I rode Friesans (a light draft) in a Wintec saddle with the “wide” gullet.

I’d recommend a Wintec saddle (the AP 2000 is great for jumping) that has the changeable gullet system. That way, you can switch out the tree to adjust for your horse. I’ve ridden everything from a skinny tall TB to a bulky Friesan stallion in my Wintec.

eBay and Craigslist sometimes have saddles, or check a local barn or tack shop to see if they have fliers or do consignment.

The easiest thng for you would be to get to ruralheritage.com I think, if not google rural heritage..

That is a draft website with a bulliten board to ask questions.

I’m sure these ppl could direct you to a website that sells draft english tack and help answer these questions for you.

I don’t believe that she would fit in full bars, even my 15.2 mule doesn’t fit in full bars, hes into the xtra wide bars. If you could get pictures, I would help also, ******** ones.

I rode a 18.3 Belgian draft for a while and he rode in a Double Wide Tree. He was not Like your typical belgian but was very narrow and kinda boney.

This is what he looked like:

What a normal belgian is like.

he also rode in a English Wintec.

I have a percheron/TB and belgian/TB so I know where you’re coming from. One of my guys is a medium/wide tree and the other is a wide tree. They don’t have really wide withers like you would think. You should not have to have anything custom made. You most likely will need wide tree and I have seen several nice used, inexpensive wide tree saddles on ebay. Also take a look at drafttack.com…they have specifically draft size stuff. I have found that the hardest thing for me to find is an english bit that’s big enough. I order my bits from drafttack and they’re great.

The best way to tell is to get a flexible curve from the office supply or art store. With that, you can do a wither tracing. If you trace the place on her withers at about 2 inches back from where you put the saddle, you get a pretty good idea of the shape of her withers. You do it three times to get a good average, then you can put it on some cardboard so you can carry it with you to put in the gullet of the saddle.

Usually the Wintec Isabelle (dressage) and the Wintec 500 (close contact/jumping) will fit the drafts pretty well. Those saddles are wool stuffed, so they can be adjusted to fit by a trained saddler. Anything that has foam rubber panels is not able to be fitted to a specific horse. Things that say “full quarter horse bars” are generally talking about a western saddle. If they are referring to an english saddle, I’d stay away from it.

If you google “draft horse tack” there are some really super websites that can get you bits, blankets, pads and saddles that fit. Also lots of good information

Wintec saddles aren’t leather, but they are well designed and reasonably priced. Properly cared for, they can last many years. Beware of the ones on e-bay, as they have often not had the best of care.

You really do got to just measure. Some drafts, especially the shire and clydesdale breeds, just aren’t nearly as wide as people sometimes think. They have a fair bit of wither. When looking at saddles, there’s more than just the tree to consider, of course. You want to look at the gullet (in english saddles) and the channel, which is the gap between the bars of the tree. For example, in English saddles, the Passier brand comes with a regular channel and a freedom channel… the regular one is very narrow and even if the rest of the saddle is wide it can pinch on the back of a larger horse.

In western saddles, you also want to look at the pommel height. Some western saddles have shallow pommels that just don’t clear the withers of a more withery horse.

For English saddles, if custom ordering a wide or fitted saddle won’t work, look at the saddles with interchangeable gullets. Wintec, Bates, Collegiate all use one type of gullet and you can order a wide one and change the gullets even wider or narrower. That can sometimes be the most economical way to get a saddle that fits “good enough” without going to a custom order. I use a Wintec on horses that are still developing muscle because I find I have to change it as they grow.

For western saddles, probably QH or FQH bars is what you’re after but check to make sure. Can you rent/borrow/trial a saddle for a bit to see what fits? We have been through dozens of saddle trials trying to fit our very large (1330lb) moose of a horse with a wither that sticks up like a stegosaurus plate. In the end he ended up being a SEMI QH bar, that was totally unexpected.

Talk to the people at specialty tack shops like or … they are used to trying to fit saddles to wide or not-so-wide large horses, and might have some good tips.

A draft horse will not fit into a FQHB. A FQHB saddle will fit horses that weigh up to 1300 or so. A standard FQHB has a 7″ gullet, where as a Draft horse has a 8″ gullet. If she weighs somewhere between 1300 and 1800 lbs you probably could use a haflinger saddle that has a 7.5″ gullet. From the sounds of it your horse is probably larger than 1700-1800 lbs and will need draft horse bars.

There are some excellent templates to measure your horse at. You simply download and print them out.

The HorseSaddleShop has several inexpensive Draft saddles available.

Here you can get best New English Saddle in affordable price at “Agritura.com”. This great new English saddle is made with specially tanned, long lasting Australian and European cowhide and built on a traditional medium depth, laminated tree for extreme comfort. The seat and flaps are padded for extra softness, incredible grip, and comfort. European style flocked panels. Long billet system that keeps the saddle secure and balanced.