I have grown tired of trying used saddles that don’t fit, paying the fitter to come out, and paying for all the return shipping. I’ve already spent about $500 and have nothing to show for it! So I’m thinking I may just bite the bullet and buy custom.
Are there any custom saddles that can be had for less than $5000?
Consider semi-custom.
My Stubben Maestoso (Dressage model) was altered to fit my desire for zero thigh/knee blocks & cost $3600 with a discount for using the local rep/fitter.
Demo saddle fit me & my horse, so no other alteration was needed for the one I ordered.
Is your horse hard to fit? Are you?
Of course, this was 6yrs ago, so prices may have increased.
But it came with a cloth cover & 2 Stubben leather care products, so another $50+ off the price.
I’m not hard to fit. My horse is a little hard, but not too bad. He needs a medium tree with built-up panels (IMO). The English saddles (County and Black Country) are great for this, but they’re SO HEAVY AND BULKY. I like a lighter close-contact saddle.
I don’t have one personally but a couple of my friends swear by Adam Ellis saddles…
My saddle is not all all bulky or heavy & it’s a Dressage model. Guesstimated weight: 12# < I can lift it easily one-handed.
Stubben does close contact, So if you don’t need the Latest H/J Brand du Jour, try them.
I also have a (retired) 35yo A/P Stubben Portos that is also relatively light & still quite usable.
Fit everything I owned & rode for all those years, until I got the WB with Mount Withers I bought the Maestoso for.
Everything out there is “semi custom” not built from scratch true custom.
In $US I think that County, Stubben, and Passier are all top brands that will be less than $US 5000.
The currently popular French foam panel saddles are really the only saddles selling above $US 5000.
County was the trendy jump saddle not that long ago.
Most English made saddles are under $5000 for custom. Black Country, Adam Ellis, Bliss, etc, etc.
But those English-made saddles – especially County and Black Country – strike me as so big, bulky, and heavy compared to French saddles. They’re just not my cup of tea (although I do love me some wool flocking). @akhunterrider , am I wrong?
P.S. I just priced out a new custom Stackhouse at $7,000 and almost passed out. That’s how much I spent on my last horse!
My BC weighs less than any other saddle I have – and I have quite the collection. It has serge panels (this means the underside is felt instead of leather), and is at least 5lb lighter than my 2018 Stubben Zaria. It’s lighter than my ancient Kieffer, Ainsley, and Niederseuss as well.
I do not find BCs bulky to sit in. The balance is ideal for me and it puts you quite close-contact with the horse.
I would not go french if you are having saddle fit issues because I’ve not had good luck with foam saddles and horses staying comfortable in work. I wouldn’t even go custom if you are having issues finding a saddle that fits. Reason being, horses change shape and I have a really poor opinion (after thousands of dollars in saddle fittings, buying saddles etc) of saddle reps/fitters…
My inclination would be to find a used saddle that fits the metrics your horse needs, and ride in it for several months to confirm he still likes it a few months after consistent use, before going custom. I have gone the custom route and had a saddle that, at the beginning, seemed great for my horse - only to have us back at square one four months down the road.
I think BC toes the line of ~$5k if you are customizing. I am in the early stages of getting another BC (custom) myself; I’ve been riding a hard-to-fit horse in his “brother’s” BC, and he has liked it so much I think it’s time to order the exact same saddle for him as well.
It might help if you post what it is you & your horse need from a saddle. Lots of people here have had boots-on-the-ground experience struggling to find that “just right” saddle for their horse.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the rider is the heaviest thing on the horse. As a rider it may be less convenient to have a 16 lb saddle compared to a 12 lb saddle but none of us are going to fret about our post thanksgiving extra 5.
From the perspective of horse welfare, bulky is only a concern for me if the rear panel length is going to extend beyond T18. I don’t want to open a can of french worms but a lot of fitters I respect feel that many top brands have sacrificed optimal panel fit to give a rider the ultimate “close contact” feel. If you flip over some of these sleek foam panel saddles, you can see how thin and narrow the panels can get under the stirrup bar because of the quest for the smallest twist. I’ve also seen 2 brand new (only months old) french saddles that blew the top off of your budget and a saddle fitter found that the foam had major factory defects. The only recourse is then to fight with the company over their warranty or pay for complete panel replacements.
Personally, I would go with a wool-flocked english brand over a foam french even if I had unlimited resources. I want the ability to tweak fit every 4-6 months to ensure an optimal fit.
I think you might be swimming upstream here - the premium and/or French brands are (continue to be) trendy, and therefore expensive. I don’t know of any that are sub-$5k custom. You could check Italian brands - sometimes Prestige is more affordable.
There is a new(?) blog post series starting up - https://www.thesaddlegeek.com/broke-girls-guide-to-french-and-italian-saddles-post1/
Toward the end of the article it mentions that a lot of folks looking for affordable alternatives to French brands end up in a Beval or a Pessoa. Have you priced either of those?
As a side note, I’ve heard so many first-hand mixed reviews of custom saddles not fitting as expected (either horse or rider) that I would no longer consider buying custom a sure solution to saddle shopping.
I believe Harry Dabbs and Bliss are sub $4k. It really depends on what you are looking for. I have a BC as well and don’t find it heavy or bulky at all. There are quite a few different models though and some may be.
Foam saddles have thinner panels than wool flocked saddles. That’s just to do with the nature of the material. If your eye has become accustomed to only seeing foam panels, wool will look bulkier to you because the panels are thicker.
But remember that wool panels were state of the art until about a decade ago, and County was the trendy jump saddle.
If you want the look, you need to pay the price for a foam saddle. That’s just how fashion works.
Or you can buy a second tier brand of foam saddle like Pessoa to keep the “look.”
Personally I would rather get a top tier wool flocked British or German saddle. But then I have only had wool.flocked saddles and they look normal to me!
i also appreciate the longevity of the British and German saddles, and the fact that the wool flocking can be replaced and adjusted more easily.
Of course my mare doesn’t fit the French brands. I took the back tracings done by my independent saddle fitter, and went to visit a mobile consignment seller of French foam jump saddles who also used to rep for one of the brand’s. We popped the tracings in a number of saddles and she concluded maresy had too big a shoulder and back to fit in any of them. I ended up with a second hand Passier.
So if you can’t get any French saddles to fit so far you might consider if the entire range is too narrow for your horse.
I would also agree that fitting a custom saddle is unfortunately hit or miss. No brand of saddle can fit every horse. Either the tree used by that brand is a good general fit for that horse, or it isn’t. Reps eager to make a sale will claim they can make their brand fit everyone. Not true. Or there might also be errors in translation between the measurements the rep takes and what the little elves in a backroom on another continent actually do. I like my saddle fitter to be there to see the horse!
OP, do you have a good independent saddle fitter on call? If they can do back tracings of drop and curve as well as withers, you could send copies of those to bigger consignment stores and ask them to make recommendations.
Also with wool flocked saddles, if the basic tree is a good match for your horse, a saddle fitter can plump up the panels and fix some minor bridging, and they can also add or remove some fluff from the wither gullet area to make the gullet wider or snugger.
”‹”‹”‹”‹More data about your horse will take some of the randomness out of saddle trying for you.
”‹”‹”‹
Many of the French saddles have thinner panels like Scribbler said, along with a more narrow twist. Which is often preferred by the riders, but not necessarily the horses.
French v English do often ride differently, no way to deny that. However, the English made saddles, particularly wool flocked ones, offer a lot more fit adjustments for a wider variety of horses.
I agree with contacting an independent saddle fitter, as well as sitting in as many saddles as you can. I believe you can find something that you and your horse will like, you just have to be willing to look at options outside of your normal box.
I am not a saddle fitter, though it is something that interests me. I also have a good friend who is an independent saddle fitter, so I’ve learned some from her.
Thanks, gang. I do have a good independent fitter, but she charges me $75 every time she comes out, even if none of the saddles in tow work. Is that normal?
I think I’ve paid much more than $75 for a fitter to come out.
Look at Heritage saddles in England, their saddles start under $1000. I know some COTHers have bought from them in the past and were happy. I’ve considered it, haven’t done it yet.
Have you tried Amerigo. They are in the $5k range but wool. And they have a little more of a French type feel for the rider.
I recently tired of wasting time and money going back and forth to tack shops for test saddles - or paying to ship - only to be disappointed, so I decided to spend the money on a custom Black Country. I love it! I was able to test ride a few different saddles that were shipped to me. I had assumed that I’d be purchasing the Celeste, their trail model, but decided to fully customize a GP as to have the option for jumping. The customization options felt endless (in a good way). I was able to add extra d-rings, calf leather, a more forward flap, and even more padding to the seat for less than 4k. It all depends on the model you choose, however. It took four weeks from order to delivery. I was shocked! I had a saddle fitter out recently to check the break-in of the wool flocking and he was impressed with the fit. I can’t recommend Black Country or Patty Merli, their SC rep, enough. One thing to note that I didn’t consider when looking on Instagram and online for photos of leather is that most people today put a filter on their photos. I’m happy to PM you photos of my saddle for reference.
I wouldn’t have a problem paying for her time like that, but I would expect her to be able to offer insights and recommendations on what would fit even if it is not something she has in tow. I would not expect her to just rule out what she has with her and leave it at that. So, if she has evaluated your horse, I’d be asking her what it is she thinks you should be looking for or should order. And with that information in hand, I’d contact some of the used saddle dealers like Suzy at Highline Tack and see if they have something that fits your parameters. The risk with custom is you order something and it shows up and still doesn’t fit, at least with a used one you know exactly what you are getting if you could find one that fits.
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