WOW saddles, any experiences please

[Maiko]

I was at Hickstead yesterday and saw the WOW saddle stand. Thinking that they looked horribly uncomfortable, I sat on one, and changed my mind! It was certainly a comfy saddle for the rider, but on speaking to the lady on the stand, she said that they don't do trial saddles, which is a shame as I would liked to have tried it on my horse for a decent period of time, rather than spend £1700 after five minutes! I am reluctant, as the WOW has Flair fitted to it, and I don't know how it compares to the Cair system, which is ghastly.

Any experiences please?

 

[SimonH]

I bought a WOW cross country saddle about 2.5 years ago and I remain delighted with it. They spent a lot of time measuring the saddle to the horse at my yard which is why I imagine they don't do test saddles - it must take half a day for the fitter.

The saddle was delivered in about a month and refitted which again involved me doing a fair bit of riding. They took photographs for their records

After a year I had it checked which confirmed the fitting.

Early this year Archie showed some rubbing marks and I had it refitted. This showed that after a seaons's hunting he had developed much more muscle around his shoulders so the saddle need a bigger gullet. The flair system has never needed pumping up.

In riding I love it. I've got the biggest seat they make which way bigger than any of the standard saddles (Archie is 17hh IDx and I'm 6'3" tall) so I have loads of room to move around in the seat.

And they remember their customers when you phone up

 

[dozzie]

Fitters will often let you have one on trial if they have one available. Especially if you are not quite sure

Plus some fitters accept that the saddle can take a few days to get used to.

Mine has worked really well for my mare who had a few issues!

She hasnt bucked me off since I had the wow!

Mine had to be adjusted several times in the first year which was expensive as I used a saddler from further away who specialised in tricky horses. For the last year she hasnt needed the saddle adjusted.

I also needed the zigzag girth so add on another £150

I bought a second one because I was useless at changing the flaps! I was intending to do some events and knew i wouldnt be able to change the flaps at an event with the added bonus of nerves.

Some people can do them in a few minutes! It takes me about 45!

So for me it has worked well.

I have to say i found the SLK Ultima more comfortable but MrsMare didnt like it at all!

Have to say it was her worst ever reaction to a saddle! LOL!

 

[chantypanty]

You need to make sure you find a good fitter. Which is hard to find.

I forked out loads of money on one only for it to completely tip me backwards. The fitter came out to try and rectify it but it still did it.
She didn't bring all the different parts for me to try when fitting one on my horse. So when i had it made up it just wasn't right for me!

People who have had theirs fitted well seem delighted with theirs though, so ask around locally to find a good fitter.

Also wow weren't interested when i complained to them about how badly the saddle was fitted. So even though you've spent £1700 the after care isn't very good at all!

 

[Maiko]

Thank you for your replies. Food for thought there. Unfortunately, the local fitter to me is the girl on the stand at Hickstead, so definitely no trial saddles available. I can appreciate the length of time taken to fit as a reason for no trial, but at the same time, £1700 in the middle of a credit crunch is a big whack of money to shell out for something that I cannot be sure is 100 % right for me and my horse. He's a young horse, so I can't ride the pants off him for a day to be sure that the saddle is right.

Hmmm, decisions, decisions.....

 

[cptrayes]

I have five and I think that speaks for itself! All the more reason to buy one if your horse is young - I would have had five saddle changes in the last two years if they didn't have changeable gullets and front-to-back airbag adjustment.


Buy one off eBay and try it then resell it if you don't like it. They keep their value, in fact I have sold one on eBay for more than I paid the dealer for it!! A fitter will charge you an additional £50 to fit it.


If you normally ride in a 17 or 17.5 inch, you need a size one seat, bigger and you need a size two.

An SDWG panel with tabs (MUST have tabs) will fit more horses than any other panel. I've had them on everything from racing TB's to an extra extra wide IDx. If you have a skinny TB then the standard untabbed panel will fit too. A size one panel will work on both seats, so if you are big but your horse is short, you need a size two seat with a size one panel (there's one listed on eBay right now).

If you want to jump buy a shallow/flat or cross country seat and GP or jumping flaps. If you want to do dressage buy a deep seat.

Good luck!

ps I have no connection with WOW or eBay!

 

[Ali2]

We've got two and we all (us and horse) love 'em.

One of ours came directly from the fitter, was very lightly used and came in at 1K. The other I got off eBay (once we knew what bits we needed) and that came in at 850. You def don't need to pay full new price to get a decent saddle!