WOW vs Solution vs Heather Moffett?

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ApolloStorm

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I am looking for a saddle, I am wanting something which is "adjustable" in the sense that when my mare matures some more I don't have to faff on with getting lots saddles to fit as I have a sneaking feeling she's going to be difficult *big shoulders* The wintec she came with has already been adjusted up 2 gullet plates in 3 months (!)

The WOW appeals as it can be changed dressage/ jump though I am aware this can be a bit of a faff. However I'm not sure the air filled pockets is what I'm after- possibly too bouncy! Also our saddle racks are head height- heavy saddle mightn't be the best!

Solutions appeal as they're treeless- However they're ££££ ( i think more than the WOW?) and are they really worth the money? They also cant have the flaps changed ( or can they and I've missed that) plus the most local fitter is a county and a half away!

The Heather Moffett Flexee leather version - appeal for same reasons as solution- but much less £, but I've heard negative things about them/ HM customer service.

any other suggestions?
I have a fair amount of £ to spend- just not bottomless!
 
I've tried the first two. Really all I can say is you need to try them. Before the trials I really really wanted a wow. My horse really really wanted a solution. Guess who won.

You could get a solution and a wow fitting and then buy what you wanted second hand. If you bought second hand solutions, you could get one of each type. They are much cheaper second hand and come up often on the unofficial solutions FB group. I have the eventer and have happily used it for dressage although my main thing is SJ.

Changing the flaps in a wow isn't something you are going to want to do regularly.

Can't praise solution customer service enough. They have been very good thus far. I asked on the group before I bought mine and no one had a bad thing to say about that aspect either.
 
Agree with FW about Solutions, their customer service is excellent and their fitter travelled a good way to us. I enquired about Heather Moffat and found them unhelpful, as this was prior to buying I didn't think their after sales service would be much good!
We have an eventer, a show and a dressage, the horses and Sis and I love them :)
 
I really like WOWs and have 2 of them!
I have never found the air feels bouncy at all, it feels like a flocked saddle to ride in IMO :) I don't find the flaps that much of a faff to change however wouldn't want to do it at a show in a rush!

No idea about Solution Saddles unfortunately
 
LouisCat said:
I really like WOWs and have 2 of them!
I have never found the air feels bouncy at all, it feels like a flocked saddle to ride in IMO :) I don't find the flaps that much of a faff to change however wouldn't want to do it at a show in a rush!

No idea about Solution Saddles unfortunately
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So not so much of a faff that if one day you did flat work and the next jumped and you changed it in-between?
 
Having tried all three my choice would be if money no object Solution, HM, Wow although you might have to pay me to sit in a wow again. The thing was so uncomfortable I could barely trot in it, I wasn't very impressed by their customer service either

Solution customer service is indeed excellent although it should be for the money. HM service is so so and the prices are low, there are also a lot cheaply available second hand so you could easily try, buy and if you didnt like it sell on. I have tried all three of Heathers and loved them
 
Have owned multiple solutions all brilliant, never found a horse that didn't like them. Tried a HM phoenix but not very impressed, horse seemed less keen and the memory foam felt like I was elevated quite a long way from the horse, really not very impressed and have heard of a horse getting white hairs after and the company response was pretty poor. No experience of WOWs but have heard some quite disappointing reports from people who've tried them. I'd go for getting a second hand solution the older model Ansurs seem to be a good slightly cheaper option.
 
Tried the HM FlexEE, it was a pre-gulllet saddle and I absolutely hated the damn thing, couldn't ever get even a half decent fit on either of my two horses and got so sick of the wretched thing that I put it onto E-bay in the end.

Also tried the HM Phoenix and Vogue. Vogue was awful, didn't like it; Phoenix was marginally better - but both saddles seemed to put me into a really uncomfortable position, from which I was really badly suffering days later! But to be fair, this was my first trial of going treeless, so that should be perhaps borne in mind. Perhaps I'd find them better now that I regularly ride treeless, I don't know.

Whichever saddle you go for, IME you deffo need to trial first, especially if you're going treeless as they're all a different feel to them. Have a look at the Saddles Direct website as there are saddles on there which you can have on a trial period, about fifty quid a week when I did it, and well worth while.

I currently ride in a Tree Free "Tor" saddle (their new one!), and love it. Google "Tree Free Saddles" and you should pick it up, they're based at Buckfastleigh, Devon, and you can trial their saddles before you buy. Nice people, nice saddles, and excellent customer service. They're treeless. Love mine!

(Edited) Oh and if you want something really easy to adjust, have a look at the Trekker range of saddles. Yes they do look a bit odd, but a very knowledgeable friend who was a saddle fitter's assistant says that they came up tops in a study that was done a few years ago, for horse comfort and lack of significant injury/soreness problems, though all the riders in the survey hated the look of them!! They are adjusted by the hoop mechanism at the front apparently, you just turn it which adjusts the width. Might be worth a look? I've never ridden in one so can't say what they're like, just repeating what my friend said basically.
 
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ApolloStorm said:
So not so much of a faff that if one day you did flat work and the next jumped and you changed it in-between?
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I love my wows but tbh I'm not sure I could be bothered to change the flaps that frequently - I also prefer a flat seat for jumping and a deep seat for dressage so would prefer to have separate saddles. You really need to have a sit in all of the saddles you are thinking about because we will all have different preferences :)
 
I have a wow. My mare decided she wanted one when I borrowed one from a friend and her canter transition transformed in a week (and her normal saddle technically fitted!)

The airbags are only bouncy if they are overfilled, which isn't the point of them anyway. They should be soft and pliable

The new tree wow saddles also aren't at all heavy.

I wouldn't change my saddle now. So comfortable. I have the large block dressage saddle and I have been know to pop a few jumps in it (nothing large clearly!) ha ha
 
I have a synthetic dressage flexEE with gullet and I love it, as does my difficult to fit horse. The quality isn't the best, but then it was relatively cheap bought new, but the design is excellent for my horse, and the set back stirrup bars are fantastic, no more fighting my stirrups to keep the correct alignment, bliss!
 
I've not tried a WOW but have had the others.

I got a solution saddle which caused my horse no end of problems, despite being professionally fitted. Am back on the HM flexee finesse which we both love, I did have some problems with my previous HM flexee, but Heather was excellent and replaced it with this one - which I've had for 8 months now, my horse goes so well it in, its so comfortable, and feels like a conventional treed saddle.
 
galaxy said:
I have a wow. My mare decided she wanted one when I borrowed one from a friend and her canter transition transformed in a week (and her normal saddle technically fitted!)

The airbags are only bouncy if they are overfilled, which isn't the point of them anyway. They should be soft and pliable

The new tree wow saddles also aren't at all heavy.

I wouldn't change my saddle now. So comfortable. I have the large block dressage saddle and I have been know to pop a few jumps in it (nothing large clearly!) ha ha
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I agree with this. I use elasticated girths on WOW saddles. They only bounce when the panels are over filled. Sadly it's very common even for WOW fitters to over fill them.

The third generation plastic treed seat with plastic stirrup bars is certainly lighter than the leather treed seat, but I think they are still heavier than most other saddles. As soon as my new panels are delivered, I will measure a brand new complete WOW 3rd generation saddle and post to let people know the weight so that they can compare.
 
I am in love with my WOW which was delivered on Saturday... I had a loan to use while I was waiting for mine and was surprised how light mine was compared to the loan wow, so the new ones are definately lighter
 
Solution would be (and was) my choice. I have the VSD and my pony and I love it. Their customer service is great and they are worth the money in my opinion.
 
I looked into those same 3 options and went with a Solution in the end. Every horse I have used it on loved it - this includes a tb with asymmetric shoulders, an ID with MASSIVE shoulders, a WB with a broncing habit (he didn't in this, a rolypoly pony and a couple of other 'normal' horses!
 
I have the HM I like it, my horse likes it. Customer service is interesting , it's a small company and when I had a problem I was just given HMs telephone number. The fitters are hit and miss but I've learned to do it myself! My friend has the solutions and she loves that, cost her a lot more then my HM, which I got off eBay.
 
My and my sister both have Flexees. I found the customer service has been really good. I sent pictures of my mare and a template to Heather and she advised me on how to fit the saddle. And then I had one of her saddle fitters out a few weeks later just to check it after it had bedded in and she was brilliant and ended up giving me a lesson as part of the fitting!
The saddle has improved my riding no end just because it puts me in such a good position and I am sitting more over my pony's centre of balance. I love the HM wide tred stirrups to, so comfy. I rode in a barefoot treeless before but it never felt quite right on my pony. I think for the money you pay the Flexees are really good saddles.
 
So I've only sat on HM saddles.
These are only my opinions. I like the positioning of the stirrup bar and it does put you in a good aligned position and I found them comfy. However I used to be 'riding' fit and rode 4/5 a day. Now i just do it for a hobby and I found it really uncomfortable sitting in one again. But maybe that's more an issue with me than the saddle.

Re customer service. I think if you had a problem and contacted Heather directly she'd sort it out.

Not related to the saddle but there was some debate on FB from an ex employee that Heather fell out with (again Heather tends to attract drama so maybe take with a pinch of salt) as to the amount of trials (or lack of) she did with the newer saddles she released. But I believed these were the treed ones.
 
I've had both one of the early synthetic flexEE saddles and now have the leather version. Very comfy saddles and seem to have sorted a random issue with knee pain I used to get with a few previous saddles. Did have a very good local fitter but she's moved abroad which is a shame. I did like the suede seat on my synthetic one and in some ways I sort of wish I'd kept the saddle as a spare. As a negative they do seem to mark quite easily (my leather one is covered in scratches) but then I'm not the most careful person in the world (I'd make a good product tester... if something can survive a few months with me it's indestructible!). Have had a sit in a Vogue on a simulator and found it very lovely and if I had the money I probably would swap what I have for one. As both mine were ex-demo models bought directly from the fitters I've never had to deal with customer services

All that said I don't feel the saddle is particularly helping my jumping and I am vaguely planning on looking at getting something else specifically to jump in eventually (I'm dreaming of a Solution one hopefully but will prob have to get him measured and then buy secondhand as I can't afford the from new prices for them!) although I'll likely keep what I have for schooling and hacking in.
 
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