County Sensation and Solution compared to the Stabilizer, Innovation, or Conquest?

[pattnic]

Clearly, I’ve not yet had the opportunity to try either the Sensation or Solution; is there anyone who could give me an idea of how they compare to County’s other models?

It sounds like the Sensation is basically an Innovation for high withers, with longer tree points.

And it sounds like the Solution might have a seat that’s a bit more like the Conquest.

Other than that, I don’t know much. (And I don’t know if that’s even accurate).

Any insights? How do the flaps and twists and seats compare?

(Considering a saddle for a horse for whom I don’t know that either the Innovation or the Stabilizer is quite right… wondering if one of these might be a better option).

[cleozowner]

This is an old thread, but it’s the exact question I have, so friendly bump

[PNWjumper]

I have all of the above except the Solution. I like the Sensations more than any other County saddles. I have one Sensation on an Innovation tree and another Sensation that is “just” a Sensation. But I’m not sure it’s possible to predict which one you’ll like the most without putting them on the horse. I think both saddles feel quite different than my Stabilizer and my Innovation. But it’s so hard to explain why without going into the choices I made on each saddles, since I find the configuration to change the overall feel of the saddle pretty dramatically.

With my horses, I find that the sensations leave me feeling a lot closer to the horse. The one on the Innovation tree seems to be fine with the gals who come out here and ride on the weekends as well (they each have their own saddle, but ride in my Counties for the hard-to-fit horses…one rides in a Butet the other rides in a Devoucoux). The Sensation (only) is the one I like the most. But both of the gals say that they feel the twist is uncomfortably wide. My guess is that if you love the “french saddle shape” you might not like it? But it could also be the individual saddle. I generally don’t like saddles with wide twists, and I would never describe it that way…but maybe there’s something weird about my shape too??

[cleozowner]

Thanks for your input! I sat in a Sensation, Solution, and Innovation today, and the Sensation was by far the best for me. That said, struggling to find a used one in my/my horse’s size. I did find a Conquest, and was wondering if it would be worth taking it on trial.

[jawa]

I have a Conquest and have ridden in a Solution, but not on the same horse. I love my Conquest on my TB’s. I feel that I have a very secure seat and it’s very comfortable. The Solution was for an Arab. It had the Conquest flap (high forward), but made me feel as if my leg/knee was more under me rather than in front as it is with the Conquest saddle. I felt very secure in that saddle as well. The pony gave a few exuberant bucks during a canter and I felt like I was able to just continue riding.

We tried the Conquest on the Arab, but it wasn’t a good fit. The Solution tree was a great fit for the arab. You may just have to try the different saddles to see which tree fits best and then figure out what flaps work for you.

[LovieBird]

@cleozowner

Thanks for your input! I sat in a Sensation, Solution, and Innovation today, and the Sensation was by far the best for me. That said, struggling to find a used one in my/my horse’s size. I did find a Conquest, and was wondering if it would be worth taking it on trial.

What’s you/your horse’s size? I have a 17.5 M Sensation I’m fixing to send off for consignment.

[LovieBird]

@cleozowner you have a pm

[pattnic]

Hmm… turns out I can now (to some extent) answer my own question, as I have now tried all these saddles. My favorite County saddle remains the Stabilizer/Stabilizer XTR, followed by the Solution H/J (I’ve not tried the Solution monoflap).

@cleozowner Did you also try a Stabilizer? It doesn’t really matter, but if you did, that will give you a closer idea to what a Conquest feels like. It is different than a Stabilizer, but closer to that than the others. The Conquest is built on the Stabilizer tree (but interestingly, my other mare strongly preferred the Conquest to the Stabilizer… so clearly, there is far more to all of it than just the tree). Both the Stabilizer and the Conquest have been discontinued.

County currently builds on two trees - the Innovation tree and the Sensation tree. The Solution is typically built on a Sensation tree for the narrower widths (through medium) and an Innovation tree for the wider widths (wide and up), but can be (or at least could be) custom-ordered on either tree. The Solution is apparently a bit of a deeper seat than the Sensation, but they are supposedly more similar to each other than the Innovation, which has a shorter balance point (all this is per County).

The horse for whom I was saddle-hunting did not appreciate the Sensation, so it was ruled out for that reason. For me, as a rider, I felt very far away from the horse, and for some reason the saddle seemed to make me pinch at the knee (which is not usual for me). I think the Whippy panels (standard on the Sensation) may have been the problem, at least for the horse.

I personally hate every Innovation I’ve ever sat in. Something about that saddle, regardless of seat size and regardless of the horse it was on, just doesn’t work for me. I feel stuck in the backseat, and posting without stirrups and two-pointing is remarkably difficult in that saddle; put me in basically any other saddle in the world, and those two things become much easier. But I know a lot of people like them, so maybe it’s just me.

I came very close to laying down the money for a Solution (built on a wide Sensation tree), but ultimately decided that it was just too much money, and what I needed was not available on the demo/used market. I would still consider one in the future. This one felt a bit wide in the twist, but it was what made the horse happiest of the County lineup, so I was willing to deal with that (I also think it’s just the nature of having a wide horse… it’s very difficult to have a truly narrow twist on a wide saddle, and twist width doesn’t usually bother me).

[Jleegriffith]

I also tried all of them and I own a bunch (have a barn full of tb’s). I have the conquest, innovation and solution. Conquest that I have is a high forward flap as I have short legs and I do think it can put me in a bit of a chair seat but it’s so secure. I am in the middle on the innovation. I like it on some horses but not as much on other horses. I HATED the sensation. I felt like I simply couldn’t find my balance in it. I LOVE the solution. I felt so close to the horse and secure at the same time. It put my leg right under me. I have also owned many stablizers and I like them but they aren’t quite as secure on my greenies especially going xc.

[Rnichols]

I’ve ridden in a Sensation, Innovation, Conquest and stabilizer. I know for myself, personally, I love a saddle with big knee rolls. It just makes me feel more secure. I’ve liked most innovations I’ve ridden in so I decided to buy my own (online, used). Silly me didn’t realize that there were different block sizes and the one I bought had the pencil blocks (small blocks) and I HATED that saddle. I just couldn’t feel secure in it. So I had larger blocks put on which made things worse because then the seat size was too small. Grrr.

The conquest and stabilizers I’ve ridden in have been OK; I would say I definitely felt less secure in the stabilizer. I now have a sensation and I like it decently enough. I feel relativley secure in it - maybe I would say I wish the seat was a tad bit deeper. I have a narrow tree and it fits both of my high withered OTTBs well, but doesn’t fit my 3rd OTTB that well. He is shaped more like a quarter horse, NOT a typical TB build, and the tree is a bit too narrow for him.