Absolutly always this!! Black can look so harsh, isn't correct if you decide to dabble in a bit of showing, and traditionally used to be the better leather as the amount of dye used on the black hides could be used to hide a multitude of sins! Apart from that, brown just looks better!
Saddle cloth wise - you can't go wrong with a super clean white, for a bit of colour how about bottle green (greens look smart on my grey) or burgandy? Would be a smart combo!
Match your hats! Give him a fly veil (chav look!), and get the same colour for a hat silk
Do agree about brown tack though, if i had my own and could chose the saddle etc, i'd have dark brown, (or tan for a normal grey).
I refuse to get black boots, so currently have brown boots on black tack oops!
Brown just looks softer on the eye, and you can never get a "rich, deep" black colour if that makes any sense!!
Cool, my other lad has brown tack with grey bits and pieces, he's blue roan and looks very smart, I was thinking brown with maroon/bottle green/navy blue just wasn't sure for her as not had a mare in about 12 years