Three years ago I bought a top of line custom fit saddle for my horse. From the very beginning I had problems with it. Bad ones. Not for my horses as the saddle company has done an absolutely AMAZING job fitting my very difficult to fit horses. No, the problems were for me. First the saddle seemed really really hard on my poor seat bones. I mentioned it the very first time I sat in it and the saddle fitter said the saddle just needed to break in. So I rode in it for 3 months. If anything, I swear it got harder. So I paid for another fitting, where the fitter added some extra seat foam (very expensive seat foam might I add - $250!). This helped slightly but still, the saddle never felt quite comfortable. Then I noticed that try as I might, I couldn’t seem to get my legs underneath me. I seemed to constantly be sitting in a “chairseat” with my legs out in front of me. Needless to say this didn’t help my riding. So I paid for another fitting - they adjusted the saddle saying the flocking had just settled. Ok that seems reasonable. I ride another few months in it - constantly struggling in the sitting trot to stay upright instead of leaning WAY back (oh my gosh you should see the video of me doing Third Level Test 3! It’s embarrasing how far I’m leaning back. I’ll try to put up some clips). I then pay for ANOTHER saddle fitting. This time they raised the back of the saddle up to try to address it. I rode around the arena at the fitting site a few minutes and it seemed better, so they sent me on my not-so-merry way. Not so merry because the next day I went out to ride my horse and after 30 minutes my feet started falling asleep! It got worse every day as the saddle cut off the circulation in both legs! It got so bad I could really only ride 15 minutes before the pain was so bad I had to stop!
Then a funny thing happened. I was up working at Juniors (I volunteer at alot of the local shows) and I ran into the trainer who organizes the saddle fitting clinics. I chatted with her about what was going on with the pain and lack of circulation. She took one look at the saddle model and told me that there was a manufacturing defect with that model’s tree. It was a known issue and that the company needed to replace the tree in order to fix this! I was floored! I had complained about the hard seat for well, years at this point and they kept just charging me for fitting after fitting without ever telling me abut this known issue!
I called the company, they were very apologetic and helped me ship my saddle off to them. Then the fun really began. My saddle was gone for nearly a month. I don’t have a back up saddle cuz Sparky is so hard to fit! I was stuck with just a bareback pad for schooling poor Sparky who I’m trying to get ready for Prix St. Georges. Needless to say we did a lot of lunging and trail.
Towards the end of this saddleless month, I read a great blog post from BehindTheBit on long legs and saddle fitting (I’m six feet tall with a true 36 inch inseam. Long legs? I got ‘em.) In the post is an article written by my saddle fitter about how many people over 5′9″ need their stirrup bars moved back in order to be in the right position rather than in a chairseat. I immediately and excitedly called them to ask about moving my stirrup bars back for me. They were resistant first asking why I hadn’t asked about the “chairseat” before. Then they looked at my records and saw the multiple fittings for this problem. Then they checked my leg measurements and confirmed that I probably needed it done to fix the problem. The bad news though, was that my saddle was in transit so if this needed to be done, I’d have to send my saddle back again to them. AAAAAAAAAAAH!
When my much missed saddle arrived (second day air) I tested to see if moving the stirrup bars would help by putting thick hair rubber bands around the existing stirrup bars towards the front so the stirrup leathers were pushed back. Voila! My legs! They were under me! I could sit the trot without leaning back!
And away my saddle went again. They tried to charge me for the change but I pointed out that they had charged me for seat foam that was only needed because of a defective tree. They backed down and agreed to make the change for free. Phew!
So a week goes by. No news. I call in. They say the shop is running behind and it will be yet another week. That week goes by. No News. I call in. Oh it looks like it will be done by Monday! Fine. I call Monday. They can’t find the order. After searching and searching they find it. Bad news. They sent it ground instead of second day air - oops! Their mistake. Doh! So I have to wait another week before my saddle arrives. At this point I’m over two months without a saddle for my poor now out of shape horse. Finally it arrives.
I run out to the barn. Slap that puppy up on Sparky. Leap hopefully on to his back and go for my usual walk warm up in the hills. By the end of my 20 minute warmup my inner thighs were KILLING me and my feet were going to sleep. again. AAAAAARGH!
That was Monday of this week. Since then I’ve ridden in it daily and it still hurts me. It looks like the new saddle bars are pushing into my thighs, and hard! They’re metal, so I really don’t think they are going to break in… My position though is fabulous! No chair seat! I can sit the trot easily! Well not easily, it’s a huge trot, but easier!
Tomorrow, I call the company to talk to them about replacing the whole darn thing cuz I’m tired of messing about with this defective model!
I’ll let you know what happens! At least it still fits Sparky beautifully…..
Saddle Fitting, Uncategorized | admin, 19 Oct 08 | 
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