pregnancy I won't be riding until September and my dressage saddle fits a dream... so she can have the GP as a "summer holiday" project.

Is Spirit out of condtion at the moment? My 14.3 has high withers, although he's robust rather than narrow. Just after Winter his saddle always rubs as he's lost muscle tone. Once he gets that back his saddle doesn't rub at all. In the meantime, I use peice of foam with a hole cut out where the rubbed patch is (ie so there's no pressure from the saddle on that part) then one of the large thick numnahs on top (I use a polypad and make sure the polypad's sticking out at the front to stop it slipping).

Once he's more toned I go back to just a cloth numnah and he's fine for the rest of the season.