Saddle Fit and the Specialized Saddle

I received my demo saddle, the International Saddle by Specialized Saddles. I managed to get it on both Whisper and Andi and try and tweak the fit. The nicest thing about this saddle is that you can change the width, angles, flair, rock, and everything to fit the horse exactly. Then 6 months down the road, when the horse's shape has changed due to fitness, you can change it again and always "tweak" the fit. This is also a saddle that you can fit exactly to different horses for the cost of another set of pads: $26! Do that with any other saddle! Here are some pics of the fitting process with Whisper:

Here is the saddle upside down to show how the main pad attaches to the bars of the saddle with velcro. This is the 3/4" pad, they come thicker or thinner to make the saddle either narrower or wider, depending on your horse. Then there are various thickness shims that you can add anywere beween the pad and the bars to fill in for rock, flair, at the loins, to make sure there is even contact with the bars completely on the horse. You can match the angle of the horse to the saddle, and change it anytime! The stirrup has 3 positions to accomidate the rider. I am riding with it in the middle position for now.

Here are two pictures showing how shimming can make the saddle fit exactly. In the first pic, there is excessive flair, and the second pic shows how a shim cut and placed in the correct position will fix this. Since Whisper is a prima donna who will let me know in a New York minute if something is bothering her, I will be able to tweak this saddle til she is happy. Here are a couple of pics of the same saddle on Andi, with the shims adjusted to him:

My biggest concern on Andi was if the saddle was going to be too long for his short back. Here is a pic with him all girthed up in the saddle, and a video of him moving in it:

Now, the real test will be riding both horses in this saddle. So, stay tuned to Saddle Fit, Part 2.