[QUOTE=Renn/aissance;8753438]
Yup, I’ve bought a couple on eBay, and sold a couple there too. If you’re buying something custom, or that could have been customized or fitted, you have to know what you’re looking for. That means the stuff that’s recorded under the flap- tree size, flap length and forwardness, deep or flat seat- as well as the history. Especially for a wool flocked saddle, which unlike a foam one won’t have this information readily available under the flap, ask if it was fitted to a specific horse. Ask how old the flocking is (it compresses over time and can get lumpy; this can be routine wool maintenance.) If you decide you want a Stabilizer just like your friend’s, find out what makes your friend’s work so well for you, and shop for that set of parameters. On a foam saddle of the Frenchie variety you’d want to know all the numbers under the flap, which designate the panel configuration, and then call the manufacturer to figure out what that means unless you’re good at decoding them yourself.
Smith-Worthington makes a great saddle. It will last you 200 years if you take care of it and about 75 if you don’t. Their resale value in the US is less than their actual quality because they don’t have a ton of brand recognition. They do wool flocking and have a variety of options. However, I personally found some of their newer models to lack a close contact feel. (I actually felt like I was sitting in a pavilion atop an elephant.) Your mileage may vary.
The panels are half the battle but they aren’t all of it. The place to start is the tree. If the tree is too narrow for your horse, the thinnest panels in the world won’t make it fit- it will still be too tight. If the tree is too wide for your horse, the thickest panels in the world won’t make it fit- trying to do it will compromise the fit in other ways. If your horse is a high-withered beastie built like an A-frame roof, a flat saddle is going to sit on his withers unless you prop it up with a fat pad from the 90’s, and then you’re possibly making the saddle functionally too narrow and skewing the way it sits. If your horse is flat like a 2x4 from the wither to the rump, a banana-shaped tree is not going to sit level on that horse.
Start with the tree geometry that matches the skeletal geometry of your horse. Then build the panels to match the muscle geometry.
Wool panels have an advantage over foam in that they can be readily customized and re-customized to suit a horse who redevelops his musculature. It compresses over time and re-flocking should be considered normal maintenance over the lifetime of the saddle. Foam can also be customized for fit, but if you build a foam saddle to fill in wither hollows and the horse gains muscle and fills them in himself, you now need the saddler to either make you a new piece of foam panel or to do panel surgery in the tack room (which usually won’t happen, so you’re sending it away.) Foam is durable and doesn’t compress as much as wool, so unless you choose to replace them, you can figure that the panels you get are the panels you will have in 10 years. Either one will mold to the horse’s back.
Are you looking for your own horse, or one you lease? Or do you ride a variety of school horses?[/QUOTE]
Thank you again for all the info. At this point I am riding a variety of school horses. Hoping that once my trainer gets a better feel for how I ride and I find a horse that suits me best I’ll be sticking with one school horse and then maybe a lease down the road. Which is another reason I’m just trying to get my research done and taking my time to buy. prob 6+ months out.
I’m also not selling my saddle so it’s no one’s problem but my own.