saddle not fitting anymore!

I have 2 older saddles 1 wintec and 1 old bates leather saddle. These both used to fit my 14.2 standardbred perfectly now they don't. At the start of this term (about april) I took my standardbrted to my school so I could work him and suddenley his saddle didn't fit where it did before. He is getting alot more work than he was before and he hasnt obviously lost weight. What do you reckon could have caused this? And secondly both saddles are now too wide for him so until I can get a new saddle or get his back to better shape I need a temporary fix. What is the best way to fit it. My instructor said I could pad it and i've seen her do it to another of the school horses using a folded over puffer pad. Is this sufficient or should I get a special pad that raises the saddle front and back. The winted can fit 2 fingers just and the leather about 1. Any help would be great thanks heaps

If he is getting a lot of work he will have muscled up and changed shape :) I don't know about the quick fix. How old is he? He might have grown and is a different shape now?

Horses ilke people will change shapes all their lives. If your instructor is familiar and has has success with padding I would go there for help because there would be experience and an extra set of eyes that can help you fit the horse better. That being said, if the padding doesn't help, you may need to look for another saddle.

He is 16 and it was only about 10 weeks ago that the saddle fitted. I am looking at getting another saddle but probably wont get one for a while. I will ask my instructor. Before he was gettin worked only maybe once a week if that and now he gets worked almost everyday. I would hav thought if he had gained alot of muscle the saddle would have risen rather than dropped on him.

If you need a fix now, i'd try padding and see how it works for him, but if it makes him sore then I'd stop that and find a new saddle....

If you have a saddler around they may be able to come out and look at it on him and restuff it. This really helped my coach fit her saddle back to her horse after muscling up. Not to sure if it would work for you since the saddle is too wide but may be worth asking about. My coach paid about 60$.

Also I think a pad will be fine for quite a while as long as it makes the saddle fit well. One of the school horses has used a pad for over a year now with no problems at all.

You can use a pad. My saddle fits my large warmblood well but the gullet is slightly too wide for my tb. I have a comfort pad that I use on her that runs each side of the gullet and makes it a nice snug fit. I've been doing this with her for about 8 months now with no problems. Ultimately I am going to get another saddle for her but I need one for showing so it isnt going to be cheap therefore im doing it this way for a while.

As already mentioned horses change throughout their life and if he is being worked more he has probably got muscle in places he didnt before etc and that may make the saddle fit not as well as before.