IT FITS!!!!!! My sidesaddle, that is. At least it fits as far as I can tell. It is a bit hard to fit a saddle on a horse who wants to go outside while you are hopping on crutches. I should say I haven’t found anything that absolutely doesn’t fit.
This is truly amazing. This is an antique saddle that was made for horses of a different body type than the modern American horse. Just like the ladies’ dresses of that time would probably not fit modern more muscular women, these saddles notoriously don’t fit muscular horses. But it was for sale for way under value and the seller was giving me measurements that sure sounded like they would fit, so I took a chance. I had it filed under “too good to be true” in my brain.
I’m scheduling a meeting with a real sidesaddle rider for her to look more critically at the fit and to look at the structural soundness of the saddle. It has some cosmetic damage but I think it is structurally ok.
Exciting! I want to see pictures, when you’re able to get on it!