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It's a beautiful saddle and I doubt its your problem. I talked to Charley the other night and asked him if he'd ever seen a horse buck because they needed their teeth floated. He said he hadn't.
If she does happen to be barn-sour that is quite a challenge.
In my first Ezra Riley novel a blue roan horse plays a big role. The horse is terribly barn sour and young Ezra has to break him. That part of the novel is mostly true.
I am presently working on the fourth Ezra Riley novel and it opens with Ezra being 60 years old and getting an MRI because of a horse wreck on a barn sour -- or more actually, herd-bound -- horse.
So, just to say, myself and my alter ego have some experience with barn sour horses if that is indeed what you are experiencing with the mare.
Being a writer everything for me in material. But sometimes the cost of the material is very high.
The blue roan of my childhood, by the way, was sold to my outfitter uncle and ended up in the middle of a pack string of mules.

I built a saddle similar to that with the cut outs in the cantle. The tree maker i got it from called it a sante fe. It was the second saddle i'll ever build, my first and my last.
Those cut outs are handy. You can run the pannier straps over the horn and through the cut outs and stick a stick through them and have a pack saddle.
Just a wild guess, but you might try the felt pad on bottom and the neoprene on top. The edges where they are cut back might be digging in. I have had some terrible problems fitting saddles to horses. One thing that suprised me was a saddle i won at a roping had a 6&1/2 by 8&1/2 gullet and it fit high withers well. It has the extra width to allow for padding. I kept thinking i had to go narrower. Wrong again.
I float teeth and she obviosly has a problem if she's dropping feed but i doubt it's causing her to buck. With that said i have seen them with teeth so sharp their cheeks were raw and sliced up so it is possible. Normally when they are that bad they sling their head when you take a hold of the bridle and really hate you to pull them around with one rein and a shanked bridle.

Fred

Thanks, John. It just looks to be high on the withers, but it's hard to tell with out one's own hands pushing underneath and eyes present.

Pat, have you tried bareback to take the saddle out of the equation? Do you longe or do ground work and what is the mare's reaction to work?

Here is the pad configuration I used on her after the withers healed.

I would lay the split in the english pad over the area then pad on top with the reinsman pad. Rode her several times over summer with that configuration with no problems then in november after a couple of months off I saddle her up and The witch bucks me off

I need a freshly plowed field about 20 " deep before I try that. LOL As far as ground work I never did any, just saddled her and rode her. When I got her back home, I would saddle her up take to the corner of the field and work on her neck reining. She always stood like a statue when I mounted her and till I gave the command to go, except the last two rides.

Get her teeth done and move your saddle back a tad, and try the felt on the bottom, neoprene on top. This is gonna necessitate a bit of lengthening your breast collar tug straps. Your mare does have a long underline and short top-line like a lot of speed bred horses, you might want to palpate around her loin for any touchy spots. Hard to say if it is attitude, physical, or attitude brought on by physical. You have gotten a lot of good help here, and good wishes for your continued good health. Keep a deep seat and faraway look in your eye, and stay sunny side up! Let us know how it goes.... this is a good thread..remember there is a load of horses available and you count for more than them...

You got that right!

What's the update on the mare Pat?

Had no time to to work with her, this mild weather is keeping the work coming in so its been six days a week weather permiting. she is chilling in the pasture with the geldings.

So we are not hijacking another thread, I brought this back to the original thread. Came to the conclusion her disposition is fine, as stated before I put many miles on her with no issues. I believe the withers issue was a very painful thing for her therefore the back lash. A friend of mine who is a long time trainer and breeder said breeding her could have a positive effect on her disposition. Any merit to this or just plain BS.

Not BS. In all species of domestic animals, breeds vary greatly in disposition. Look at dogs, for example. You can't beat a Lab for a laid back buddy while a Chihuahua is a nasty little varmint. You can apply that to any species.

Pat talking with Dan in another thread I made the comment that I�ve found most horses that aren't spoiled or outlaws, they only buck for one of two reasons, sore or scared. She may have some permanent spine injury or compression in her discs. funny enought i had a brown mare with a spine injury.

Breeding don't have nothing to do with changing her disposition. Probably why the trainer said "Could".
It "could" make her mean when a foal is around too.

Can't tell anything for sure about those things.

Most mares settle down some after being bred.

I wouldn't put her in the outlaw category, She was hurting and doesn't want to experience that again. The days are getting longer and things are getting back to normal around here so I can spend some time with her.

Some have "happy bucks".

Yes, ironbender. Very true. The trouble with a colt's happy bucks is once you're over 40 it is seldom a shared experience from the rider's point-of-view.

My daughter's gelding has a little session of bucks in the spring and then gets over it. She's a little younger and more flexible than I!

theres bucking, and then theres bucking. any horse feels good come spring time, but thats a heck of a lot different than one that has his eyeballs rolling around his head on the wrong side of his knees. you can unwind the springtime.

Yup. it's all about attitude and willingness.