Made to measure saddles- any experiences/advice?

Kallibear said:
I was about to post to ask but I'll hi-jack this :o

Can anyone reccomend a good saddler that customises their saddles and aren't particularly expensive (under £700 if possible)?

I need a very specific type and it's hard to find without alterations (and nigh on impossible second hand). I know Ideal do the perfect saddle but it's rather out my price range :o I'm more interested in less well-known saddlers that are just a good but without the badge (and therefore the price tag).

For those interested I need: a brown WH saddle with decent knee rolls. 17" saddle with generous, fairly shallow seat, short panels and extra long flaps. Built on a very wide, flat hoop tree, with shallow rear gussets but a small, even square gusset at the front (otherwise the saddle collapses onto his shoulder). Y-balance rigging and, if possible, long stirrup bars. I'm tall, slim and long legged, Pony is very short backed, very flat and very wide (but not round).
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I had to have an Ideal WH/Marjorie M2M for daughter's little pony. Very short backed,round barrel, no wither, forward girth groove and slender front with big moving shoulders, everything just shot forward or dug into her shoulder blade and bounced at the back. It was made on an xxw WH tree, squared cantle,foam and flocked panels and quite close contact. Well worth the £725 it cost in sala leather.

However, going back to the original thread - I also have an old Albion SL 17.5 M tree and it was supplied to fit my old anglo, by the old National Saddle centre back in the day. He was at the time, short flat back, not too broad in front but a lovely hack stamp. He retired a few years ago and so I have lent this out to friends rather than it be stuck in the garage. It has been on a 16.2 dutch warmblood and a 17hh polish warmblood mare who looks much sturdier than him, and their saddlers have said it fitted brilliantly. So I think it must be a very well made tree that balances well; gussets and flocking can always be adjusted to fine tune as long as the tree and head plate are right.
 
I have had a couple of m2m by Ellie Martin at bespoke saddles. Didn't cost me anymore than a normal saddle and I really don't get the argument that they are harder to sell on. Mine wasn't! In once case I had Ellie out to fit for SJ saddle and she told me to buy an albion k2 jump as that would fit my horse perfectly.

The joys of m2m is that while it is always a given that the saddle must fit the horse, it is sheer bliss to play around with knee blocks, saddle flap lengths etc etc. I am long legged but short in the thigh and long in the calve. Made a huge difference to me
 
An old thread but I eventually found one that someone else had had made to measure for their short backed wide flat cob. And I bought it second hand at half the RRP so perfect!
 
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