Saddle fit/Full or Semi QH Bars?

Yes it is a Billy Cook! I love the way the pitch of the bars fit too...just wish it was wider. I'll hate to not be able to use it anymore.

Ok, whhhooooaaaaa....let me start over! My saddle IS NOT a Billy Cook. I thought that name sounded so familiar....learned when I went out to the barn that it was not because it was the name on my saddle...lol. Sorry about that.

I did have one of the trainers at our stables look at the saddle though, after I was going to try a Full QH bar saddle on my mare. She explained to me that my saddle is actually too wide and not too narrow. This really surprised me. She said the reason I may have had the dry spots is because the saddle slides too far down on the withers. She looked at the saddle with the pad off and showed me how it tips downward towards the front and is not level. I understood this, but thought it was fine once you add the pad. She then tried an arab saddle on her and it fit very well without the pad. It was totally level. She told me that the saddle is narrower. I was shocked!

I am going to ride her in the saddle with a built up pad and see if she gets those same spots again. She also sees a chiro on Tues and will have her saddle checked with her too.

A note about saddle pads and saddle fitting - the original intention of the pad was to keep the saddle clean, not protect the horse from the saddle. In theory, a correctly fitting saddle could be used without a pad and not hurt the horse. It's difficult and even impossible to find a saddle that fits quite that well, but it's a good thing to keep in mind when determining how well a saddle truly fits - you shouldn't feel like there's something that really needs to be fixed with a pad.

I'm beginning to understand this now...after seeing todays test in saddles.

I would just like to let anyone interested know, that the good news is that I had my saddle fit checked today and the saddle fits well...in the 90eith percentile of saddles being checked by my chiropractor. Whew. Makes me feel so much better.