Synthetic saddles

[holeymoley]

Its funny the poster further up hated Thorowgood and loved GFS.

I bought a new GFS saddle and hated it, the leather was cheap looking and feeling and stiff and never improved.

I bought a Thorowgood cob saddle just for temporary breaking in of my youngster....and she's still wearing it 6 years on. Not only that, but she also has a biothane electric green and white bridle convertible to a head collar too. In Cairngorm weather it just makes so much more sense.

I have however a love for good saddles (I don't count GFS in that based on joy experience) so have recently bought a lovely secondhand Ideal H&C.

Thorowgood trees tend to be flatter than Wintecs (apart from a couple of special cob wintec models) so Tgood suit cobs better, Wintecs maybe TB types. So it's horses for courses between the two.

Never experienced leather GFS- mine was partially synthetic on the flap and the rest was suede.

 

[Tim's Girl]

Ive got a thorowgood t4 and love it. Its a high wither version though the cob one more comfy as mate has one. The only thing i find is that its abit heavy when everything attached and putting it on a 16.1 when you are 5'3 is interesting. Tried a t8 as well.most Saddle more comfy but seat looked huge and tacky. They dont make the t6 anymore. My saddler said most go for leather rather than t8 as not that much more. Im saving for my kent and masters.

My saddler is a master saddler and he said to aviod the shires optimus as they are cheap for a reason! Not well constructed and made but like others say its personal choice.

 

[Bertolie]

I love my GFS synthetic saddle and out of all the saddles I tried, both leather and synthetic, new and second hand, the GFS was the best fit and the one the horse was happiest in. Its extremely lightweight and very comfortable.

My saddle fitter also told me to avoid Shires Optimus saddles. After taking one apart he said he wouldn't touch them with a barge pole!