western saddle for high withers horse

My paint has rather high withers (see pic). Is it possible to find western saddle which would fit her? Abetta sits right on withers (in fact didn't fit my qh as well), and wintec fits rather poor (in fact I had pretty nasty accident with wintec couple weeks back so no western wintec anymore :( ).

Looks like you need to go with a gaited horse bars saddle, or a semi QH bar. They are made for higher withered horses. I have an Abetta that is a wide full QH bar that I can't use too. Are you near any tack stores that do consignments? Maybe you could do a trade. See if you can find someplace that will let you try out the saddle before you buy.

Thank you, V! In fact, my wintec was semiqh, but it didn't fit (not even withers part, I guess the whole thing is just poorely made). Yes, I'm looking at stores around, however not much success so far... :(

You might want to look into gaited horse saddles then. The only difference is, besides the narrower bars, they have a rounded panel at the front for freedom of shoulder movement. Good luck in your search.Have you checked ebay?

Sure you can. My QH has some withers too and my nice leather saddle fits. You may not be able to use a synthetic or perhaps a different brand. I'm not very familiar with them even tho I have an abetta(spare for kids). I don't think it fits my very well QH either.

Try to measure the height of the gullets on the saddles you look at as well as the tree width. If you can take your horse to the saddle or take one on trial that will help you fit him easier also.

Here is a pic of my QH Abe.

Appy, what saddle do you use? Yeh, looks like your horse withers are even higher... :)

I did find a store in PA, which has number of saddles plus they do custom. I may drive there on Fri and see what they have. Can't take horse there (it's 60 miles drive - too long), but will take pics and all measurements I can. They also said they exchange - refund if saddle doesn't fit. Looks like nice place to go...

I know you said that you took back an ausie saddle becouse of not fiting properly but we had the same problem on honey (brown)and the ausie gives plenty of clearence. Don't know what type of tree it is sorry.

BTW, I posted the question because the guy in local tack store told me it's IMPOSSIBLE to fit high withers horse with western...

Farmer, aussie indeed gave lots of clearance. You are right about that. But it was sliding everywhere. Looks like not the best aussie. Lol! The problem is there are no aussies around, and all I can do is just keep ordering. I think it's just easier to go with the western (we have 3-4 stores in reasonable driving distance, so I can at least exchange it.

I think he was full of horse manure! Probably had some english saddles he needed to sell.