stanley1234
Well-Known Member
Generally how much do Barry Swain saddles (leather GP cut) cost new? And what do you think of them?
Barry Swain saddles - how much?
- Thread starter stanley1234
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Bosworth
Well-Known Member
I have them for all my horses - I have one which I paid £1200 - a holistic half panel made to measure, I have a dressage and a jump on standard trees and I paid £850 for one and £950 for the other new - then paid to have the adjusted to fit my horses. I bought a second hand wide seat holistic dressage saddle for my OH for £530 second hand and had it altered by barrie and I had a standard wide seat GP saddle for my Oh which was french panels and was altered to half panels by barry. That was also second hand and cost £480 second hand plus £175 alteration cost.
The first saddle is 14 years old and still looks only a year old. The leather is lovely, as you have probably guessed I love the saddles, would not use anything else on my horse.
The first saddle is 14 years old and still looks only a year old. The leather is lovely, as you have probably guessed I love the saddles, would not use anything else on my horse.
kerilli
Well-Known Member
i have about 6 barrie swaines. he is only making the new type now, the semiflex, at semiflexsaddles.co.uk, they're £1800 new.
barrie can alter the trees on any of his, you can pick them up on ebay, i bought a few recently for about £200 for dressage and £300 for g.p. on ebay. he can only alter them to a close-ish fitting though, not a narrow to a wide, for example.
they are excellent saddles, brilliant for the horse's back. he can be a funny old stick at times but no-one knows more about saddles imho.
barrie can alter the trees on any of his, you can pick them up on ebay, i bought a few recently for about £200 for dressage and £300 for g.p. on ebay. he can only alter them to a close-ish fitting though, not a narrow to a wide, for example.
they are excellent saddles, brilliant for the horse's back. he can be a funny old stick at times but no-one knows more about saddles imho.
catembi
Well-Known Member
He was a complete a**e about doing something with my panels to make the gullet wider, & was extraordinarily rude to my saddler who's a very sweet & polite lady, & he was laughing about the fact that he'd lied me timescales. So I had over a month of trying to jump my new 4 yo in a dressage saddle, which is just what I wanted after losing Cat to Crohn's disease.
Sold both my saddles on e-bay & bought a WOW.
Sold both my saddles on e-bay & bought a WOW.
Orangehorse
Well-Known Member
I have 2 Barrie Swaine saddles, one was around £900 new and a dressage saddle was £300 off ebay.
I took it to the workshop and they altered it to be the same as my GP saddle and charged £20 (I gave a tenner to the man who actually did the work as well). When I was there Barrie was re-doing some work that had been done "out" as he wasn't happy with the finish, and was complaining about it. But he was quite polite and helpful and I was grateful that he would do the work on a second-hand saddle that I hadn't bought from him.
Finding my way to the workshop in Wallsal was a bit of an experience.
I took it to the workshop and they altered it to be the same as my GP saddle and charged £20 (I gave a tenner to the man who actually did the work as well). When I was there Barrie was re-doing some work that had been done "out" as he wasn't happy with the finish, and was complaining about it. But he was quite polite and helpful and I was grateful that he would do the work on a second-hand saddle that I hadn't bought from him.
Finding my way to the workshop in Wallsal was a bit of an experience.
Sneedy
Well-Known Member
I've got 2 of his saddles. The jump saddle was bought through my old trainer and the dressage saddle was picked up on e-bay for £240, it needed a new tree but at that price I didn't mind! They are super saddles and my boy seems very happy in them!
My only problem now is that I don't have my old trainer to hand to check the fit for me anymore
, so I've got Kay Humphries coming out at the beginning of May to put my mind at rest!!
My only problem now is that I don't have my old trainer to hand to check the fit for me anymore
Bosworth
Well-Known Member
If you have kay coming out you have the best fitter around so she will sort you out. She fitted my first saddle 15 years ago when every other saddler I had used had succeeded in ruining my horses back and selling me 3 badly fitting saddles. Since using Kay I have never had a back problem caused by a saddle.
Judie
Well-Known Member
I can't rate Barry enough, he has always been polite and honest with me, I have two saddles, one Dr & one gp, if I couldn't have him to fit/make my saddles then Kay would be my next option. I have done a saddle fitting day with Kay and she is amazing.
Bosworth
Well-Known Member
I have always found Barry to be really helpful - yes he can be terse sometimes but I just put that down to his sense of humour. And the men who work for him are lovely and can't do enough for me when I have a query.