Flair saddles

[humblepie]

What experiences do people have of these - particularly buying one second hand or owing an older one? Have seen a style and size of saddle I like and which should fit a newly acquired horse but it has the flair system and before I get it to try would like to know a bit more. Many thanks.

 

[Olivio]

I actually have one of the trial flair saddles and it's still going strong. I think they are marmite. I like mine and so did the horse, he was broken in it and really struggled when I put a flocked saddle on him. The downside is if your horse has a big trot it can make it harder to do sitting to!

 

[unbalanced]

I had a traditionally flocked dressage saddle and had it converted to flair after trying it at an expo. Initially I loved it and my pony loved it. It allowed her to move more and it let me feel her better. That was about ten years ago. However, eventually the airbags got a puncture or something. In a tackroom of traditionally flocked saddles, the flair always felt by far the softest and as the air went down very very gradually, I didn't realise anything was amiss. My horse started behaving very oddly, but to be honest as she was having soundness problems at the time, I thought it was that. I had the vet back and forth several times before I got the saddler out and he told me the air had completely gone and I was riding on just a leather covered wooden tree. No wonder the poor creature was refusing to go forward. So when it's good it's lovely, but make sure you get it checked very regularly and be really careful with it. I had mine converted back to flocking in the end. There's just less that can go wrong.

 

[ester]

I bought a ideal jessica dressage one second hand, liked it very much, was super comfy and was the only saddle that hasn't moved on my pony and didn't lift and really cushioned when he was trotting (so that I could actually sit to it.. he is very bouncy!)

I had to part company with it after he grew out of it though .