Pondering - renting second hand saddles

[blitznbobs]

Just looking round my tack room this afternoon and having a chat with some younger riders who are struggling to find saddles due to lack of funds,

If someone were to say buy a few saddles would people be interested in hiring them for a season on either a hp kinda thing or a straight hire and return contract?

Is anyone doing this already?

And

If you would hire a saddle how much per month would you see as reasonable for a top end (3 grand ish purchase price) saddle?

Just wondering if there is any business in this idea

 

[Mrs. Jingle]

Well if you are hiring out top end saddles then you would surely need a pretty hefty deposit left on them at start of hire to ensure they didnt just 'walk' never to be seen again. And if you are doing that I suspect the cost of the rental and deposit would mean the potential saddle user might think it more worth while to put that money towards their own saddle?

Even if the saddle didnt go walkabout I can imagine a large percentage of people paying you would not look after the saddle as well as if they had paid out £3,000 for it themselves. It could come back to you scratched and dented and even at risk of tree damage and find yourself with a saddle worth little more than the price of a cheap synthetic one.

 

[Lammy]

I think you’d be better off buying good condition second hand saddles and renting out with the price for the month/season/year whatever paid upfront.
If they then wanted to keep the saddle they could buy it for a reduced cost at the end of the period. Also take a deposit and if it comes back damaged then they don’t get it back.

It could work but you’d have to be careful and potentially have lots and lots of saddles to rent.

 

[Carrottom]

Also the "renter" would need to have the saddle flocked to fit their horse adding to the expense.

 

[Muddywellies]

I just wouldn't personally. People have very differing ideas on how to look after tack. I see some people throw their saddles around, leave them on the floor, never clean them, over clean them and leave them sticky etc etc. Then what happens when one of your saddles goes awol? You might find it just doesn't pay.

 

[FlyingCircus]

Seeing how some people take care of their saddles would unfortunately put me off this idea! Especially as sometimes it's not immediately obvious if there is something fundamentally wrong with the saddle (e.g. broken tree)

 

[Otherwise]

Side saddles are often rented out and they can be worth a lot so it works for some.

 

[MiJodsR2BlinkinTite]

Mmmm, there is undoubtedly a need for this sort of service, but my misgivings are basically those already expressed.

It just wouldn't work with a new saddle; just imagine you've let someone have a really nice suede-seat saddle with gorgeous soft leather on it - and they go out hunting and get it absolutely soaking and ruin the suede! Or (perhaps even worse scenario) you get someone who doesn't know how to look after suede properly and they clean it with saddle soap or something!

For this reason I can't see it working out practically, which is a huge shame, as yes, there IS a need for something like this, of that there is no doubt!

The ONLY way it could possibly work is if the saddles in question were picked up at say horsey car-boot sales, and given a quick checkover for nasties like a broken tree, and any repairs done, and then rented out; but it certainly would be doomed to failure if you had any saddle which was half-decent and then it was ruined, or stolen.

Great idea though!