Despite being located in the bay area we’re woefully underserved for fitters. Your comment makes total sense, though I think I was hoping for someone to say that somehow the Bates could be magically adjusted longitudinally and laterally to fit any horse. Saddles are such a nightmare. Custom has dominates our area so intensely that there are few other options out here, it’s a bummer as I hate their products.
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I get it. I’m also not a Custom fan, and it can be hard to find a good saddle fitter in some places. It’s possible a Bates might be ok for your horse.
Perhaps you can send tracings to a retailer/second hand saddle shop elsewhere in the US and they can help or let you take a saddle on trial.
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I just ordered a new saddle from Ideal, who now make an adjustable saddle model that uses a different tree shape and different gullets that rotate back from the points like a conventional saddle.
I went through Saddles Worldwide - they were able to get me custom options on the adjustable tree and my saddle should be here in ~5 weeks.
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Ooh, I’ll have to take a look because I’m curious about the adjustments.
I almost ordered from Saddles Worldwide a few years back, but decided against it after hearing nothing all that great about them. However, that was 3 or 4 years ago now.
Would be interested if you can post a review about the saddle and your experience once to receive it.
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Here’s a video that shows the gullet plates and the underside so you can see how they are different.
I’ll say that Saddles Worldwide aren’t the easiest to get ahold of, but they seemed to have more access to design options than Hastilow when I asked about the saddle. Hastilow USA does carry Ideal and can order for you, but they didn’t have any demos as they sold them all.
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Bates/wintec saddle trees are plastic. They are total crap.
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So many saddle trees from “top brands” are plastic though. Not saying whether or not they’re total crap, but if a plastic tree = total crap, there’s a lot of crap out there!
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I’ve had a few Bates. While I have seen a cracked tree around the edges of a seat after a horse fell, I have never seen a cracked tree on a saddle without accident.
I have had more issues with my CWDs than any other saddle. Especially the carbon trees.
Any saddle will have its problems if abused and some could be defective. It’s unfortunate…
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