My quest to find a saddle for my shark fin mare continues. On the chopping block currently, Albion. Does anyone have recent experiences/ opinions of them? I’ve seen on some older posts people talking about subpar quality and wondering if that’s still the case.
Some other areas of concern in order of priority: Long tree points, fitting to (very) high and narrow withers, lightweight, monoflap, forward cut with small blocks
I’ve had no quality issues with mine. I had a good experience with the fitter and the saddle came just as expected and has held up well. Style and comfort wise, I prefer my Black Country-- but the Albion fit my mare better so the Albion it was.
I’ve always been an Albion user…granted I use the dressage saddles only. My first new/ordered dressage saddle was Albion. Rode in them for many years. Then the fitter I used wasn’t dealing with them and there were some changeovers in Albion. I went to a different brand for a few years. Nothing was as comfy as the Albions for me. Recently I slowly swapped the other brand and bought some used Revelations. They are great quality…on par with any other higher end saddle. I think there was a period of time they were going through some leadership and manufacturing changes…because it was near impossible to find dealers in the US. Now I am seeing them back out at shows with reps again. I will definitely be sticking with my Albions!
I have had a fair few saddles from different brands for my boy in the three years I have had him so far at least one model from each brand, I had two devocouxs that I tried, a couple different CWD models and I think just one of the other ones (Devocoux, Voltaire, Pessoa, CWD, Antares, Butet, Stubben, Wintec) I think that’s all lol, a lot of reselling used saddles, some I tried lasted only a weeks trial, others I had for a few months, or longer, max length 10 months with one saddle, the Stubben. The Stubben was too narrow and I was told by the rep that I would have to have the tree at least 2 sizes too narrow in order to scape out some wither clearance and after getting new panels put on it, it was making him very backsore. I kind of fell into having the Albion fitter out earlier this year, a barn friend was having her come out to help her with fitting issues with her CWD and my fitter is not just Albion, she works with a few different brands and comes across more like an independent fitter, anyway she is amazing and we spent 4 months going back and forth finding out which model and tree worked getting to keep a model to try for a while and got to sit some raw trees on my horse. If you want something from Albion with a longer straighter tree point, the K2 is going to be your best bet, it offers the best wither clearance for a prominent wither based on the raw tree and where the panels are set, its wool flocked and much more open through the pommel. The K2 isn’t a mono flap but I have found the flap to be very close contact either way, prior to the K2 I was riding in the K4 mono flap and I find the feeling difference minimal. It is also a more medium seat, not flat unless you want to go with a CC tree. I really like the quality, I found one used from the Saddle Bank in the UK because I knew exactly what to buy for it to fit my horse and its a newer model but quality on it and the demos has been excellent. I hope this helps and best of luck!
Second the K2. Rode in both the AP then bought the dressage saddle. Loved both as did my saddle fitter. My OTTB now goes in an older Patrick.
I believe the K3 is basically the K2 monoflap?
Apparently, it actually isn’t for some reason. We tried the K3 on my boy as well and the tree doesn’t fit the same which is weird. Statically it looked fine but once in motion and he is lifting through his back the saddle lost a lot of stability and moved a lot side to side and up and down. My fitter did say though its great for horses it fits but it isn’t a very common fit if that makes sense
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