Narrow saddles - best place to sell?

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HarlequinSeren

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I have 2 narrow saddles that I need to sell due to now only owning chunky cobs, any idea where is best? Have tried the local equestrian facebook pages but theyre filled with people who say they'll have something and then never get back to you, expect you to wait indefinitely for them to get the money together etc, and I really could do with selling the saddles now. Any ideas on websites to advertise on etc would be much appreciated! They aren't worth that much money though so ideally not somewhere with a hefty advertising fee :)
 
Narrow saddles are always hard to shift - try eBay or preloved unless they are a modern well known make ( think Albion, stubborn, amerigo etc) then saddles direct are a good bet but take hefty commission .
 
They're both pretty well-known English makes (don't want to say which as don't want this to be pulled for advertising!) but like I said not worth a great deal of money as they're a few years old (not mega old but a few years) so I wouldn't be looking at much of a price for them anyway.. They are already on preloved, and I did try one on eBay with a reserve so I wouldn't lose much money on it but it didn't sell.. It's annoying because they're both nice saddles but as they're narrow no-one is interested :-/
 
I had a very old thorowgood dr saddle that was narrow. I put it on ebay for £85 on one of those fixed price auctions that last for 30 days. It sold on its third month for £75, which was my reserve. It had previously spent 10 years at a tack shop waiting to be sold, until in desperation scrabbling about to pay doctorate fees, I remembered it & went & got it back. Found that my old stubben left there at the same time had sold for £120, so that was a nice surprise!

T x
 
Catembi was it a griffin with synthetic leathers & a white cotton girth? Am wondering if it was me that bought it!
 
Harlequin Seren - there's a saddles for sale and wanted group on fb that gets a huge amount of traffic, could be worth a try?
 
I ended up selling mine to the local saddlery for £40 (paid £225 second hand for it) and he said he would almost certainly just break it up for the flaps etc. But I couldn't bear to have it around the house having had horse PTS.
 
Nearly, Annie... had to read your post twice to check. That's uncanny - I had a timewaster on eBay & dug out some webbing 'leathers', spare stirrups & treads, old white dr girth & a saddle cover to try & be helpful for her as she'd asked, but she didn't bother turning up to collect. It was def a Thorowgood & eventually went with just the cover as all the other stuff was going to be thrown for the other person purely out of the goodness of my heart.

T x
 
I shifted mine through Saddles Direct - they don't usually take narrow saddles, but mine was verging on narrow-medium. They had the photos and measurements, said it was fine and then when they received it said they wouldn't buy it outright as it was too narrow, but would sell on a commission basis. It took a year, but then sold. Maybe worth exploring with them as an option, all they can say is no?
 
Catembi, that's ages! I was hoping for a quicker sale than 10 years lol
Sidesaddlegirl you seem to be about the only person who wants a narrow! Everyone wants medium/wide or wide (myself included!)
Annie, they've already been on that facebook page several times, but as there's soo much traffic there and mine don't get many (any!) comments/likes they get pushed down the page very very quickly.
Alsxx I might try them, one of the saddles is a generous narrow, by a make I know who are slightly generous with their sizes anyway (I have one of theirs stamped medium on my cob who usually takes at least a medium/wide with other makes) so maybe they'd take that one
Sbloom that's a good idea, any idea roughly how much it would cost though? As like I said I wouldn't be looking to get much money for the saddles anyway (like less than £200 each I would think) so it might not be cost effective?
 
sbloom said:
You could even see if a local fitter would widen them, I reckon most healthy backs are M at the VERY least, might be cost effective if you want to shift them.
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I agree. I have never known a horse that is narrower than medium in saddles. People used to use narrow saddles many years ago assuming that the wither pockets were the real shape of the horse's back, but wither pockets are muscle wastage caused by saddles that are too narrow. Many people wrongly assume that TBs and other lightly built horses will be narrow. I have worked with tens of TBs and not one of them was narrower than a medium.
 
Wagtail said:
I agree. I have never known a horse that is narrower than medium in saddles. People used to use narrow saddles many years ago assuming that the wither pockets were the real shape of the horse's back, but wither pockets are muscle wastage caused by saddles that are too narrow. Many people wrongly assume that TBs and other lightly built horses will be narrow. I have worked with tens of TBs and not one of them was narrower than a medium.
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Well Wagtail, meet my TB mare who needs a narrow. For years we have struggled with saddles, padding up mediums and the like but I have just come to a point now where I must concede that she needs a narrow. It's not as if we are occasional riders either but we do a lot of stuff, school and go out and compete. I tried my friend's narrow polo saddle and it fit her like a glove, supported her and she actually went really well in it but unfortunately it only has a 17" seat and I need 18". She really is fine, a lot of modern TB's are quite chunky with a good bit of bone. Not my one though.
 
Me too, my little man really is little, we're on a yard with 18 other tb and none of them are as titchy as him. Suits him though, he's like a pretty show pony lol
 
Those who say they have horses that need narrow saddles, I would be very interested to see pictures of their horse's backs. I just have never seen a narrow horse in 30 years of working with horses, many of them tbs. I am not doubting anyone, but am just curious to see.
 
I don't know how to post photos here but mine has a very pointy spine so bareback riding is near impossible, high withers and really slim shoulders, she is the corrrect weight for here type too (she was weighed by the A&P feed lady). I have a 29 (narrow/med?) in a Stubben saddle but even that needs my Lemieux pads with shims in it and a numnah underneath. that is what I've been riding her in for the past few years but I find now as she is getting older, even the pads aren't enough anymore, she actually needs a smaller tree to help support the saddle. There are 3 other TB's at my yard but they are totally different shapes to mine, the 29 Stubben fits them a treat but not my fine TB.
 
catembi said:
Nearly, Annie... had to read your post twice to check. That's uncanny - I had a timewaster on eBay & dug out some webbing 'leathers', spare stirrups & treads, old white dr girth & a saddle cover to try & be helpful for her as she'd asked, but she didn't bother turning up to collect. It was def a Thorowgood & eventually went with just the cover as all the other stuff was going to be thrown for the other person purely out of the goodness of my heart.

T x
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Omg I just checked my email - it was your saddle! Many thanks, its a perfect fit on him :-D
 
Wagtail said:
Those who say they have horses that need narrow saddles, I would be very interested to see pictures of their horse's backs. I just have never seen a narrow horse in 30 years of working with horses, many of them tbs. I am not doubting anyone, but am just curious to see.
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I'll get some pics for you once I'm at the yard, he really is a pint sized wee man!
 
Wagtail said:
I agree. I have never known a horse that is narrower than medium in saddles. People used to use narrow saddles many years ago assuming that the wither pockets were the real shape of the horse's back, but wither pockets are muscle wastage caused by saddles that are too narrow. Many people wrongly assume that TBs and other lightly built horses will be narrow. I have worked with tens of TBs and not one of them was narrower than a medium.
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My mare's back, even aged 11 when I bought her with good fat and muscle covering on her body, was shaped like a house roof. Her chest was perfectly normal width but her shoulders were narrow to the extent that if I sat on her bareback my legs didn't really touch her sides properly. She had withers like a sharks fin, and even though I learned to ride bareback originally, a couple of steps of trot and and I was over the withers (OUCH) and off. There was just nothing to get a grip of with my legs. A medium saddle just sat down on her, way too low. As I don't know her history I don't know her exact breeding but she was at least 50% Welsh, probably D, and some extra arab so not really the breeds you'd expect to be narrow, but she was a bit unusual to say the least.
 
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