Balance saddles- anyone a fan?

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red marksman

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We have been recommended to get a Balance saddle for one of our horses. Have been on their website and they sound as if they could help him to move more freely. They are very expensive though, especially when all the pads have been purchased as well. Has anyone had one or ridden in one? Any experiences would be gratefully received!
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NO, NO, NO. Was very annoyed with my balance saddle consultaton - hardly any saddles were brought for me to try and they concluded they had nothing suitable that would suit me and my horse and said to try saddle company. Horse did seem to like the saddle and moved well in it, but it was not designed for serious dressage and had a very flat seat from what I remember. It was also very uncomfortable and I also felt very perched on top of it.. However, when I complained about the consultation they did refund me the fee which was decent of them.

If you want to do riding club sort of stuff it may suit, and of course different things suit different people. I ended up getting a WOW saddle which both my horse and I loved.

It isn't a trimmer that has reccommended the balance saddles by any chance is it?
 
No, Hollycat, it was an instructor at pony club camp who mentioned them. Are the WOW saddles easy to get hold of? What sort of prices?
 
Yep I'm a fan. Now got all my horses in them and they definately let them move better. I got my first one 13yrs ago. You can get 2nd hand ones which are cheaper.

I've got Hamiltons which they now don't do but they are soooo comfy - once you get used to a wider seat.
 
The WOW website will have details of fitters in your area. I would say a WOW like any other saddle, is only as good as the fitter. Mine was I think £1500 but it is made for you and your horse so you choose the seat size and style, the flaps, the leather used etc - and there are lots of options avaliable. Its also fully adjustable so will fit any future horse and you can buy for example dressage and jumping flaps and convert the saddle from one to the other in 5 minutes.

If you like the philosophy behind balance its worth trying them but my personal preference is for WOW as I believe its better for the horse in terms of its adjustability and also better for you in terms of comfort and being designed for serious competition. Each to their own though - the co-owner of my horse doesn't like my WOW but this is more I think due to the fact she didn't lke my prevous horse that wore it
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I LOVE my Balance saddles. I have a Zenith GPJ and a Nexus Dressage saddle.

There are 4 dressage saddles in the range, 8 GPs and 2 jumping saddles, so there is plenty of choice. Of course they may not suit every horse and rider combination, but my horses' backs and way of going have changed out of all recognition since we changed to them.

They do tend to highlight rider weaknesses, so can feel very strange to start with as they will not disguise any unevenness in the way that you sit. (My own discovery, not a criticism of anyone else's experience)

I would thoroughly recommend giving them a try, preferably from one of their fitters, or Lavinia Mitchell.

www.balanceinternational.com
 
I must admit that I found them a bit "wallowy". They seemed an expensive way of buying a saddle a size too big and making it fit with a ton of pads in different places.

The saddle also kept slipping to the right ( a common problem for my horse with saddles that are too wide ) no matter what the fitter tried to do.
 
One thing I feel I should point out if you are dressage orientated, is that when I had my fitting I told them I wanted a dressage saddle - nothing else. They brought only 1 dressage saddle for me to try. They told me that the GP and dressage saddles are the same - just the flaps are cut differently so trying a GP saddle would be fine. Errrr - NO! A dressage saddle should have the bars in a quite different position than a GP saddle and the seat may also be qute a lot deeper (depending on preference). If it IS true and they weren't just trying to wriggle out of the fact they expected me to pay £65 to try 1 saddle, then they are just not designed for serious dressage. That is what dissapointed me about the consultation - there was no choice at all given to me so if you do book a consultation be very specific that you want all of the avaliable options avaliable for you to try. I also found that the horse was a lot less sensitive to my seat aids in it (due to the padding I suspect) which agian made me think it is not for the serious dressage competitor.
 
I'm sorry that you had a bad experience, Hollycat. I guess that the fitter that you used didn't carry the full range.
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The Nexus dressage saddle IS specifically designed for the dressage rider, with set-back stirrup bars and a more supportive, deeper seat.
I have never had problems with my horses responding to my seat aids, but perhaps yours are more refined than mine!!

I love mine, but if the Wow suits you and your horse, that's great too!
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I was very dissapointed that they didn't bring the nexus for me to try as I did think it looked nice on the website. I can't remember the one dressage model they did bring but it just wasn't suitable, though as I said the horse did like it very much. From what I remember they said the nexus would not suit the horse, so there was no point in another fitting. The horse was exceptionally sensitive to seat aids - far more than most horses, so I would guess it would not be an issue to the majority of horse and rider combinations, though once you get to advanced level the seat aids become more important. There was a fab explanation on the BD forum on how the half halt starts with leg and rein aids in the novice horse and by the time the horse is advanced should be a seat aid - but I digress!
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We all like dfferent things and the saddles do seem very horse friendly and of very good quality so would suit many people
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I think I was very upset by the consultation because I really wanted to do the best for my very difficult to fit horse and liked the concept, so it was dissapointing when it did not work out. It has worked out for many other people though so I think it is well worth a try
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