For pleasure riding no reason you can't put a pad on the seat or something to give you more grip/shorten the amount of room you have. Sort of like a riser pad- for you! Also, no reason you can't purchase a non western saddle (how about an australian?) and still ride the horse the same.

Unfortunately no help on actual suggestions, I don't know anything about western saddles.

 

A 17 inch seat seems like it would be way to big for the size of "self" you are describing. I guess I would suggest sitting in a lot of different types of western saddles and sizes to see if you can find one you like the feel of.

 

@Yogiwick - I had been thinking a sheepskin cover might be useful; maybe I can stick a little pillow back there too! :P
@JoCash - There was one tack store I went to where the lady gave me the 'funny' eye when I said I was looking to try 17" saddles for myself. She showed me some that had the same extra room problem, but then was boggled when I sat in the 15"s and 16"s and had the thigh issue. I'll have to keep searching! I suppose the ultimate laugh will be finally finding a saddle that fits me and then it won't fit the horse - hah!

 

I wonder if the saddles you’ve tried this far have put you into a chair seat. That will push your thighs into the swell; especially if you are also in a saddle with the seat too big.

Is there another tack store you can try?

Also, you are going to sit differently in a saddle if it’s on a saddle rack versus a horse. So sometimes you really need to have the saddle on a horse.

 

That is odd, that even when you drop the leg down, you are still having your thigh poke into the swells . . . h m m m . .

What sort of saddles are you trying? barrel saddles?

have you tried one with a slick fork? such as a Wade tree, with a slick fork?

could we see a photo of you in a saddle that causes this issue?

there is a thing called a 'seat shrinker', produced by Cashel, that can make a 17 inch saddle an inch smaller. it might help, but it's still baffling that someone of your size is not perfectly roomy in a 16 inch.

 

@beau159 - There are a few more tack stores within reasonable driving distance that I will be trying in the near future, otherwise I may need to plan a day of travel to farther ones. In my immediate area it seems like English is more common, so traveling may be the only way to get more options. Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately?) I do not have a horse to ride seriously on yet to try out any saddles. Both my horses are now retired, with maybe occasional putters around the yard. You're definitely right about the chair seat though. Curse my body morphology!
@tinyliny - I unfortunately don't have any photos in the saddles I tested. I never thought it would be such an issue getting the fit right! I've mostly been trying trail saddles as they've been the ones that seem to fall within my price range. I haven't tried any slick forks but I will look into them - thank you!

 

Sounds like you need to get your KNEES further down. Depending on the horse and maybe the saddle, though, you may be too tight to do so. Running, for example, tends to tighten the thighs, keeping them together - a good thing for jogging, not for riding horses. If so....stretching is in order. Some western saddles also are designed to put your leg in a certain spot - the shape of the "ground" of the seat. Our Circle Y does that to me, while my slick fork, slick seat saddle needed a sheepskin to prevent the sliding:

​

 

If you don’t have a horse you are riding now, I would encourage you NOT to buy a saddle. When you get a different horse down the road, there is no guarantee that it will fit your horse.

Is there a reason you are saddle shopping without a horse you plan on using it for?

 

@beau159 - I'm in no rush to buy a saddle (I can always use my old one in a pinch) but just got invigorated to start looking again as I've moved to a new place. I tell myself that if I do find a saddle that's perfect for me, I'll take just as long finding a horse to fit it! Until then, I'll take lessons or consider a lease if I'm desperate to ride more frequently. I was just so stumped as to why I was having a hard time finding a decent-sized seat!

 

I tell myself that if I do find a saddle that's perfect for me, I'll take just as long finding a horse to fit it!

Until then, I'll take lessons or consider a lease if I'm desperate to ride more frequently.

I was just so stumped as to why I was having a hard time finding a decent-sized seat!

Of course, I think you realize that’s wishful thinking on your first point. You won’t “horse search” for a horse that fits your saddle.

If you take lessons, the trainer that you are taking lessons from is going to provide tack for their own lesson horse.

If you are leasing, there is no guarantee your saddle will fit. And if it doesn’t, You’ll need to find a different saddle that does fit the lease horse.

I’m not trying to shoot down your enthusiasm but just trying to make sure you see why it is not a good idea to buy a saddle before you have the horse.

When you do go saddle shopping in the future, make sure your stirrups are long enough and you are using an appropriate seat size. Let your legs hang naturally out of the stirrups. As a rule of thumb, your ankle bone should be at the bottom of the stirrup (give or take). Also, you should have about two fingers width between your thigh and the swell (give or take). At your height and weight, I would guess that a 15” might be just about right.

 

Sounds like the stirrups are too short, but also, you're going to want to try a lot of different saddles before you buy one, and yes, a saddle on a stand can feel very different from a saddle on a horse. The way the seat is made, the type of swells, how high the back is, any of those can change how a saddle sits.

But... you really, really need to have a horse first or else you're really just window shopping.

PS I'm 5' 9", 200 lbs, and ride a 15.5, but I have to let the stirrups out to a length most men ride to get everything positioned right.

Afterthought: Like Beau... what kind of saddles are you trying out? Who's the maker? A barrel saddle feels different from a roping saddle feels different from a trail saddle feels different from a reining saddle, etc.

 

Agree with those that say the stirrups are most likely too short. It may feel uncomfortable to have them long, so you may be getting into a chair seat on the 17" saddles.

Or could be the tush...mine is small allowing me to use a 15" seat even though I have longer than normal thighs and wear tall sizes in pants.

Also agree with those that say to wait to buy a saddle until you have a horse to put it on :cowboy:

 

I understand! I'm a leggy 5'10" with a touch more meat on my bones than you, but my primary horse is ridden in a 17" Continental Reining saddle. The seat itself is a little bigger than I'd prefer if I were being nit-picky, but it's not ridiculously outsized and I don't slip on the cushy suede. It allows my leg to be in proper alignment, without my long thigh hitting either the cantle or pommel swells.


I also have a 15.5" barrel saddle (it's what fit my shark-fin withered Arab whom I rarely ride.) My tush will fit in the seat itself but if my stirrups are adjusted as long as they should be, the back of my thigh rubs the cantle sides. If I shorten the stirrups, the front of my thigh rubs the pommel swells and my knees poke over the fenders.

 

Then I'd say a 16 is what you need, but again - different manufacturer's saddles fit differently in the seat and the way the seat is seat up changes where your thighs fall. A barrel saddle made by SRS or Billy Cook Greenville is going to put you in a different position than a Double J or a Billy Cook Sulphur or a Circle Y.

I have flipped a ton of barrel saddles in the last year and if they were 14 and up, I sat in them on a stand knowing full well I couldn't ride a 14 or 14.5, and some 15's are iffy... and some aren't.

You really are going to need to get your horse first, THEN your saddle and be certain you try a huge variety of saddles by a lot of different makers and different seat/cantle/swell combinations. I think that's the thing everyone is trying to drive home here. Buying a saddle and then trying to find the horse to fit the saddle is not the optimum situation. I mean, it's doable, or you'd have people having to sell their saddles every time they changed horses, but a lot of people have to sell their saddles when they buy another horse

 

A former moderator on HF has a saddle almost identical to mine. Guess he liked it more than I've liked mine, because he took it horse shopping. First thing he would check was if his saddle fit the horse. If not, discussion ended.

He must have lived in a place with a lot more horses for sale than around here. If I tried that, I might never buy another horse. I'm trying to imagine a 'want to buy' ad: "Looking for a 5-7 year old Arabian mare, spooky is OK but she MUST fit my Semi-QHB saddle!" :smile:

 

A former moderator on HF has a saddle almost identical to mine. Guess he liked it more than I've liked mine, because he took it horse shopping. First thing he would check was if his saddle fit the horse. If not, discussion ended.

He must have lived in a place with a lot more horses for sale than around here. If I tried that, I might never buy another horse. I'm trying to imagine a 'want to buy' ad: "Looking for a 5-7 year old Arabian mare, spooky is OK but she MUST fit my Semi-QHB saddle!" :smile:

I totally resemble this remark, lol. I'd sooner sell my horse than my beloved dream saddle!

 

Thank you for all the input, everyone! Yes, the comment about getting a horse that would fit the saddle was meant in a joking context.
I'm looking at saddles now simply to know what to look for, what I want out of a saddle, and if my budget is reasonable to get something that's decent and not beat to heck. Get all that out of the ways so that when I do get a horse, I'm not spending months and months looking at saddles (though I may end up doing that anyway!).

I do like my stirrups long. I'm thinking my issue may just be that I need to sit on a horse, not a stand. Most of the time my legs touch the floor when I'm sitting on a stand. If it's just that being the issue it should be a simple fix (crossing my fingers)! I like the look of a slick fork saddle as well and maybe I can convince someone to let me try it on their horse. :P

 

Thank you for all the input, everyone! Yes, the comment about getting a horse that would fit the saddle was meant in a joking context.
P

I always take my own Saddle when trying horses, I am actually not sure if I would buy a horse that didn’t fit it!

 

some saddle shops will have that kind of stand that is like a fake horse barrel, so it feels approximately what it will be like on a real horse (albeit a skinny one).

if you can, try those.

 

Stands don't puff out the sides and stirrup leathers like a horse's ribs do and stands can cause the saddles to tip forward. That can create a very different feel and put you in a wonky position.

 

Yup. Back when I was temporarily using the same saddle on both my horses, I would have to shorten the stirrups one hole for Red. He is very beefy and stocky. But when I would put it on Shotgun, I would let the stirrups back down a hole. He was more narrow (still growing) so my leg hung down more and needed a longer stirrup.

So if saddle adjustment can vary between horses, you’re darn right it’s going to vary between a saddle rack versus a real horse!

And if it affects western saddles that much, it affects English saddles even more!!! (Ask me how I know...)

 

my husband is a little over 6'3" and my daughter is 5'10" both ride in a 16 inch western saddle. We had my daughter fitted to a saddle when she was 13 and already 5'7" and were told that the seat of the saddle is just as much about length of the thigh bone as size of the caboose! daughter is tall and very thin (about 122 lbs) so she uses a neoprene seat saver to help her from sliding back against the cantle when we go up steep hills. Daughter rides in a Fabtron Lady Trail and hubby rides in a Circle Y both have fenders that go down long enough for there very long legs.

If your thighs are rubbing against the swells you may need to try lengthening your leg as it sounds like you are riding in more of a "chair" seat with your legs out in front of you.

 

@carshon - I'm tall and relatively thin; all my weight is in my hips and bum, however! My old saddle's issue was the stirrups wouldn't go down nearly far enough and my booty was far too big for the 14" seat. I think my issue is as simple as needing to try the saddles on an actual horse, as my legs do touch the floor when I try them out on the stands in tack shops. Now to find someone who'll let me 'borrow' their horse to test out saddles on!

 

@carshon Now to find someone who'll let me 'borrow' their horse to test out saddles on!

Do you have friends who ride Western? Might be a good idea too if they would let you sit in their saddle on their horse. At least then you could continue to get ideas on what sizes/brands work or don’t work for you.

 

@beau159 - Unfortunately, I don't have any friends...that comes off way more depressing than it is; I do have them, just not here. I moved late last year and haven't had the time or the inclination to go out to meet any new people yet!