Western Tree sizes?

I was thinking of buying an abetta western saddle for my mom, who is riding our Throughbred Mare. She has a narrow back and medium/high withers.

I will have to find pictures of her back for some insight.

Im not sure what size to get, I found some with standard bars, QH, quarter, full QH bars, its a tad confusing! What size bars should I get?

Thank you so much, guys!

Generally standard bars are good for most Thoroughbreds, but since she has high withers you may want to get QH bars. Whenever you post pictures I will try to tell easier. I recently bought an Abetta, but my horses are Qhs, so they obviously use FQHB.

Can you take her to your local tack shop and try different saddles on her? I would bet either standard bars or semi-QH bars would fit her. Steer clear of FQHB though, they will likely by WAY too wide. :)

The average TB will take a Semi-QH Bar, some take Reg-QH, very few will take a FQH Bar.

Some pic along with Height and weight of your TB would help.

I'd go with semi-qh bars. I use next size (qh bars) on my horses, but I have qh.

After some thinking... It also will depend on what kind of pad you plan to use. With really sick pad qh bars will work.

I agree, either Semi-QH or Qh bars. You'll want to look for a saddle with a higher pommel and lots of room under it to give good wither clearance.

Yes, those words are golden. Somehow Abetta I tried just sat on my paint's withers. So I ended up with different saddle.

Shes about 15'3 and about 950lb. The saddle I use right now is rather old, and I don't know the size of the bars. It has a very high pommel (i don't use any other western saddle on her and it seems to be fitting her well).

I was thinking synthetic, mainly because its much lighter. With her arthritis the less weight, the better.

Ill try to get some pictures of her back tomorrow! Thank you very much!

Your TB sounds on the lean side so I would be inclined to start with a high pommel, SQHB saddle. If you can't take your horse to a saddlery can you at least take his measurements?

The system I've used is as follows:

Go to the hardware store and get about 4’ of 12 or 14 gauge house wire (the kind electricians use to wire a house) and cut it in half. This was written for Western saddles but the principle is the same for English or Australian.

Take 2’ and shape it over your horse’s withers. Take the other 2’ and shape it over the center of his back.

Carefully take the wires and trace the inside of the wire on a heavy piece of cardboard (or poster board if you have it). Cut out the cardboard shapes and take them to the saddle shop to fit against some saddles.

This part is Western: Keep in mind that QH bars in one saddle may not be the same in another brand. There are no standards for saddle trees so each manufacturer has his own idea what dimensions make the designations.


Hope that helps.