# Saddles for Gypsy Cobs.....Help!!!!



## Mizzbecx (29 May 2012)

Hello Everyone,

I've been off here for a while as I'm been having problems with my horse, but I've now bought a new gypsy cob mare 

I have a kent and masters 17.5" cob but although she's 15hh and 11" bone I think her back will be too short for it. 

I'm having the saddler out next week to have a look but I was wondering if anyone has any suggestion on what type/makes of saddles they use on their gypsy cobs? I want to use it for hacking and schooling but also for some local showing?

Any help would be great as I'm new to this gypsy cob stuff


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## TheHairyOne (29 May 2012)

My boy takes a 17.5" saddle (and I want your k&m!!!), but he's currently in a wintec 200 dressage saddle and an old Black Country event saddle, both of which fit really nicely.

Would love to replace the wintec, but that's proving rather more difficult that I thought...


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## Mizzbecx (29 May 2012)

I know I love my kent and masters, only thing is Mallie is a piebald and it brown!! I wasn't too bothered but the OH said I needed black 

I may keep that in mind as maybe it won't be as easy to replace as I thought, as I managed to get mine for £450 and only a year old!!!!!!


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## MiJodsR2BlinkinTite (29 May 2012)

I had this problem with my boy; tried every saddler within miles around and each one suggested a saddle which basically I just wasn't happy with - one particular incident being where the "saddle fitter" was quite happy to fit a Kent & Masters on mine and said it "fitted", but he thought otherwise and was rounding up his back to bronc in it! 

So in desperation I tried these people: www.thepainfreehorse.co.uk

Result: a saddle that actually FITS, and I discovered my boy had some lovely elevated paces that I never knew he had!!!

If you go onto this website, then go on to "our customers" - you'll find our testimony there (we're the piebald cob!), also another horse from my yard is on there too coz she and I both had basically been there tried it with all the saddle fitters in the district and still not saddle-sorted at the end of it!


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## sbloom (29 May 2012)

I fit for Native Pony & Cob Saddles and so fit quite a few traditionals!  They do tend to need the flatter seat of a cob saddle but are not usually the very flattest.  I commonly fit our deeper seated WH saddles to them so as I say they don't need "flat as a pancake" saddles .  They do need something that is not too narrow in the head of the tree - the adjustable gullet saddles all have a V shaped tree rather than U shaped which is what many cobs really need, so the cob models aren't different enough for them.  

Four girth straps will help with stability (ie choice of straps) and if the seat size is a little small for you beware of saddles that do not offer a deeper rear gusset as an option - a larger rider can often be pushed to the back of the saddle and push it down.  A deeper rear gusset will help keep you in the right part of the saddle.  Do ask anyone you ask to come out to you whether they can do that for you.

If I can help at all with any further questions fire away!


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## Mizzbecx (30 May 2012)

sbloom said:



			I fit for Native Pony & Cob Saddles and so fit quite a few traditionals!  They do tend to need the flatter seat of a cob saddle but are not usually the very flattest.  I commonly fit our deeper seated WH saddles to them so as I say they don't need "flat as a pancake" saddles .  They do need something that is not too narrow in the head of the tree - the adjustable gullet saddles all have a V shaped tree rather than U shaped which is what many cobs really need, so the cob models aren't different enough for them.  

Four girth straps will help with stability (ie choice of straps) and if the seat size is a little small for you beware of saddles that do not offer a deeper rear gusset as an option - a larger rider can often be pushed to the back of the saddle and push it down.  A deeper rear gusset will help keep you in the right part of the saddle.  Do ask anyone you ask to come out to you whether they can do that for you.

If I can help at all with any further questions fire away!
		
Click to expand...

This might actually explain why I was told my Kent and Masters "fitted" my section d that I have just sold - when you said about the gullets being V shaped not U shaped, even though I couldn't get on without someone holding my stirrup, as it just slipped right round, even though I had the balancing straps and slip pad!!!! I do have a different saddler coming out a week today but I won't be just swapping my saddle for something he says "fits" unless I'm completely happy with it!!!

Luckily for me at the moment say has withers so she isn't flat backed 

I sit my friends saddle on her back last night and it looked lovely on her, it was an ideal GP I think but it was a wide and I think she may need an extra wide. Only thing is you can see where her withers and apple bum match in height so I think when she is fit she might become a bit more flat backed..........


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## Polotash (30 May 2012)

I'd say a native pony saddle too... great for flat backs.


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## sbloom (30 May 2012)

Some traditionals can be that shape, but the classic is the Welshies - the As, Cs and Ds are typically level at wither and bum, or lower in the wither.  We tend to fit as short a seat as we can get away with  and pretty flat.  If you go longer you tend to hit the slope to the croup and that may kick the saddle forwards, even if it is entirely on the ribcage so "okay" in length.  If you curvier, the sort of tree that looks right without a rider on board with perfect panel contact along the length, when the pony is ridden and lifts its back the cantle will lift and the saddle will rock like crazy in rising trot.  They fit flatter than they look .  Just try pressing down on a pommel with no pad under and not girthed - if the cantle lifts you have a problem.


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## Highlands (31 May 2012)

My trad has a ideal Josephine which had to be made to measure due to her being unlevel in the shoulder as she was a former cruelty case, ideal or native pony , I have highlands and they have both.


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## Britestar (31 May 2012)

I use a Free n Easy on my cob. It suits him really well, and the footprint panels distribute the weight well.

The Fn E are not unlike the reactor panel saddles


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## jojo5 (31 May 2012)

Interesting that one or two people have mentioned Ideal - I had loads of saddles tried on my cob with no success.  Then I met a saddler at Hickstead who said that, although he was based in Scotland, if I sent certain measurements to him(there were lots of them) he would be able to bring appropriate saddles to our yard in Hampshire when he was next down south.  I didn't hold out a great deal of hope, but a month or so he arrived with just two saddles.  Both fitted my boy perfectly, and the one which also fitted me was an Ideal Highland GP/dressage pony saddle, beautifully cut for width and shoulders.  I  have had it ever since, which is now about 10 years.


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