Can’t lift much anymore so I just sold my Circle Y saddle. The other day at a used tack shop I was lifting all their English saddles and to my surprise they were still too heavy until I came across an old Wintec Pro Sport which seemed as light as a feather by comparison. $20 later it’s now in my tack room for when I’m able to ride but it looks like it went through a hellish realm so only a hacking saddle to get into shape someday. Seems very comfy, lots of cushion and soft. Made me think of a newer Wintec for when I can ride again. I never considered synthetic saddles but maybe in my wise old years, it would be the easy, light ticket. Anyone have any comments pro or con for the Wintec endurance for trail riding? I also like the Winteclite DLux AP which weighs only 8 lbs or so.
I have not used any of the models you are specifically asking about, but I LOVE my Wintec Pro Dressage and Pro A/P. They are the only thing that have worked for my horse through saddle fitting h*ll. Not only are they light, but that equisuede sure is awesome for when you start to ride again. It’s like super glue.
Ah! Nice 
Thank you .
Yeah, I blame that on my husband’s Wintec endurance saddle for the quarter-size patch of missing skin on my left butt a while ago - as best I can figure it, the full-seat riding tights stuck like glue to the saddle, but slid against my skin!
:eek:
My experience with Wintecs is they fit a certain type of horse. Decent withers, some curve, not crazy wide. If it fits your horse, they are very nice saddles. Another synthetic option is Thorowgood, which has more options if your horse is either very wide or very withery. In my experience Thorowgood runs slightly small for the rider, so you may have to size up.
Thanks I looked at Thorowgood briefly today Online and didn’t see anything that would fit my situation or boy. I’ve just rehabbed two very short-backed, wide horses that were hard to find saddles for. They could have worn Thorowgood very well.
If they are truly short and wide you may want to look into getting a Winter Wide with the adjustable gullet system. I had the All Purpose and it was nice to be able to alter it along with my mares shape and it fit her well. It held up well and after 10 years it looked the same as when i bought it ( used).
I sold it recently and went with a Duett. It sold quickly for a good price.
I don’t know if they make the wide in other models ( like endurance ) but worth a look.
Abetta makes a nice endurance saddle in a wide( 7 inch gullet) That I like as well.
Thank you 🙂 The short-backed wide and mutton withered horses were rescue/rehabs I helped last year and a couple of years ago. Right now my boy is fairly withered and not very wide at all though he will even out with weight. I think the Wintec will work out well for both of us.
Oops. I guess I thought you were trying to fit them too. I hope your saddle works out.
The therapy barn that leases my pony has Thorowgoods of various models for most of the horses. They are super duper comfortable and I find that the jump style saddles fit true to size and the dressage are better a half size up. They are slightly heavier than their Wintec counterparts, but are much nicer saddles overall. I have found that the panels on a lot of wintecs I’ve seen are very pokey at the seams/edges, whereas the thorowgoods have had more rounded/softer edges to the panels.
I have had success with a couple Wintecs over the years, including their western model. I actually really liked the seat of the western wintec I had, and I regret selling it when my cob outgrew it. It wasn’t smooth synthetic like the new ones. It was almost like craft foam. Smooth if you brushed your hand over it, but decently grippy whwn seated in it. I have never seen another like it. I miss it.
The only wintec model I’ll say to stay FAR away from is the Wintec Isabel. It is not rider friendly in the slightest, even for the skinniest twigs like Isabel Werth herself (who wintec designed it for). The balance point in the seat is bizarre for where the stirrup bar is, and the seat itself is a weird shape. We couldn’t pay anyone to take away the one we had for one of our therapy horses, and it made all of the riders who sat in it super uncomfortable. Just an all around awful saddle! No other wintec model can hold a candle to how awful the isabel is. Haha!
Your experience with the Wintec Isabel is quite different than mine.
I’ve ridden in both. I found the Isabel’s seat deeper; there was more “hug” than ideal for me, but I was also borrowing it from someone and it was a half size small for me.
I would have gladly bought one used, if I could have found a good deal on one. My instructor thought it worked well for me. I ended up finding a deal on a Pro Dressage first, and am glad because mine has the contourblocs that have been helpful to break me of my chair seat tendencies. The Pro has a more open seat for sure.
I think dressage saddles are so rider-specific. A few well-regarded brands and models left me crippled after a single ride because they just didn’t work for me; that has never happened to me with a jump saddle. So I completely believe the Isabel may have been that saddle for you!
I’m quite open as to the model. Just beginning to look and have the old Wintec Pro Sport to use for conditioning us. Hope we get a green light to start conditioning by the end of this month. He’s doing much, much better. I just ask for a few dees since the goal is trail riding our miles of state park trails nearby but I think even that can be worked around. Love the idea of a grippy seat since I haven’t ridden in about 2.5 years and I’m out of condition as much as my Ol Man is. Other than light weight and grippy, the only other requirement is that it fit us. Well, my one luxury item would be the brown color since his bridles are both brown and practically brand new and I like the way it looks. I don’t want to have to buy another bridle but could if I had to. That was mainly the reason I started looking at the Endurance model which is twice the price of the Winteclite DLux AP. If I found a brown endurance saddle in good shape, I might have to snatch it up.
The deeper seat was why we hoped it would work for our therapeutic program, but everything else about the saddle made every rider that sat in it super miserable. The Pro dressage and 500 dressage are fine for those same riders, but the Isabell definitely didn’t. For me personally, I can’t do modern dressage saddles, period. I can only comfortably ride in my 45+ year old Passier pancake dressage. I’m best suited to an all purpose type saddle with a forward flap that still allows me to ride in a semi-long stirrup for all activities.
now that said you aren’t the only person I have heard of liking that model. I know one other rider who likes it and actually shows upper level dressage in it, but she is built similarly to Isabell Werth which may or may not have anything to do with it.
Saddles are absolutely a personal thing, and what works for one might not work for another. It just seems odd that dozens of people despise this same dang saddle so intensely, haha!
i have a Thorowgood. It is my second one…the first i’d used for 35 years and passed along to someone else when i got my new one. They fit me and with the interchangeable gullet they fit my horses. I love the lightweight and love being able to hose them clean. All my other saddles are kept in the house to keep them from molding (humid here!) and i end up not ever using them. The Thorowgood is my go-to.
I also have Thorowgood saddles. One is an old model endurance and the other is a newer all purpose that is adjustable. Both saddles are very comfortable.
If the one you bought is pretty old, the newer wintecs are a bit different in shape. They are wider through the channel and flatter in the panels than the very old models. It has been quite a few years since the change though - from memory since they started using the DIY gullet change rather than having to have a saddler open it up. Does yours have the screws/velcro DIY gullet change? No matter how old, $20 sounds like a bargain!
Absolutely the best-priced saddle i ever purchased, :D. I have tendinitis in my shoulder which keeps getting worse instead of better. Lifting anything is painful. After lifting about 20 English saddles and feeling very disappointed that they were all too heavy, I almost fell on my butt when lifting this one. Its like a feather and does seem pretty old. No screws or velcro. The fabric is like dark blue canvas. I guess it could have been black at some point but I love how it looks like dark blue denim.Seat is in great shape.The flaps are a disaster. Its a Wintec Sport. I can take him to Ocala when he is ready to be fitted, if we get to that point. He’s thin now.
Ahhhh … yes, I had one of those fabric covered Wintecs in the dressage model many years ago, and I absolutely loved it. You know they used to have an advertisement for them here in Australia with a truck driving over it because at the time the tree was guaranteed for life. This was back in the 1980s. No such guarantees these days though, lol. You are right about how light they are. The newer ones are a big heavier.
Keep in mind when fitting it that the gullet plate can still be changed by a saddler using the newer Wintec gullet plates. It must still be screwed in place on the inside I guess, but you just need the saddler to undo it and resew it up.
I think you’ll love riding in it.
