Buying a saddle from Ebay

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Suzy

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I would like to buy a dressage saddle for my mare, but don't have sufficient funds to buy a new or nearly new saddle from a saddler, and they never seem to carry any 'used' saddles for under about £500.

I am aware that because of the dire residual values for saddles if you px them, a lot of people put them on Ebay. I am interested in buying one from Ebay but don't really know how to go about doing this.

Does anyone have any successful stories. I am guessing that perhaps the best thing to do is (naughtily) pay a saddler the £25 of whatever for a visit, find a saddle that fits us both and then try to buy an identical cheaper one on Ebay. Or, has anyone had any success with just templating the horse, sending it to the seller and taking a risk?

Thanks for your advice - I know I could put it back on Ebay if it didnt' fit, but I want to avoid the hassle of all that if possible.
 
can you buy synthetic dressage saddles?? i have a GP and its brilliant and only cost around £250 new. i think you need to be careful of the saddles on ebay as you kinda never know what you will end up with and are not able to return it (usually).
 
I got J's 18 month old Albion K2 dressage from ebay for £450, luckily it was the exact same specification as my jump saddle and the saddler said it could be easily adjusted to fit if it was slightly out, and if not he had a que of clients wanting second hand albions and he could easily sell it on for me.

If it were me, I'd try every dressage saddle on the yard to see what fitted reasonably well and what I felt comfortable in, then buy similar from ebay (be sure its not stolen!) and be prepared to spend another £100 having it adjusted.
Go for a well known make though as easier to sell on!

I'll bring my albion for you to try if you want?
 
Ah please - discuss tonight!

TheanAlice - thanks for the suggestion. I might look into this as I know they've changed a lot over the years - all the ones I've ridden have been pretty uncomfortable but they were older ones.
 
If you find yourself a saddle fitter who is also a master saddler then they can adjust what ever saddle you get to fit. My saddler is also a master saddler which means you don't need to get a saddle fitter to say what needs doing to the saddle and then take the saddle to someone else!!

I just got a new (well new to me) dressage saddle at the weekend that used to belong to a 14hh cob (i have a 16.1hh sports horse!) and my saddler adjusted it to fit, whilst he was at the yard, meaning he could adjust see how it fitted, adjust again!!! He also only charged me £50 to adjust the dressage saddle, check the fit of her other saddle and do aload of whole punchiing for me! he also says that you can adjust nearly any saddle to fit nearly any horse!

So if you can find yourself one like him then any saddle you get has a good chance of being fitting in the end!!
 
Ive had 1 success and 2 that didnt fit. haha i sound like i have a saddle fettish buying 3 saddles.

I bought a gallop one which looked very nice in the pics but i didnt like the leather and it didnt fit horse so then resold onto another livery who was looking for a new saddle for her horse.

I then bought a showing saddle which was advertised as a "GP" saddle, which it wasnt as it had no knee rolls but i couldnt see this from the pics. The seller said he had been advised by a proffesional that it WAS a GP so would not take it back so i put it back on ebay and sold it for a couple of £ more than i bought it for. It was only about £50 in the first place though

I then bought the one i have now a few months ago. Fits my horse lovely and it a great saddle. Its not a posh designer make but it does the job, looks nice and my ned is happy in it too.
 
I just had one for sale!!!!

A brand new Barnsby sold it for £350 a guy came and collected it this morning!!

Ebay should be fine to buy a saddle from
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Oh no! Sounds like I may have missed out there - what a bargain. Been putting off buying one, but as I rolled about during the dressage at Ascott balanced on about 5 polypads (well not that posh, bits of gamgee actually) to make one of our saddles fit her I thought it really was time to get her one of her own!!
 
Bought lots from ebay and now that saddlers charge for fitintgs have no qualms about getting them out to find the right saddle then buying it from ebay. I had Ben_and_Jerry's albion jump for a few months last summer and it converted me to being an albion lover! Bought the same thing off ebay and it fitted fine.
 
I have a Barnaby Dressage that I love but is just too narrow for Clover's shoulders, can they really be adjusted to a great degree? I would have thought that if the tree was too wide or narrow then the saddler wouldn't be able to do anything.
 
I have just had a too wide Barnsby dressage saddle adjusted. My saddler say that almost any saddle can be adjusted to fit almost any horse.
The above saddle came of a little round cob and now fits my sport horse.
He has also made a saddle from one of my old horses (15.2 tbxcon) fit a big 17.3hh horse by adjusting it.
To be able to adjust well you need a saddle fitter who is also a master saddler so they can do the adjustments when at your yard.
My saddler comes with all the saddlery stuff in the back of his van!!!
 
A treeless saddle will fit any horse. believe that?? No??
Neither can a saddler, even a Master Saddler, make most saddles fit most horses.
Do you have problems finding a saddle fitter, or at least a decent/qualified saddle fitter? Wondered why?
It's because they are being put out of business. people have a saddle fitter to measure and fit a saddle, they then go and but it from ebay. Saddler loses his sale, loses his income, goes out of business.

First rant over!!
 
I was just repeating what my saddler told me!
As i have said he made a wide saddle fit my horse!!
I have personally never bought or sold a saddle on ebay, i have in the last few months bought a brand new saddle (from one of my local saddle shops) and i asked them to put some dressage saddles on the saddlers van for me to try this weekend but they didn't and someone at my yard happened to be selling one of hers, i would quite happily have bought one from the saddle shop but they didnt bring any for me to try so they lost out!
We don't have any qualified saddle fitters (master saddlers but no saddle fitters) up here, the one that does come is from the midlands i think so only comes up at weekends.
 
I have both bought and sold saddles on Ebay and find it a cheaper way of buying the saddle as you don't have to spend money on the saddlers fees. I have a medium 17" black dressage saddle on Ebay at the moment. It has one day nearly 2 days left.
 
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Neither can a saddler, even a Master Saddler, make most saddles fit most horses.

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Totally agree there - have to say that I would find it hard to trust a saddler (even a Master Saddler) who would say such a thing
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