Thoughts on Butet saddles?

[Morganlafaye]

As the title really. Anyone any thoughts or experience with Butet saddles, pref the XC one?

What are they like to ride in? Can anyone explain the whole sizing/flap sizing business? What sort of horses do they normally fit? How easy is it to find one second hand and where would I go to get one?

Thanks everyone!

 

[kerilli]

i've ridden in 1 or 2, LOVELY.

Sederholm Selected, the sole U.K. agent, are probably the only horsey business i have never ever heard a bad word about. nothing but very satisfied customers, apparently. they obviously really work to keep their customers happy.
afaik they fit TB-ish types best, but i'm not the expert at all... it may be Butet that now has a 'warmblood tree', i can't remember.
2nd hand - either through Sederholm Selected (preferred route if you want it fitting properly imho) or ebay. SS has a list of 2nd hand saddles on their website.
they retain their value enormously 2nd hand...
XC - legendarily secure. as used by countless top riders such as Andrew Nicholson.
i booked a trial a few days ago... we'll see!

 

[Jane I]

I have 2 saddles. 1 jumping with a flat seat and a drssage saddle. I love them both. The dressage saddle is so comfortable I hack out in it and use it everyday. The jumping saddle gives you a fantastic position.

My horse is not a TB type at all. MW/HW Hunter half ID half Dutch warmblood and the saddles fit perfectly. Sederholm Selected supplied fitted and service both saddles and I cannot praise them enough. excellent service all round.

Not the cheapest saddles but I have never looked back since buying mine and they hold their secondhand value well unlike so many other makes.

 

[mrussell]

I was lucky enough to find both of ours on ebay - the dressage saddle came via Ebay at £800 . The xc saddle also come off of ebay just last month, £750. Lovely saddles. I rang SS when cecking out the XC saddles number... and they valued it at £1600 even now. Now thats what I call a bargain buy !

 

[Saratoga]

I bought a brand new made to measure Butet from Sederholm Selected (well my very generous OH did.,.. ) and wasn't happy with the fit at all when it arrived. Explained my worries, but saddler / agent told me to ride him in it a bit and once it had settled down they would reassess. My horse lost all his jump in about 2 weeks, and went from pinging Int combinations to crawling over PN fences in one XC school. When I had agent back out they told me to put a pad under it....

...after a lot of 'discussions' and eventually the owner of SS coming out to take a look they agreed to give me my money back as I wasn't happy at all by that point. IMO the saddle didn't fit the horse (even though it was meant to be m-2-m), the horse really didn't appreciate that, and the agent didn't seem to give a stuff!

I would never again spend that sort of money on a saddle.

 

[little_flea]

Sadly I don't own a Butet, but regularly ride in them (both my rides have their own) and they are just amazing, LOVE them. Fits these rather round-backed Warmbloods perfectly.

 

[oldvic]

They are fabulous saddles and I have seen them looking good on all types (but all are fit and not fat). They are super to ride in and well made.

 

[JCWHITE]

Love the one I rode in, think it was worth more then the horse!

 

[Gamebird]

Mine cost more than most of my horses and it was 10yrs old when I bought it! It's more or less fitted everything I've had, but I've never had particularly wide or narrow horses. Importantly it fits me and I feel very safe and secure in it. I have a XC saddle with a flat seat, no blocks at all and extra forward cut flaps as I have v long legs. It came from Sederholm and the service was excellent. I was on the lookout for a dressage saddle for years but the size/seat/price that I wanted never seemed to come up 2nd hand and in the end I bought something else instead.

Suffice to say that I love it and it would be my first pick in a 'what would you save in a fire' questionnaire.

 

[Morganlafaye]

Thanks everyone - a sudden flurry of replies! The butet is not a cheap option, even second hand. Not quite rob a bank territory, but pretty close!

Having said that, I've never had a saddle like it - puts me in a great position and I feel very secure riding and jumping in it. I was lucky to find a second hand XC saddle that fits the horse and he seems happy in it. There's no way my budget would have stretched to a new one!

 

[TarrSteps]

I bought a brand new made to measure Butet from Sederholm Selected (well my very generous OH did.,.. ) and wasn't happy with the fit at all when it arrived. Explained my worries, but saddler / agent told me to ride him in it a bit and once it had settled down they would reassess. My horse lost all his jump in about 2 weeks, and went from pinging Int combinations to crawling over PN fences in one XC school. When I had agent back out they told me to put a pad under it....

...after a lot of 'discussions' and eventually the owner of SS coming out to take a look they agreed to give me my money back as I wasn't happy at all by that point. IMO the saddle didn't fit the horse (even though it was meant to be m-2-m), the horse really didn't appreciate that, and the agent didn't seem to give a stuff!

I would never again spend that sort of money on a saddle.

Tbh, I've heard this story so many times re a number of brands and experienced it myself with another high end brand actually fitted by the maker himself. I would now only by the closest fitting "off the rack" saddle and expect to try before I buy, with minor tweaking if necessary. Interestingly, this has also been my experience with fully custom boots and shoes (vs semi-custom which is what most are). I think there are some things you just have to try on!

"Off the rack" Butets are great saddles, well made and well fitting. They stand up, keep their value and tend to fit a range of horses within the saddle's size and shape. No saddle fits every horse but there are certainly some, particularly cc jump saddles, which seem more flexible than most and I would definitely put Butet in that group. Interestingly, I ride a horse for someone who is about a foot shorter to me and we both feel comfortable and secure in her Butet - certainly not the case in more built up saddles!

 

[Zerotolerance]

I know several people with Butets who love them. Personally I won't buy one on principle because of the price. A saddler friend told me (last year) that the one I was interested in that retails for £2,800 would have cost no more than £500 to make, so that rather put me off! i eventually bought a Stubben Edelweiss NT de luxe which retails for about half the price of the Butet. It's nothing like the old style Stubbens and is built on a new lightweight tree, close contact, narrow twist etc and thankfully, I really like it!

 

[kerilli]

Tbh, I've heard this story so many times re a number of brands and experienced it myself with another high end brand actually fitted by the maker himself. I would now only by the closest fitting "off the rack" saddle and expect to try before I buy, with minor tweaking if necessary. Interestingly, this has also been my experience with fully custom boots and shoes (vs semi-custom which is what most are). I think there are some things you just have to try on!

"Off the rack" Butets are great saddles, well made and well fitting. They stand up, keep their value and tend to fit a range of horses within the saddle's size and shape. No saddle fits every horse but there are certainly some, particularly cc jump saddles, which seem more flexible than most and I would definitely put Butet in that group. Interestingly, I ride a horse for someone who is about a foot shorter to me and we both feel comfortable and secure in her Butet - certainly not the case in more built up saddles!

Hmm, interesting, i think i've been confusing 'made to order' with 'made to measure' then... i thought you chose 1 of their existing designs but then they made it up in the width/size/forwardness that the horse and rider needed, so most are slightly idiosyncratic? maybe not.
a specially 'made to measure' one might be very different perhaps?

Zerotolerance, I'm not so sure... they are very good quality, they last for decades (or longer), and i suspect they are better made than the majority of cheaper saddles.
High mark-ups are pretty much universal - i mean, there's 1 horsey clothing manufacturer i won't touch now because someone (who knows the owner) told me that no item they make costs more than £5 tops to manufacture, but polo shirts are £45! that is some mark-up... at least with Butet I doubt the saddle makers are chained to a workbench 7 days a week for 1 Euro...

 

[ElleJS]

Adore Butet saddles, I practically take mine to bed with me and would certainly rescue my CC XC saddle (possibly before my OH!! :O)in a fire!!

You feel so safe in them XC. I have a CC made to fit me rather than my horses as I have fairly long legs but don't need a big seat. Its such a good fit on most of my horses that are medium sizes, so any tb x type, even fits a slight holsteiner wb type. I have them checked too and the saddlers agree what a good fit it is on those horses. I just put a prolite under if they are narrow builds. They all jump fantastically in it.

Its so good for if i'm riding sharp youngsters or big jumpers as I feel so balanced in it!
If I won the lottery every horse on the yard would have their own!

 

[elliefiz]

im in the process of kitting my horse out with a new wardrobe and this includes some new saddles. I really want 2 butet saddles- its to event at lower levels so want a dressage saddle plus a saddle for the jumping phases. Thoughts on whether i buy a jumping saddle or xc saddle? i really dont think i can justify a full set of 3 saddles!

 

[sbloom]

I had a jump trainer who only had Butets on her yard - she rode in my bought-cheap-used Prestige Paris D and loved it, found it very similar, though it may not be right for a XC saddle obviously.

 

[TarrSteps]

I would say the Prestige rides very similarly, depending on model and fit, obviously. Similarly the Amerigo and the Childric, which is a French saddle that you don't see here for some reason. They are all very traditional "flat" saddles (what cc jumping saddles are called in North America where they are standard), and, if anything, the market has swung towards that soft leather, minimal block but slightly deeper seat relative to what we used to ride in, which was pretty much Stubbens or skateboards.

 

[Gamebird]

I would say the Prestige rides very similarly, depending on model and fit, obviously. Similarly the Amerigo and the Childric, which is a French saddle that you don't see here for some reason. They are all very traditional "flat" saddles (what cc jumping saddles are called in North America where they are standard), and, if anything, the market has swung towards that soft leather, minimal block but slightly deeper seat relative to what we used to ride in, which was pretty much Stubbens or skateboards.

Re the Childeric: they are on the way in! Trisha Bracegirdle, who used to be the Devoucoux north of England/Scotland rep is now working for Childeric instead and has a few of the Northern pros signed up. Caroline Powell for one uses one now.

 

[Zerotolerance]

?.........pretty much universal - i mean, there's 1 horsey clothing manufacturer i won't touch now because someone (who knows the owner) told me that no item they make costs more than £5 tops to manufacture, but polo shirts are £45! that is some mark-up... at least with Butet I doubt the saddle makers are chained to a workbench 7 days a week for 1 Euro...

lol .. 1 Euro? More like 1 Yuan Renminbi!

 

[kerilli]

lol .. 1 Euro? More like 1 Yuan Renminbi!

oh really? NOT made by artisans in France, then? afaik Devoucoux still are, i assumed Butet were too. hmmm.

 

[oldvic]

oh really? NOT made by artisans in France, then? afaik Devoucoux still are, i assumed Butet were too. hmmm.

Butets are made just outside Saumur. You drive past it on the way to the event.

 

[kerilli]

Butets are made just outside Saumur. You drive past it on the way to the event.

Ah, right, I thought they were made in France. Thanks for clearing that up!