My dressage student has recently added jumping to her young horse’s weekly schedule but she’s doing it in a dressage saddle. Her jumping instructor isn’t much help in the saddle shopping department.
Can anyone suggest a good, low budget jumping saddle brand that is horse friendly as well as secure for the rider?
The saddles we’ve looked at all tend to be too narrow for spinal clearance from front to back and have the stirrup bars placed too far forward.
If she ever shows it will only be in the low jumpers. The horse is most definitely not a hunter.
What breed of horse? What’s the build like? it’s hard to suggest a brand without any idea of how what you need it to fit. Honestly, the best thing to do it go to a tack store that does second hand. I don’t know where you’re located but there’s a store here that will even bring second hand saddles to you and let you try them on your horse. usedsaddles.com does trials and often has lower price range available.
For an inexpensive saddle, I like the Dover Circuit Premier Victory. You can get the adjustable tree, and it seems to have adequate spinal clearance. They have a trial option.
What is considered “low budget”?
I would agree with looking for a good used saddle.
Buy a used saddle.
Having coached several dressage riders in basic jumping, I would respectfully suggest that your interpretation of where stirrup bars should be placed could be influenced by your discipline preference.
If the jumping coach isn’t interested enough to help a student with finding a proper saddle, let alone permitting a dressage saddle to be used, perhaps a new coach might be in order prior to a new saddle.
Yes, usually folks have a jumping coach separate from their dressage coach. My leasor who leases my horse is a high level dressage rider who has her mom, a wonderful dressage coach for dressage, a great jumping coach at Mystic Valley hunt club, and an eventing coach for cross country. Nothing wrong with having a coach for different disciplines, and it sound like she needs another one. Her dressage coach can continue to work with her and her horse with dressage. It will make them both better jumpers.
Meanwhile, I agree that the dover saddles are great lower budget saddles which fit a variety of horses. If, however, she has a high withered TB, the pommels might be too low and she might need something like a prestige or Thorowgood. The thorowgood is a great lower budget saddle which is still really well make, with a higher/cut back pommel for the highwithered horse, and the Presitge while defintely not low budget can be found used. Another good used lower budget saddle might be an HDR, one you could find used.
Also, the stirrup bar is supposed to be placed forward on a jumping saddle, so you probably aren’t the best person to pick this out for her. Good luck.
Lastly, I have to say, I acutally sort of resent hearing people call themselves “wimpy” when first learning to jump, and cetainly don’t think its anyone’s place to call another rider who is breaking into a new discipline wimpy. There’s nothing WIMPY about a begining jumper taking on a new sport with her horse. What she’s doing takes guts and determination. How high she will ever jump depends on her horse and how skillful their trainer is, and how far she wants to take it. Even deciding not to go high doesn’t make her wimpy. There are alot of reasons for those kinds of decisions.
Sometimes people on here apologize for themselves by writing about their jumping when it isn’t very high (yet). Not sure what to think about someone who is uneducated in jumping callling a friend “wimpy”. So there’s my rant for the day.
If your student just wants a basic, useful, inexpensive jumping saddle, I’d suggest locating a used Stubben Siegfried. They’re great saddles, plentiful, and if you find one that is a little tired, you can often get it back to awesome with a little help from a saddler. The seats are hard, though.
I would agree with M O’Connor that I cannot say I’ve ever had a problem with jumping saddles having the stirrup bar too far forward. I wonder if the problem isn’t that the jumping coach won’t help but that the jumping coach has different taste in saddles.
Used saddles are ideal both because of the better price and also because the saddle is already broken in. She also probably can resell it for much of what she puts into it if she decides jumping isn’t her thing or if she decides to upgrade.
Also a price point would be nice. I “personally” consider low budget “used” the >/= 700, so imagine my shock when I had someone ask me to help find a “cheaper schooling saddle” for her daughter. The $250 collegiate plain flap I sent was “much to expensive” and she ended up getting a $50 silver fox shudder.
It’s really hard to suggest a saddle without seeing the horse in question. They all vary longitudinally and laterally. There are low budget saddles that fit the bill for various shapes and sizes but one size fits all is not a good solution. Therefore, if you happen to have time, post a couple of photos at the very least, one from the side of the entire horse, square, naked and head up and one on a block behind the tail looking down on the back.
Get a wintec 2000. Great for jumping hacking etc. Ebay.
Step up, look on ebay for used county.
I remember loving the siegfried in 1994. Ugh.
Ainsley, all the way. It fits everything (w/ saddle fitter adjustment) from my huge 17h TB to my little sausage 15hh TB… and everything in between. Saddle fitter comes, adjusts it as needed, and we are good to go.
I would go used. A used Ainsley is cheap… like under $1000.
Thanks everyone.
The horse is a 17hh warmblood cross with very large shoulders, average-high withers and very uphill build. He’s BIG everywhere.
A change of jumping coach is not an option. Beside that, his disinterest saddle shopping does not make him a bad trainer. It just means that he has other things to do.
Budget is under $1500.
What dressage saddle is the horse going in? You may be able to find a jump saddle from the same brand that works, and is at least a decent point to start from.
$1500 should get you a pretty nice quality used saddle from a good-but-not-top-of-the-line brand. Used non-Butet Beval, Prestige, Stubben, Pessoa, maybe Amerigo or County. Depends on what fits the horse. Rider fit tends to be a bit more forgiving in jump saddles than in dressage saddles.
[QUOTE=Goforward;8304246]
This disinterest saddle shopping does not make him a bad trainer. It just means that he has other things to do.
Budget is under $1500.[/QUOTE]
Sure seems to me that his personal interest in his student is not at the forefront. If you can’t make time for your student, what good are you? Even if he’s a busy trainer, I’m sure he’d have an assistant who could go with her and at the very least provide some recommendations as a starting point. Who is this trainer so I be sure to avoid him? lol
[QUOTE=KatInHat31;8304414]
Sure seems to me that his personal interest in his student is not at the forefront. If you can’t make time for your student, what good are you? Even if he’s a busy trainer, I’m sure he’d have an assistant who could go with her and at the very least provide some recommendations as a starting point. Who is this trainer so I be sure to avoid him? lol[/QUOTE]
This. And then some.
So Important that he can’t be bothered to offer basic advice, and is happy to teach anyone who shows up to jump in a dressage saddle? Wondering how good the dressage coach is if this seems ok on any level.
[QUOTE=KatInHat31;8304414]
Sure seems to me that his personal interest in his student is not at the forefront. If you can’t make time for your student, what good are you? Even if he’s a busy trainer, I’m sure he’d have an assistant who could go with her and at the very least provide some recommendations as a starting point. Who is this trainer so I be sure to avoid him? lol[/QUOTE]
Oh for God’s sake, how did this thread devolve into a criticism of the trainer? How is this helpful? The OP is looking for saddle suggestions. And what happened to the “rolls eyes” emoticon?
With the added information, I would recommend a Pessoa. There are many other brands that are within her price range. And if you’re willing to do the trial and error necessary to fit those extra wide shoulders, there are a lot of possibilities.
I’ve found the Pessoas run wider than any other saddle and are a great fit for wide warmbloods, quarter horses, etc.
ETA: I just tried this Antares, but am having to send it back because it wasn’t the right fit for my horse. I loved it for me. It’s very comfortable and puts you in a great position. Antares are really nice saddles that are usually out of that price range. So if you think the sizes are correct, it might be worth a try. http://redwoodtack.com/products/17-antares-saddle-2a-flap-deep-seat-4-75-tree
Where is the horse? A location might let people suggest some good venues through which to find a nice used saddle. 
Really? JustJump, I’m a bad dressage trainer because I’m trying to assist a student by asking for help from people who know more about a topic than I know? Shame on me for admitting that my student and I need help.
And to those who are aghast at the student jumping in a dressage saddle, it’s all she has and the jumps are hardly more than cavalletti. We aren’t talking about the World Cup Finals here. She just wants to have fun with her horse. Clearly there are a few people around here who have forgotten how to have fun.
Her jump trainer only rides in one brand of saddle and it’s out of the students price range. He is a very good horseman and has a lot of Grand Prixs under his belt but he’s not a saddle fitter. I have no problem with him admitting that he’s not a saddle fitter. He’s a horse trainer. They are two different professions. He’s also not a farrier or a veterinarian. But, he is a good friend, a nice guy and a good horse trainer.
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by how many snarky comments I’ve received on this question. It’s easy to hide behind a computer screen and judge others from a desk chair.
Thank you to those who have offered constructive responses.
