Has anyone ridden in them? Any opinions on them?
"Rebelle, a division of Voltaire makes this upscale saddle, designed in France, handmade with the finest French leathers, up to 40% cheaper than its competitors. The secret:
Sold exclusively online (no shops to pay). Assembled in Morocco by saddlers artisans trained by a French master saddler. We do not pay for professional riders to use these saddles."
Iâm curiousđ.
Curious also because I love my Palm Beach.
So no fitter or sales Rep maybe saves on paying commission. But then do you measure your horse yourself? Or is it just one size fits all like a cheap Santa Cruz from Green hawk?
Edited to add: I went to the website and they have questions about rider size but none about fitting the horse. For $3500 CAN I can do much better than that.
I canât even find a website?
I had a sales rep come out to my barn yesterday who sells these exclusively. I live in PA.
Itâs part of the Voltaire website.
Interesting! What are the options for horse fit? Can you get semi custom panels and different trees? Does the seller do tracings and fittings?
The rep came to my barn and yes, they can do different trees and panels.
Ok thatâs good to know.
The question is why are they 30 per cent the cost of the Voltaire main line?
They tell you right in the ad copyâ theyâre not handing these out free like candy to pros in exchange for the advertising. No sponsorships.
Interesting. So these are comparable quality but the cost of advertising triples the price of the regular Voltaire? Is that because the advertising triples the cost to the manufacturer? Or just because they can get away with charging that for this decades fashionable saddle? Or all research and design is calculated into the Voltaire budget?
They donât really look like Voltaire. They look more conventional. Now thereâs no reason you couldnât manufacture a very nice saddle in that price range. Other established brands do it. But Iâm really curious as to what real differences they are.
Full disclosure: my mare has huge shoulders so apparently isnât a candidate for French saddles generally, so I donât have a Voltaire or even Voltaire envy. But just curious.
Saddles are hugely marked up due to âfashionâ and no small part of that is getting sponsored riders to promote them. Iâm not at all surprised that when you remove that cost you end up in the ballpark of the good quality British brands that just donât advertise that way. I havenât spent time poring over the saddle on the website but it looks like a decent saddle with different interchangeable features that costs what something like that should cost without the hype markup on top.
I donât know how conventional a giant letter âRâ on the flap is though?
I used to have a Voltaire that I really liked, but it didnât fit my horse so I sold it. When I heard about the Rebelle I thought it might work because I could get a saddle in a wide tree without the big price tag. But I just didnât like the Rebelle. My friend loved it and ordered one.
I was just wondering if anybody else had tried one and what they thought.
Very similar but no buffalo leather option. We are trying one now and I like it. Still expensive but itâs voltaires grab on the 4-5k market since their original brand has priced many out of buying a new Voltaire. I canât justify having my kids spend almost the same as their horse may have cost, so this is an option for them. Itâs smart of them actually.
A friend ordered a Rebelle in November from Bryan Cytryn and it has still not arrived. She has called him, texted him, emailed and she just gets the run around. She tried to contact Rebelle (which is based in France) with no luck. She contacted Voltaire and they said they are not associated with Bryan or Rebelle.
So buyer beware!!
Any update? Do you know if your friend ever got the saddle? Iâm in the market for a new saddle and was referred by someone to try Rebelle and was given Bryanâs contact info. Iâm just a little weary that he seems to be the only contact for the US sales
Donât do it! Found out that there are many people who did not get their saddles!
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