Anyone have a Portuguese-style dressage saddle?
I’d like to hear experiences of how different brands/styles fit both horse and rider, having never tried one nor tried the brands that make them.
I bought this saddle
from https://iberianconnection.com/collections/saddles in Arizona. great to work with, sent me a saddle to try. This one isn’t strictly speaking dressage, but it’s close. I wanted it for a wild PRE I owned, then he wasn’t wild, and I ended up sending it to Jackie Cochran on this board. Some of them have horsehair packed panels which I didn’t love.
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@hallie2 I want to thank you for sending me your Spanish saddle. It does put me into a chair seat but I have it on my saddle rack, with safety stirrups and stability leathers, for when I get too weak and unbalanced to ride in my jumping saddle. My riding teacher (hunt seat) did not really like riding in it but she told me that I would not be falling off the horse when I use that saddle.
It is SO MUCH MORE COMFORTABLE than any Western saddle I’ve ridden in, and I feel so much more secure on the horse’s backs when I ride in it than with any other saddle I have ridden in.
Sorry, I have no experience with the Portuguese dressage saddles.
I won’t be able to afford it before the coming tariffs but I ended up looking at the Hidalgo saddles too, again a Spanish saddle with the leather tree though I do not know what they are flocked with. From looking at their site it might be possible to move the stirrup hanger back to not end up in a chair seat but I don’t know for sure.
@fermecinqsens IF you get a Portuguese saddle please tell us about it! IF I was into dressage I would be very eager to try other Iberian saddles too, just to see if I could find one that did not make me ride in a chair seat. Of course they were developed for the Spanish horse breeds not for TBs, Arabs or WBs.
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Hmm interesting. I was also looking at the classic Portuguese style saddle (like their version of cow saddle). Which is also very secure like the style you have. I’m a bit wary of that kind because I have never been able to ride properly in a western saddle and I’m afraid they’d be similar. But also I don’t want to be limited by only being able to use it for trail riding and working equitation.
The plus of a Portuguese style dressage saddle is I can use it for normal dressage but it also fits the working equitation “costume”. I’d like to imagine that they fit Iberian type horses, which can sometimes be difficult when finding a normal dressage saddle. I have Lusitanos and although they aren’t very wide or flat-withered like the stereotype, they do have difficulties like very forward girth grooves, very short backs, flat topines, and shoulders which have a tendency to make saddles slide forward. You’d hope that Portuguese style saddles are designed to fit these kinds of horses. But, maybe they don’t do a better job than other brands. …
I’m particularly looking at the Zaldi escola but, having never had a Zaldi, I don’t really know how they fit or what tree size to look for.
I know that the OLD dressage masters did not ride in the competitive show dressage saddles at all.
In the Duke of Newcastle’s book and in de la Guerineire"s(sp?) books they were using saddles based on the Iberian saddles. The Spanish Riding School does too from what I see in some of the pictures in Podhajsky’s (sp?) books. I did find a Spanish Riding School saddle on line (Ebay?) that looks like some of the Iberian saddles on line, but it had white suede leather for the seat and flaps and I imagine it would be a total nightmare to keep it looking white!
The nearest Western saddle I’ve ridden in that sort of feels like the Spanish saddle I have is one with an “A fork”???, but that one had a really HARD seat, no swells up front, extremely high cantle, and the last time I rode in it I had a horrible time dismounting, plus the horn was extra high. In that saddle I could actually get up into a sort of Forward Seat because my stirrups were right under my seat but the forward position of my torso was severely limited by the high horn. It is now living on my saddle rack because I fit in it fine when I weighed 110 pounds but it would be too small for me at 135 pounds since I think it was a kid’s saddle. That saddle was no where as comfortable as my Spanish saddle though.
Horns on Western saddles make me very paranoid, I guess I’ve read too many tales of rider’s chests getting crushed when the horse reared and fell back onto the rider. That is one reason I like my Spanish Potrera saddle over Western saddles, there is no horn.
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look at http://www.monturasartesanasdetalavera.com/en/category/saddles/
well known high quality Spanish/portuguese saddle maker
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At the Portuguese School of Equestrian Art they ride in Zaldi Escola saddles. That’s actually what made me curious about them because I was just in Lisbon a couple weeks ago and visited the school. It seemed like a nicely classical saddle from the look, but sitting in it could be something else!
Get one with the sheepskin cover and front straight swells, that finishes the fit.
They are like a soft sofa, very comfortable.
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I bought an Andalusian saddle when I was in Spain, and brought it back through checked luggage. I will get a photo - it has the wool covering. SUPER comfortable, locks me in, easy on my back, and puts me in the correct position.
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Some of my friends in the Lusitano community love the saddles from DP Saddlery. I don’t have any because they’re not dressage legal but I have ridden in them and they are extremely comfortable. I think they’re like a mix of the traditional Portuguese saddle and a dressage saddle.
My understanding is that the front parts on the OP saddle are not dressage legal. They have a specific name in Spanish 
which I cannot recall now
Looks a lot like an Australian ranching saddle. Maybe the original Aussie saddle was an Iberian saddle?
The horn on American Western saddles is specifically for roping. The Spanish used garrocha poles to herd cattle instead. I guess the Australians didn’t rope either.
