Whats up with the poor fitting Western Pleasure saddles? ?

Question

A lot of the photos of people showing In Western Pleasure type classes look like the saddle is way to big for them. The cantle is no where near fitting the back side of the rider. As a matter of fact, it looks like the saddle is way to big and the rider is just balanced somewhere in the middle.

Whats the deal with that? Everything else is always well fitting from clothes to tack. Why one piece that is so poorly fitting?

Answer 1

I think a lot of times it's like freedom rider stated, multiple users. Also, it's pretty expensive to get a nice WP saddle custom made. So some people will look for the perfect saddle fit for their horse and will make do with their own seat size as opposed to purchasing a seat that fits them BUT the saddle doesn't fit the horse.

Answer 2

I don't show in the customary fashion, so I may be way off base, but I've noticed at our local feed stores that there are a lot of imported saddles on display.  The quality and craftsmanship of saddles has been drastically lowered with these imports.  It seems like the 'one size fits all' attitude is very prevalent now days.  Show people, Western and English alike, want good looks at a cheap price, and I'll bet many don't know the fundamentals of how to fit a saddle anymore.  I have drafts, and the saddle I have for one of them cost me hundreds more than a 'typical' saddle because it was custom fitted to her dimensions.  It's comfortable for her and comfortable for us.  Unfortunately, the saddles you're referring to are probably semi-comfortable to those riders and not comfortable at all to those horses, but 'they look good to the judges!'

Answer 3

One thing that always occurs to me when I see that, is maybe more than one person in the family is sharing the saddle and that's why some seem too big for the rider.