Barry Swain or Heather Moffat?

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Alphamare

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I am trying to decide between the Barry Swain mondial or the Heather Moffat fhoenix saddle.

If you could let me know your views and experiences of both i would be greatful.
 
Barry Swain everytime. Far more traditional looking saddle with years and years of experience in fitting saddles to horses. Also I find Heathers stirrup bars are set far to far back for the normal rider to cope with, tipping the rider forwards.
 
Thank you for your opinion. They do look more traditional.

I am looking at second hand, are they as easy to fit to different horses as the HM?
 
I would go for Mondial or Semiflex - both Barrie's. Semiflex with serge panels are truely lovely.

Nothing against the quality of Heather's saddles, but if I could stretch to it, financially, I would go for Heather's Vogue over a Fhoenix, as the Fhoenix can seem quite wide for a lot of people. The Vogue is much more akin to a "normal" saddle with a narrower twist.

JMHO
 
I tried all three of Heather's saddles - the suberpanel Ffoenix, then the Ffoenix without the suberpanel (borrowed off a friend) and then the Vogue. My horse definitely did not like any of them. I bought a Kay Humphries/Barry Swain Mondial three years ago and both horse and me still love it.
 
I have had a Mondial for 5 years without problems, taking my horse from rising 4 to 9 years old and she is a very different shape now. They are very expensive saddles, but I would probably have had to have a traditional saddle re-stuffed a couple of times, so more convenient on a growing horse. I use mine with a full sheepskin numnah as the edges of the flaps are sharp.
 
another vote for Barry swain's semiflex with serge panels - we love them that much that we went back when we bought another horse and I wanted a dressage saddle
 
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