Holistic and Semiflex Saddles

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Shizzle

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Can anyone give me any info on these saddles, i think they are made under Barrie Swain, and also Nick Dolman? Good, bad, indifferent?
 
I have a semiflex dressage. My horse loves it.

Barrie Swain has gone bankrupt. He was an acquired taste to deal with anyway.

They can be troublesome to get altered as you need someone who actually knows how they are constructed.

Some are beautifully made, some less so. I was lucky with mine and it is as good now as it was in 2011 when I had it made. Even my saddler says she would buy mine if I wanted to sell, and keep it for herself.
 
I have a Humphries and Swain. It has wide serge panels. My horse has been very happy in it so not changed to something more modern.
I got in touch with Kay Humphries last year to check it/re-flock. She is still working a bit but is quite fragile.
 
I've got a Nick Dolman saddle, it was made for a horse that had various issues but ultimately I ended up retiring that particular horse(nothing to do with the saddle!). I was very lucky that with a minor adjustment it fitted the next horse I bought. It's a lovely saddle, very comfortable & horse likes it,I did contact Nick a few years later as I thought the saddle was rocking to one side a bit,I found him very disinterested & disbelieving that I was having a problem. I had planned on having a dressage saddle from him but after this poor after sales service I decided not & had a dressage saddle from someone else.
 
whizzer said:
I've got a Nick Dolman saddle, it was made for a horse that had various issues but ultimately I ended up retiring that particular horse(nothing to do with the saddle!). I was very lucky that with a minor adjustment it fitted the next horse I bought. It's a lovely saddle, very comfortable & horse likes it,I did contact Nick a few years later as I thought the saddle was rocking to one side a bit,I found him very disinterested & disbelieving that I was having a problem. I had planned on having a dressage saddle from him but after this poor after sales service I decided not & had a dressage saddle from someone else.
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Gosh. That’s disappointing.
Kay Humphries couldn’t be more different.
 
I spoke to Nick Dolman on the phone once. He seemed personable on that one phone call and did an adjustment to my Semiflex by post and template that I took.

Interestingly, he told me that the saddles he makes are not the same as the Semiflex. He prefers less flex. I know someone who bought one of his and liked it.

I find that my semiflex is more accommodating to a changing horse. I guess the flex allows the profile to change.
 
anguscat said:
Gosh. That’s disappointing.
Kay Humphries couldn’t be more different.
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It was disappointing,I may not be a saddle fitter but I know when a saddle is moving! Luckily I solved the issue (by accident) so didn't need to chase him up. It only seemed to happen in winter,when the horse was a bit slimmer, I started using a half wool saddle pad & that extra bit of padding seemed to do the trick!
 
I had a Humphries and Swain Holistic jump saddle for my older horse for about 13yrs, lovely saddle. Sold it when he retired and it didn’t fit my new horse.
 
I've got a semiflex and both horses I've used it on have loved it. The previous one was particularly sensitive and would have been very quick to let me know if there was any problem with it at all.

Red-1 said:
I have a semiflex dressage. My horse loves it.

Barrie Swain has gone bankrupt. He was an acquired taste to deal with anyway.

They can be troublesome to get altered as you need someone who actually knows how they are constructed.

Some are beautifully made, some less so. I was lucky with mine and it is as good now as it was in 2011 when I had it made. Even my saddler says she would buy mine if I wanted to sell, and keep it for herself.
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Red I think you're probably too far north for me but just in case your saddler would cover my area - please could I ask who it is you use?
 
Squeak said:
I've got a semiflex and both horses I've used it on have loved it. The previous one was particularly sensitive and would have been very quick to let me know if there was any problem with it at all.



Red I think you're probably too far north for me but just in case your saddler would cover my area - please could I ask who it is you use?
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Yes, Plateau Holistic Equine. FAB service.
 
Shizzle said:
Can anyone give me any info on these saddles, i think they are made under Barrie Swain, and also Nick Dolman? Good, bad, indifferent?
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I had a Barry Swain saddle years ago that came with the horse..... best saddle ever for both horse and rider. Totally recommend but any adjustments have to be done by sending the saddle to Walsall nowadays
 
whizzer said:
I've got a Nick Dolman saddle, it was made for a horse that had various issues but ultimately I ended up retiring that particular horse(nothing to do with the saddle!). I was very lucky that with a minor adjustment it fitted the next horse I bought. It's a lovely saddle, very comfortable & horse likes it,I did contact Nick a few years later as I thought the saddle was rocking to one side a bit,I found him very disinterested & disbelieving that I was having a problem. I had planned on having a dressage saddle from him but after this poor after sales service I decided not & had a dressage saddle from someone else.
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I unfortunately had a similar problem with Nick. Great saddler and we had purchased a couple of great saddles from him but ran into problems with a tricky to fit horse and he adjusted it so much the tree broke. Refused to discuss the problem and we didn’t use him again.
 
I have a Humphries & Swain with serge half panels, I've found it great on those hard to fit - the Arab, the PRE; those that have curvy backs, big shoulders, that saddles tend to slip forward on. Currently using it on my riding pony, she was not easy to mount when I first had her (she was like this when I tried her), would shoot off with her bum tucked underneath her. I started off in a Native Pony saddle that so say fits but would slip forward and although the H& S doesn't look like it fits as well, she seems to be more comfortable in it and she stands like a rock when I get on now. It also never moves on her though I daren't let the saddle fitter see it! She's changing shape so will stick with it for now.
 
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sbloom said:
Have you checked in with her? She covers a big area.
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Thanks, I've just sent her an email to double check as I had just assumed as she was quite far away. I'd been thinking of contacting Nick Dolman as I think I might be close enough to him but am a bit wary now after having read this thread.
 
Squeak said:
Thanks, I've just sent her an email to double check as I had just assumed as she was quite far away. I'd been thinking of contacting Nick Dolman as I think I might be close enough to him but am a bit wary now after having read this thread.
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Most specialist fitters live some way from most of their customers, we cover big areas as the nature of being a specialist :)
 
Shizzle said:
Can anyone give me any info on these saddles, i think they are made under Barrie Swain, and also Nick Dolman? Good, bad, indifferent?
Click to expand...
I had a saddle made by Nick Dolman several years ago as I thought my horse had a sensitive back. It turned out to be ulcers, however, my experience with Nick was really poor. The saddle ‘fit’ was putting it on his back in the stable, he didn’t want to see him move in it orme sit in it, told me it wasn’t needed. Needless to say it didn’t ever fit me or the horse, I anlso didn’t like how it looked and when I went back to Nick he refused to take it back or refit. When I then tried to sell it through a saddler, they came back to say the saddle wasn’t straight and there were issues with the tree….. so, years later, it sits in a box in the loft, unsellable and never sat on!!!
 
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