mulesuk

To all who had problems finding a fitting sadle for their mules,this might be of interest
A lot of people I spoke to have succesfully used treeless saddles of different brands.
To give a good fit it is essential though that they have a gullet or are used with a special numnah with padding either side of the spine which for some mules with a prominent backbone has to be quite thick.
Sometimes the numnah is difficult to align precisely central to the back which is important to get the spinal clearance and avoid pressure sores.I find the saddles with inbuilt gullet easier to use and they can be fitted with a normal numnah or polypad.
I have fitted a Trekker treeless saddle for my little icelandic 14.2hh mule,she has quite a sturdy back with good wither and the fit seems to be fine.
Our other mule Betty however has a very prominent high loin and narrow shoulder,despite her reasonable wither everything goes forward and the treeless saddle[a Freeform and the Torsion original shape] would not even stay in place long enough to make mounting look a good idea.
We found an article from Specialized Saddles[owner David Kaden,Texas,a renowned endurance rider and organizer of international endurance rides] in Western Mule Magazine.
His saddles are essentially a lightweight,skimmed down version of a western saddle but with dressage girthing.He makes a horse and, more interesting for us,a specialist mule tree.
the mule tree is handmade,laminated wood and we had the tree sent from the States.
The agent for Specialized Saddles Alan Stirling who lives near Builth Wells came to fit it.
Finetuning and adjustment of the fit is achieved by using velcroed neoprene shims which are stuck directly to the saddletree so the fit can be checked easily unlike other shimmable saddles which use awkward pockets.
The tree fitted straight away on Betty.
Our saddle is made to order to our specs[there are choices of horn/no horn,pommel and cantle styles,lots of color options and english or western stirrups] and delivery takes appr. 1m from order.
The saddle should hopefully arrive in 2 wks appr. and I will post once we know how we are getting on.Our impression so far has been very good.
The cost for the saddle incl. fitting service,with crupper,stirrups and breastcollar is £1200 which I feel is very reasonable.

If you can get some photo's it would be very interesting to see the saddle Betty has

Yes agree with Jenny - I would love to see some photos once it arrives. Very interesting, I have the "everything shifting forwards" problem with Treacle.