Best Saddles for Short-Backed Horses

If your horse has a short back, the best place to start is usually with a saddle that has a shorter overall footprint. A short or round skirt can give the horse more room through the loin and hip area while still providing the support both horse and rider need.

But skirt length is only part of the equation. The saddle still needs the right tree width and shape for your horse, and it needs to fit you as the rider. Here's what we recommend looking at first.

What Makes a Saddle Better for a Short-Backed Horse?

The biggest concern is simply putting too much saddle on too little usable back. You don't want the back of the saddle interfering with the horse's hip movement.

For that reason, we usually look for:

• A short or round skirt to reduce the saddle's overall length.
• An appropriate tree width for the horse's actual shape — short-backed does not automatically mean wide, medium, or extra wide.
• Enough room for the rider without making the saddle unnecessarily long for the horse.
• A saddle designed for your type of riding. A good fit still needs to be appropriate for trail riding, ranch work, barrel racing, or whatever you plan to do.

Round Skirts Are Often a Good Place to Start

Many short-backed horses do well with a round-skirt saddle because the rounded rear corners remove material where a longer square skirt may extend too far back.

That doesn't mean every round-skirt saddle will fit every short-backed horse. You still need to consider the horse's withers, shoulder shape, back width and topline.

If you're unsure about tree size, start with our Western Saddle Fitting & Tree Size Guide.

How Short Is Too Long?

If you already have a saddle available, place it correctly on your horse and look at where the rear of the saddle sits in relation to the horse's hip. The saddle should not interfere with the movement of the hip.

That can also give you a useful maximum saddle or skirt length to keep in mind while shopping.

For more detailed help, see our Saddle Fitting for Short-Backed Horses guide.

Don't Choose Tree Width Based on Back Length Alone

This is an important distinction. A horse can be short-backed and wide, short-backed and narrow, or somewhere in between.

For example, a compact, broad Quarter Horse may need a considerably different tree than a shorter-backed horse with more prominent withers. Choosing a shorter saddle solves only the length question — it doesn't automatically solve tree fit.

Our Free Gullet Templates and EZ Saddle Fit Tool can help you narrow down that part of the fit.

What About Seat Size for the Rider?

This is where fitting a short-backed horse can get tricky. You need enough seat for the rider without creating more saddle length than the horse can comfortably accommodate.

Don't automatically move into a seat that's too small just to get a shorter saddle. Instead, look for saddle designs that combine the seat size you need with a compact skirt and overall design.

If you're unsure of your seat size, use our Western Saddle Seat Size Chart.

So, What Saddle Should You Buy?

For most short-backed horses, we'd start by looking for a short or round-skirt saddle in the correct tree width, then narrow the choices by rider seat size, riding discipline and budget.

That's much more reliable than choosing a saddle simply because the description says it's made for short-backed horses.

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