Why do saddles have to be so confusing!?

[floradora09]

Had saddler out a few days ago, and he said that the wintec we're using from a friend does actually fit, but we should put the narrower gullet in. Now, that would be fine for the time being, but really I would love a leather saddle. Now the complicated bit comes in! At the moment, he's a medium, but we're expecting him to muscle up and probably go up to a medium/wide. Seeing as we don't want to keep swapping saddles, an adjustable sounded like a good idea! I thought maybe if we bought a cheaper saddle off somewhere like ebay, we could get saddler to see if it fits and reflock it- but for some reason they won't do that. Only on a limited budget, so trying not to blow it all on a new saddle if possible!

Friend's offered us her Wintec for about £50, she bought it new a few years ago for just over £200. Maybe this is the best way to go, as it will tide us over for a while until we've had a think and know where we're going with all this!

Thoughts anyone? I know this is a bit of a pointless post but hey-ho!

 

[Farma]

Hi im not sure if this will help or not - when i bought my gelding he hadnt been doing that much and i was planning on muscling him up alot which he did but even the difference in him after 4 years of what i would say has been fairly hard work / doing xc/ odes/ aff dressage and long distance rides he still doesnt need a medium wide.
My mare takes a medium wide and is vastly different in shape and just a heavier breed - the gelding is an ish and fairly well built not fine but her med/wide saddle doesnt go anywhere near him(which is a shame as i have 2 saddles for each horse and it would have saved me a fortune!)
What im trying to say in a long winded way is get the saddle fitted to what he is now i think youll be suprised how long it will take for him to change shape.
Go for the wintec at £50 and see how you go for a while - but my horse would have to go through some serious physical changes to need a med/wide fit even now.
Sorry for waffling on hope that helps x

 

[Toby_Zaphod]

If it's a leather saddle you want & you want an adjustable one then have you considered Bates saddles. They have the Wintec changeable gullet system so the same flexability of fit as the Wintec but they're made in leather?

You can buy used GP ones in very good condition for around £200-300, may be worth a look?