Ava Saddles (was All Saddle Solutions) - anybody got one?

[Charlie31]

I've been looking on their website and it all sounds good but I've never heard of anybody's experience first hand.

Has anybody got one or had a fitting and how did you get on? I'm not sure if she'd travel to me anyway as I'm based in South Wales and it looks like she's up north but it could be worth a speculative email.

Any information gratefully received...

 

[Lancelot]

Probably won't help much but I have a second hand dressage saddle. I love it, very comfy and horse seems to get on really well with it too. I've got the flair system and I have to make sure I store it with plenty of padding on the saddle rack or it gets indentations from the bars. I've had the air redone once in the year I've had it which was cheaper than reflocking.

 

[Nancykitt]

We have three of these saddles, all GP. I cannot recommend them highly enough. One of our horses is a strange-shaped Connie and has proved very difficult to fit - I wasted a fortune on various saddles before I was recommended (by my riding instructor) to try Claire. She is an excellent saddle fitter and has a real eye for the way the fit affects the individual horse's way of going.
When I bought my little hunting pony four years ago I actually factored in the cost of one of these saddles. They are very comfortable - my instructor has the monoflap dressage and one of the jumping saddles and another friend has the monoflap eventing saddle for hunting. They really are excellent. And as far as I know, Claire travels all over the place so it's likely that she would come over to you.

 

[DressageCob]

I have the dressage saddle. Claire travels everywhere so I think that would be fine.

I got mine for my very wide, very flat-backed cob. It's exceptionally wide and very different to ride in to my old saddle, but it fits him beautifully so that's all that matters! I got used to it anyway. It only feels wide because it sits around him rather than perched on top like the previous saddles I highly recommend AVA.

 

[Charlie31]

Thanks for this everybody, it's nice to hear such glowing reviews! Very good to read also about Claire having such a good eye as I tend to think that usually it's the fitters and not the saddles themselves that are the problem.

My horse isn't wide but he has been a bit tricky, hence why I'm now looking at different options. His current saddle is okay but I think I could do better for him. I've ridden is lots of different saddles and get used to them pretty quickly so I don't mind if it feels a bit odd at first (although I expect maybe yours just felt odd helenalbert due to being so wide compared to what you'd been used to). The only exception to this is Kent and Masters saddles, which I find truly horrid and doubt I could ever get used to!