leather vs synthetic

Hello everyone. My name is Kim and i've just bought a Haflinger mare. She is a little round and has absolutely non existant withers! This is causing me massive problems in finding a saddle that will fit her. I did buy an aparently Haflinger saddle, aparently a wide fit, but on her the pommel and opening were much much too high.
So maybe I need an extra wide!
I've looked in many places and have found that the only ones that are likely to fit and aren't bank breakable are synthetic ones.
Yes i'm old fashioned, I think leather is better, but am I right?
This is my first horse and I know littel about buying saddles, although i'm learning fast! Any help would be greatly apreciated.
I can't get to a saddlery as I live in the mountains.
Many thanks in advance.
Kim

I had two haflingers and the only saddle I could get to fit was treeless. Go to www.GallopingGrape.com and check out the treeless options. There are great Yahoo groups for treeless riders.

I'd go with leather too. I had bad experience with synthetic although I know many people like it and it's on cheaper side too. You can look into flex-tree ones like TexTan. I know flex-tree fits wide horses with no withers pretty good.

I have a synthetic and a leather saddle....i need a new girth for the synthetic saddle as it is too loose but I find that it is really comfortable to ride in. I really like leather too....i don't think I was much help but meh..

I think that either is fine, so long as it fits your horse. From my experience, the synthetic saddles seem to be produced in a "one-size fits all semi quarterhorse bars" mode.

That said, there are some synthetic draft horse saddles out there...maybe they would work(??)