Abetta endurance saddles?

[Fiat_Lux]

Hello, all!
I’m looking for a good trail saddle for my TB. I do lots of trail riding and am planning to do some 25 mile and perhaps a couple of 50 mile competitive rides in the next few years. I’m currently riding in a Wintec endurance saddle, but find it very flat, with very little support for hills. I think I’d like something a little more western-like, but with no horn. The Abetta endurance and Abetta serenity endurance caught my eye.

– Is Abetta considered a decent brand?
– Are people happy with their Abetta endurance saddles?
– My horse has the typical high TB withers, but they aren’t super high like some TBs. My Wintec has a medium tree and fits him well. Anyone use an Abetta endurance on a TB?
– I have yet to see an Abetta endurance saddle in person. Is the underside of these saddles smooth like a western saddle, or do they have padding and a gullet like an English saddle?

Anyone have other recommendations? I prefer to stay with a synthetic saddle, and keep it under $1000, but I don’t mind buying a used saddle.

Thanks for your advice!

[prudence]

Abetta endurance saddles are synthetic and cheaper than alot of saddles. I have one that I love because I never think about it, I just ride. It goes on both my NSH and Hanoverians fine. The underside of it is some sort of soft covered foam and I think it’s the Achille’s heel of the saddle.

I bought mine used and have it covered with a “Lady Godiva” sheepskin saddle pad.

[Huntertwo]

I love my Abetta Endurance. I’ve tried lots of different saddles, even treeless and still went back to my Abetta.

My mare has low withers, so I really can’t help you there.

As Prudence mentioned, the underside is a nice covered foam type of material. Not thick though.

[chebeau]

Well, I just recently got one. It has the fleece. After reading on COTH and horsetackreview.com, I bought an Arab tree endurance that was used twice and still had tags. I was pleasantly surprised with how well it fit and how much I liked it. Right now I am working on finding a saddle pad and deciding if I am changing the rigging to english for both the girth and stirrup leathers. Most likely will only do the stirrups as my short legs do not work well with the longer Abetta fenders. For the money, these are a super deal. I’ve paid more for much lower quality. I think it is the first time Bosco has had two saddles he moves out in comfortably. Yay to the Abetta and Heather Moffett Vogue.

Happy riding,
Jessie and the Stinky Pony aka Bosco

By the way, I will say Bosco looks ridiculously cute in his Abetta endurance.

[candysgirl]

I only know of one endurance rider who uses an Abetta (admittedly, I don’t know a whole lot of endurance riders well enough to know what they ride in). She really likes it though. She tried a whole bunch of considerably more expensive saddles of various kinds and her Abetta happened to be the only thing that fit both her and her mare.

They hit me all wrong, so I’m not a fan, but some people really like them. They seem to hold up well to the abuse of the trail.

[mypaintwattie]

I have one that is almost 15 years old. I still use it occasionally. Still looks new. I did remove most of the rings because they annoyed me as I rode by jingling and making noise. The only reason I don’t ride in it more often is because I, ahem, don’t have the same body I had at 15! It just doesn’t fit me right anymore and the buckles underneath the fenders rub my knees. Other than that it’s a great little inexpensive saddle.

[Katjianna]

I had one when I did endurance and just loved it. I also had a wintec endurance though, and really liked that one as well. Both were older models, this was several years ago. I have heard that the Abettas do occasionally fit much nicer than the very pricey saddles. I would buy one again in a heartbeat, it was comfortable and like someone else said, really took a beating, super easy to care for, and fit my arab gelding very well.

[littleraven7726]

We tried one but the only tree that would possibly fit my mare based on wither tracings - absolutely didn’t fit. My girl hated it. I thought it was a nice saddle but it just didn’t work for us. I gave up on Western style trees and bought a Wintec Wide AP with the adjustable gullets. It’s just about as light as the Abetta Endurance.

[Auventera_Two]

I owned two of them and really liked them. Unfortunately they just did not fit my horses long term. The one mare developed white hair patches and the other mare got extremely crabby about the saddle. She has awful back conformation though - very downhill and swayed, so there was not a treed saddle in the world that was ever going to fit her long term. She goes in a Bob Marshall and has had NO more problems. The other mare also goes in a Bob Marshall.

The saddle has a gullet and the trees tend to run wide in my opinion. I had the X-Wide tree for the big stock horse and besides treeless obviously, it is literally the only tree I ever found actually wide enough to accommodate her. The Arabian tree fit my Arabian ok, untl she started getting white hairs! ugh

My one trail riding buddy owns 3 Abettas. One endurance, and 2 trail saddles and absolutely love them. Says she will never own or ride in anything else. I think if they fit your horse, they’re awesome. I think I just ride way too much for the saddles to work long term so I went treeless. My friend rides ocassionally so it’s not been an issue for her.

I have a friend who used to post on COTH that rebuilt his Abetta to make the tree fit his horse perfectly because he loved the saddle so much. He actually took the whole thing apart, shaped the tree himself, and put it back together. He showed me pictures, and it was really quite amazing actually!! He rides 6 days a week, about 10 to 15 miles per day, and he says his horse has not gotten sore in the 3 or 4 years he’s been riding him in this rebuilt Abetta.

[Anon40something]

I have an Abetta Endurance saddle and I’m very pleased with it. It has the soft foam underside, which I wasn’t thrilled about at first, but as I use a Toklat woolback contoured pad underneath it and there is plenty of padding. It’s nice to just be able to hose off the saddle and not worry about getting the underneath wet. I got a wide, and it fits my two wide horses very well even though they have very different wither heights, as one is a saddlebred/friesian and the other a giant wide foundation QH. It stays in place well, and the grippy seat comes in handy for my green horse who still tries to jump our from under me every now and again.

I have traditionally been a “leather” person, but decided for $400, I’d try it, and I’m really glad I did! Plus, it’s so lightweight. It’s the one that goes on the top rung of the saddlerack because it’s easier to heft up there than even my English trail saddle.

Good luck!

[sign_of_Grace]

Like my Abetta for training rides, probably won’t use it once we are past LD’s though (filly isn’t 4 until May). But overall good saddle for the price. It’d probably be even better with a sheepskin. It tends to put me into a little bit of a chair seat though, that’s my biggest complaint.

Chebeau, this is the english converter rigging I bought for my Abetta. Scroll to the bottom of the page on this website. I think it went up in price but it works Perfect!!

http://www.american-flex.com/girths.htm