Anyone ordered a custom Stubben recently? (And where is Tasker?)

[mvp]

It may have come to this:

My princess-and-the-pea booty plus my wide-yet-pear-shaped little mare might mean that the only saddle for us doesn’t exist except in my mind.

I think I want a Tristan Special (perhaps not a Genesis Special) and it has to be wider than a 32 cm.

And, my friends on two continents, seems to be a custom job. Or do you people in Germany/the UK/etc. see 33 or 34 cm Tristans floating around?

I’m trying to wrap my mind around buying a custom saddle. But I’m not sure that I (or some fitter) can figure out whether or not this unusual saddle and tree will fit the horse. I trust the design of the Tristan tree to please me… I think.

Bottom line: Does any of you have experience getting Stubben to make you a saddle?

(I think Tasker did, but now he/she seems to have flown the COTH coop.)

[BAC]

Have you done a search? I can’t remember details but I do remember reading a number of posts where people had the Stubben rep out to the barn and raved about the fitting, and I seem to remember that some of those were at least partially, if not fully custom. Sorry to be so vague. FYI I had a Stubben Tristan in the mid 70s. :eek: It was flat as a pancake, and brown, all dressage tack was brown in those days.

[akstaj]

Custom Stubben

I did, it arrived last Tuesday. What I thought I wanted and needed, were completely different. No complaints.

[netg]

I think Tasker is pretty open about who she is in real life, but just in case don’t want to out her. Her mom is typically here more often lately, I think, too…

[mvp]

[QUOTE=BAC;8165539]
Have you done a search? I can’t remember details but I do remember reading a number of posts where people had the Stubben rep out to the barn and raved about the fitting, and I seem to remember that some of those were at least partially, if not fully custom. Sorry to be so vague. FYI I had a Stubben Tristan in the mid 70s. :eek: It was flat as a pancake, and brown, all dressage tack was brown in those days.[/QUOTE]

I did do a search which is how I found a picture of a custom Tristan Special-like thing Tasker had bought.

[mvp]

How did you move from what you thought you wanted to what you need?

I know our local Stubben rep here as a horse trainer and I’d rather not get tangled up. I’ll leave it at that.

And I’d be happy to call Stubben North America if that’s the next right thing to do. But I did want to hear from the consumer side of things before I embarked on this venture into expensive and unknown territory.

[mvp]

[QUOTE=netg;8165831]
I think Tasker is pretty open about who she is in real life, but just in case don’t want to out her. Her mom is typically here more often lately, I think, too…[/QUOTE]

I’m in the dark. I did post a “Hey Tasker, you’re PM box is full and I have a question for you” thread a couple of weeks ago, with no luck.

I won’t try to find someone IRL who doesn’t want to be found. But I can’t tell if that’s the case here.

[digihorse]

I suggest you do go with the Genesis Special. They have short points and half panels which give a very close ride. Better than the old Tristans of which I have been riding since the 60’s. At least try one before you decide.

[mvp]

[QUOTE=digihorse;8166326]
I suggest you do go with the Genesis Special. They have short points and half panels which give a very close ride. Better than the old Tristans of which I have been riding since the 60’s. At least try one before you decide.[/QUOTE]

That is on the docket. An Old Skool Tristan Purist at my barn has one she’ll let me try…… but she reverts to her Tristan Specials.

My mind is open.

[digihorse]

And I didn’t clarify… I’m currently riding in a Genesis CL which has the same tree and panels.

[SonnysMom]

I have a really really hard to fit horse. I had a Stubben rep come out to fit me for a custom CC saddle. I found one I liked and Finnegan seemed to like. Fitter took pictures and wither tracings and my deposit.
She took the information back to Stubben. Once they looked at my horse pictures and tracings the master saddler declined to make a saddle for him and returned my deposit.
They said they were not sure they could make a saddle for Finnegan that we would be happy with and did not want me to wait for weeks to get a custom and then not be satisfied. I literally cried when the rep called me as I had been looking for 6 months at that point.
However, I do respect a company that was willing to tell me that they could not help me rather than taking my money. If I remember correctly they have a pretty strong satisfaction guarantee, especially compared to one of the French companies.
I eventually got a Patrick Saddlery saddle. It all worked out in the end for us.

[akstaj]

I have ridden in the Genesis Special and thought that is what I wanted but ended up with and Aramis, that fits both of my horses.

[Jarpur]

We have a great fitter in our area who was willing and able to leave demo saddles with us (and friends who were also in the market) for weeks on trial. After all of this fitting and extensive demo-ing, we ended up scoring a virtually new saddle through her (she didn’t personally have it; Stubben informed her about a demo sale, she called them on our behalf and Stubben pulled the saddle in question from their warehouse and described it in detail before we ordered), so we didn’t have to order a custom one.

One friend found what she needed through continued on-line searching, and the other had to bite the bullet and finally order a custom after failing to locate either a used or a demo saddle. All of us, and our horses, are happy with our saddles. This was last fall.

My spouse, who I really thought would enjoy the Biomex, after trying various models for extended periods, actually preferred the plain seat. Since we got a demo, we compromised by getting basically the same saddle as the one on trial, but it in a different leather (saved the big bucks, so that’s more than okay).

My friends both preferred the Biomex and everyone liked the monoflaps. Friend who special-ordered ended up changing which Genesis model she wanted after the demo-ing. Seat sizes ended up being slightly different than everyone thought they’d require going into it, too.

So, do you have access to a fitter who could lend you a saddle or two for a while, more than a few days, so you can fine-tune what you want and need?

As for the tree size, we have 32s for our cobby-built horses; friends bought slightly narrower for their baroque and warmblood horses. Stubben also offers a XW.

Best wishes on finding what works for both of you.