How on earth do you buy a saddle these days?

[madabouthehorse]

Right so bare with me here...but how on earth do you buy a saddle nowadays?!


Pony in question hasn't needed a saddler for years due to various periods non ridden, and having started riding more seriously in the last 6 months I have just used what I already had for him and seemed to fit. However as we get more into dressage I'd like to get a proper dressage saddle rather than my working hunter saddle. I've asked locally for recommendations of saddlers and a few of the same names keep coming up, some carry second hand saddles others don't. As ALL of my tack, (I'm talking 3 saddles, 6+ bridles, girths in every size etc) are all brown i'd like to stick with brown if possible. The master saddler my instructor recommended doesn't carry saddles but she said is very helpful.

Whats do people tend to do? Should I try one of the other recommendations that carry second hand (although I can't imagine there will be many 17" brown dressage saddles for a 5ft rider and connemara shape?) or do I go out on a limb and purchase something and hope the saddler can get it to fit? Do they do a thing where they could come and look at him, adjust current saddle for the meantime and recommend what to buy then get that fitted?

Budget isn't huge as i've spent £20k so far this year on a car and vet bills, hoping to spend £600-700 sort of price fitted, in a couple of years I may be able to rethink and have a fancy one but I just can't justify it right now and don't want it to hold us back!

So far I have been looking at Ideal Jessica's as a lot of natives seem to use these and they come in brown, looking on ebay you can get a decent looking one for under £500. Kent and Masters do a native type range but only in black?

Thoughts?? (Well done if you've made it through my rambling!)

** edited to add, i've just found an old collegiate dressage saddle (in black) which I had on a similar shape pony, i wonder if i could get this fitted in the meantime and save for a better one? Another option to choose between, not sure if its helpful or not haha

 

[Timelyattraction]

I buy off ebay / markerplace and then get saddle fitter out to fit. I did get her out to fit a saddle last year and she recommended a different one that would Fit better so i went and bought that off marketplace and then got her back out to make adjustments.

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

I get an idea of what I want and what fits then buy from Ebay or other second hand sites, I only buy brown tack as well so both my dressage saddles are brown one was ordered brand new the second took me a long time to source.

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

AH saddles are for natives Sbloom on here fits and supplies them they are really nice saddles and they have used native saddle site on Facebook so might be worth looking into those.

 

[OrangeAndLemon]

The dark brown ones and the black ones are almost indistinguishable with some age.

I rode with a Havana bridle and black saddle for years and no one ever noticed. Black ones are less in demand so might be simpler to buy an older black one just in case it doesn't fit.

I saved up and bought new. I feared I'd have to wait for it to be made but she had one on the van I could have that day (their most popular saddle design so she always carries a few)

 

[Barton Bounty]

If it were me, I would get a saddle fitter to have a look at the abundance of saddles you already have first. The saddle fitter would hopefully be able to tell what shape etc you would need. Then you could look at buying a second hand one. I definitely wouldn’t purchase a saddle without generally knowing if it would fit. A saddle fitter isnt going to be able to fit a saddle that is the wrong shape

 

[millikins]

I expect if you are in Hants that TDS is one recommended. He came to us in Surrey and we were happy with his fitting and price, we bought a K&M in brown. The "T" is for Tom I think.

 

[Fieldlife]

Mix of getting saddler out and seeing what they have / what they recommend. Also look on ebay / facebook groups / market placeb for their recommendations.

Also have used saddles direct or similar to get a few to try. Have also borrowed friends saddles for saddler visit. Or even gone and collected all the approximately right second hand saddles friends are selling and showed all to saddler.

If you dont want to buy new, and want a good fit for horse and rider, and are not a very standard size or colour you do need to put in the legwork.

If you already have 3 saddles, can none of them be fitted to this horse?

 

[madabouthehorse]

Thank-you everyone, seems that its probably best to get a saddler to look and recommend some, try and find what I want then get it fitted.

 

[madabouthehorse]

AH saddles are for natives Sbloom on here fits and supplies them they are really nice saddles and they have used native saddle site on Facebook so might be worth looking into those.

Thank-you, just looked on that site and there are so many for sale!

 

[madabouthehorse]

Mix of getting saddler out and seeing what they have / what they recommend. Also look on ebay / facebook groups / market placeb for their recommendations.

Also have used saddles direct or similar to get a few to try. Have also borrowed friends saddles for saddler visit. Or even gone and collected all the approximately right second hand saddles friends are selling and showed all to saddler.

If you dont want to buy new, and want a good fit for horse and rider, and are not a very standard size or colour you do need to put in the legwork.

If you already have 3 saddles, can none of them be fitted to this horse?

Thank-you, happy to put in the legwork but I wasn't sure if that was the done thing. The saddler I used previously was only really interested in selling you a brand new one which isn't really what I'm looking for right now.

Some of the three already fit, but I am looking for a dressage saddle as opposed to the show/ working hunter/jump saddles I currently have

 

[GoldenWillow]

As you have ones that fit him can you see if you can find the same saddle but in dressage cut. Hopefully a dressage but same width and on same tree will fit him and get a saddler to make any minor adjustments. Brown dressage saddles seem to be like hens teeth, I bought an expensive brown one which was fitting disaster but having had an AH saddle that fitted my cob trialled one through them and bought it despite the fact that it was black (I prefer brown repack and all my other tack is brown). I could have ordered one in brown but I knew this one fitted so well so went with it and just have mismatched tack, tbh when I'm riding it's not really noticeable.

 

[black and brown]

Brown dressage saddles are really difficult to find and will probably limit your choice of suitable saddles. It may be easier and cheaper in the long run to buy a black bridle to match the saddle.

 

[ester]

There’s certainly more ideal Jessica’s in brown about that you might think. I think they’re also cheap enough that if you bought one to try and was nowhere near you wouldn’t lose anything other than time, in selling it on again.
I had a rebadged ideal vsd so took a punt on the Jessica having also sending a paper template to the seller which she was kind enough to photograph with the saddle

Some saddle fitters will advise and come back and fit rather than fitting their own stock but I think it varies a lot.

 

[asmp]

Thank-you everyone, seems that its probably best to get a saddler to look and recommend some, try and find what I want then get it fitted.

If the saddler is Clare Barnett (who I’ve used for years). She will measure horse up and tell you what you need to look out for. Then she will come back out and adjust saddle (if needed).

 

[spotty_pony]

I’d get a saddler and get some measurements and if the saddler didn’t have anything suitable have a look out for a style which they recommend,
buy it or borrow if you can and then get saddler back out to check it

 

[Lady Jane]

If it were me, I would get a saddle fitter to have a look at the abundance of saddles you already have first. The saddle fitter would hopefully be able to tell what shape etc you would need. Then you could look at buying a second hand one. I definitely wouldn’t purchase a saddle without generally knowing if it would fit. A saddle fitter isnt going to be able to fit a saddle that is the wrong shape

I did exactly this. I gathered all the saddles my friend and I had, took several from our local tack shop and got the saddler to look. I had wittled it down to 6 possibles, none of them were any good - and he explained why (he doesn't sell saddles). He then suggested what may fit and suit me and I managed to gather another 3 (one from one of the companies who do loan saddles, one from someone I knew who was selling, another from someone local who siad she would refund if no good). Had saddler back and one was good. Its hardwork these days!

 

[Marigold4]

I use Sam Wiltshire. He does your area and is excellent.

 

[sbloom]

I use Sam Wiltshire. He does your area and is excellent.

And fits for AH, he's a colleague of mine.

The internet made the market very difficult for all really - buyers want to pay as little as possible, sellers want as much as possible. Carrying stock is so expensive that without a decent margin loads of fitters got out of dong second hand.

I carry a tiny number of used saddles but they're usually for rehabs and are leased, fo second hand I advise from photos etc. We've all worked out how best we can work with used saddles and it will vary.