I have a new horse and it is looking like my current saddle is just not going to work for her. Her previous owner rode her in a Custom Icon that appeared to fit her well. I have a saddle fitter coming this weekend to look at my current saddle plus maybe try some others if mine can’t be flocked/ adjusted to fit her. I have heard mixed reviews about the quality of the Custom brand. Anyone have one? Do you like it? Customer Service? How is it holding up?
I have one - Wolfgang Solo - love it. Was very pleased with my rep, who worked with me on finding and fitting a used one. She still fits for me although she reps a different brand. I’d buy another one in a hearbeat.
I have an icon flight and love it. I have no complaints about quality. Lovely leather and fits beautifully.
I have just purchased one and will happily gush about my experience with the fitter and the quality of the saddle. Strong recommend.
I have the Advantage R now and love the saddle. Happy with my fitter also
We have an Advantage and I loved my fitter. No quality issues whatsoever.
From what I see going on in my barn, they appear to be nice quality saddles with lots of fun options. But lets just say that not all their fitters are trained equally–which isn’t a problem unique to Custom.
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I’ve got 2 Custom saddles - a Constanze and a Coronado. I think they are 6 and 8 years old, and are each used on 2 horses 3 to 5 times weekly. They hold up great - the Buffalo leather wears like iron. I don’t have any of the fun options - mine are both basic black.
They are not works of art - the stitching and finishing isn’t like - for example, a French Devocoux - so that may be what people refer to. But they are Buffalo leather - it is much thicker, you can’t do “fine finish”. I love the saddles - they are comfortable and fit my horses well. We call the Coronado “the magic saddle” - it has fit 4 different horses well!
As ATR said, a big part of saddle fit is the fitters, but the saddles are popular for a reason!
[IMG]https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/1779067_10202218442556698_1455867547_n.jpg?oh=4c016a8be46f617da3bba33a482d62e5&oe=5A8E67BC)[IMG]https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/17426249_10210824110133009_7036802054700688508_n.jpg?oh=5af5e5e67d7f29a91a0804f460f8b02e&oe=5A9E40F7)
I love the feel of my Custom Icon Coda but I’ve had two stitching failures on it within its first 3 years, one of which was pretty catastrophic (not sure of the exact terminology but the seat completely separated from the panels after a perfectly normal ride). My Passier is almost 20 years old and the only repair it has ever needed is new billets, so I’m not overly impressed with the quality of the Custom. It cost more than I thought I would ever spend on a saddle, and for that price I expected more durability.
I also had some fit issues when I first bought it. The flocking kept compressing so that after 1-2 weeks of riding, the saddle was sitting down on my horse’s withers again. After coming out to reflock it 2-3 times at very short intervals, the fitter gave up and sold me a ThinLine at her cost, which did solve the problem. It was strange.
I am pleasantly surprised that I bought it for my now-21-year-old Bavarian warmblood, and it was able to be refitted for both my 4-year-old Hanoverian and 15-year-old Oldenburg lease horse. They don’t have crazy different backs, but they aren’t identical either so it’s awesome that it can work for all of them.
ETA: Mine does also have the seat wrinkles others mention. Thankfully they’re not significant enough to bother me yet, except as another sign of inadequate quality.
I have had a few Customs and have loved them. However, the foam padding under the leather in the seat of my Advantage began to “bunch” after 3-ish years of normal wear. The wrinkles in the seat were starting to bother me when I rode, so had it repaired by my fitter, who is also a master saddler and who works on every brand (and does not rep Custom). It required the seat and foam to be removed and replaced–pricey!–but looked like new after that. He told me that he sees this same problem with the seat foam on Customs made around the same time frame as my saddle (2013-ish?). He also thinks it may be fixed now (they may have changed foam manufacturers) as he’s not seen the problem in older or newer Customs. And to be fair, I have seen this same think on other brand so not necessarily unique to Custom. Other than that, the saddle was beautifully made and I was pleased with the quality.
I was going to mention the seat wrinkle issue, and that it did seem like a specific time period that this happened. I know a few professionals who ventured away from Custom due to this issue and were swept up by another, newer company. It seems like the timing worked for the new saddle company and they were able to take advantage of people getting upset about the seat wrinkle. So there are a few professionals I know who wouldn’t recommend Custom, but I don’t know if Custom was asked to fix the seat wrinkles. I think most of the saddles were free to the professionals, but I do know an AA with an Icon that has a wrinkled seat. She just deals with it.
My daughter has a much older Wolfgang that she loves and has been successfully fitted to three different horses. I have a newer Everest that is the best fitting saddle for me I’ve ever tried. I’ve had a County, a few Schleeses, a different model Custom, and some lesser known brands and I’m much more happy with my new Custom.
I’ll be the dissenting voice of “meh”. I’ve seen dozens and ridden in 10 give or take. The one’s I have liked the best were actual demo saddles that were purchased. The demos seemed to be a step up in quality. Perhaps that was a coincidence or maybe the company made a point of really double checking quality on the saddles that would be out representing the brand.
Someone close to me recently (last year) purchased one. The saddle arrived with really subpar workmanship (damaged piping, patent chipping, gap with flocking showing, etc.) and had to be sent back. The rep was easy to work with but from start to finish it was a 6 month process and the buyer knew exactly what they wanted at the first appointment. I know two more than sat crooked from the time they arrived and eventually the fitter recommended using a half pad and shimming one side despite no other saddles sitting crooked on these horses. I do think that the leather quality on the billets tends to be of lower quality than a similarly priced brand. Nearly all of the ones I rode in had my opinion abnormal wearing. Many also seemed to wear quickly on the seat.
For the price point I think the lower end custom provides many more customization options than other saddles at a similar price point. Many people I know love their Customs and have purchased many over the years. I would absolutely consider a second-hand Custom where I could see the final product prior to purchasing. If I was in a position to buy one of their top lines I would be more inclined to go with another brand and sacrifice the bling options. Of course JMO and my experience is limited to a geographic area so it can be hard to parse out production v. fitter for some issues.
I’m very pleased with my solo mono flap and it is wearing quite well service has been excellent too
I love riding in them, but hate the service. I’ve had issues with custom orders that never fit the horse. I will only buy them used, and use an independent fitter.
I just picked up my “new to me” Wolfgang from the rep as it had to have some adjustments made to the flocking and some stitching repairs done. I can’t wait to try it! It’s in great condition and I think that’s due to the buffalo leather. The rep was fantastic to deal with and from initial contact to a finished “custom fit” saddle for a hard to fit horse was 5 days. I’m going to ride in it today, I hope it fits- but if it doesn’t I know the rep for my area is very accessible and responds quickly. Two thumbs up so far
I have an older Riding Star it is about 12 years old. I bought it from a friend who was lucky enough to buy a Solo, which she loves. It was able to fit Mr. Sensitive fine… He is very picky… I do use an independent fitter so I cannot comment on their fitters. The seat was replaced before I got it but so far so good. It fits both of use well. It even had a short flap! I am 5’2"! I had thought about buying a new one with an external knee roll but my fitter said why? This fits and is in good condition so don’t look for trouble. So, I will stick with what I have for now.
I just purchased a Custom Icon Star2 and love it. it fits my 4 yr old mare perfectly, without needing any adjusting at all. (I purchased it 6 months after the original owner bought it) Probably one of the most comfortable saddles I’ve sat in. Love the monoflap!
I also purchased an NSC Annika (designed by an ex-Custom rep/saddle fitter) - which is comfortable as well but not a monoflap. It’s more soft and padded, and feels more like a couch. It also needed no adjustments when I purchased it for my huge 4 yr old gelding.
I bought a saddle from them years ago when they first started the company. I loved the saddle and it fit my horse well, but I was dealing directly with the owners. When I did have an issue that needed repair, they balked on fixing it for me which didn’t sit well. :-/ They did eventually fix it at no charge for me and that particular saddle did well enough for me so I purchased a 2nd one through them. More recently, a friend of mine purchased one through a different fitter, had some fitting and quality issues. I agree with the comments that it’s a “it depends” kind of situation. If the fitter is decent, they are a nice enough saddle. Not top end, but what is anymore…?
So custom saddlery says to work in the effax lederbalsam with a soft brush. Anyone have a recommendation of an appropriate brush? I’m always just cleaned my saddles with tack sponges, but buffalo leather is new to me.
