I decided to get an appointment to fit my new(ish) horse. The issue is - you do not get a trial, its ride it once and you own it.
I would see if there are saddles that they find fit the horse well - that will give you an indication on shape and what you’re looking for. Then work with an online retailer of used saddles to have them send saddles they may have in stock that could work. Most of them do 5-7 day trials so you’ll have more time to see how it works for you.
However is there anyone with some saddle knowledge that can adjust the flocking / customize the fit once you find a good option?
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Absolutely not. No fitter I’ve met worth their salt has had a non-trial period in my experience.
It might be worth it to get tracings from them, but no, I would not buy a saddle with no trial period. In my experience it takes a few weeks of consistently riding in a saddle for a non-glaring fitting issue to become apparent.
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Have you thought about an online fitting? Sometimes you can have it sent out for reflocking. It might be a PITA but it sounds like your current situation already isn’t ideal.
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No, unfortunately there are no local or close fitters or tack shops. I would agree that it takes a week or so to get a good feel for a saddle both for me and my horse. I have bought a couple of dressage saddles in the past that I realized after several rides I didn’t like or didn’t work well for the horse. I’ve been riding dressage for 30 yrs so buying dressage saddles isn’t something new to me, this is the first time I will have used an onsite fitter, all other times have been via online consultations.
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If you believe the fitter is competent, I would probably keep the appointment and have tracings done. I would try saddles she suggests so that you can get a rough idea of fit and whether it fits you as well as the horse.
I understand the problem of buying without a trial period, but your options are pretty limited. A lot of tack stores do a one week trial and you have to pay postage both ways if it doesnt work out (which is getting expensive!) Then if it doesnt fit without adjusting the flocking you are out of luck until the fitter comes around again!
If you do want to buy remotely, Pelham Saddlery was really good to deal with to help find saddles to fit. If you find a good deal from the fitter it may be worth buying with the idea of selling online if you later decide it is not for you. Also you may be able to negotiate a short trial with the fitter if you pay for shipping back. Don’t know unless you ask!
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ride it, buy it own it.
A saddle fitter that doesn’t do what’s best for the horse, is in it for the money. Not offering more than 1 ride is asinine. I would do the fitting and ask for a tracing and not buy from her. In fact, if you feel that strongly about it (I would because I’m a cynical professional in this industry) I would cancel your appointment and look for another fitter that would come to your area. It’s so worth the money to have things done right the first time, instead of paying thousands like you could with the one that’s already coming out buying and trying to resell saddles because you couldn’t get a trial period.
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I go back and forth if you should keep the appointment. Any knowledge is better than none, but will it be good information?
I would not buy a saddle off of 1 ride. I have ordered saddles for clients based on 1 ride, however I always give them a trial when the saddle comes in and I am prepared to reorder as necessary. It is a risk on my part, but I am willing to take it.
Plus for $3500, you can get a good new saddle for that price. You can get a fairfax classic for 2300 or a new ryder from me for $3500.
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I too live in an area where finding a fitter is sometimes impossible. Last couple years, I finally have someone who will stop off at my place on her way to or from more lucrative areas, but for the vast majority of my dressage life, I’ve been in your shoes. I would NOT purchase a saddle from this fitter, I would get tracings done and I would get suggestions on what saddles to look for. Years ago, I bought a saddle off of Ebay that came with a 7 day trial that worked well; it took me almost a year to find that saddle. Don’t purchase ANYTHING without that trial time, don’t let the fitter bully you into doing something you don’t want to do.
With my latest saddle purchase, the demo model fit us both beautifully, the one I ordered is still a work in progress for both of us, but the fitter stops and checks up on us every time she passes by on the interstate, so it’s working out well. Hang in there, you do have the experience to know when something is right and when it’s not.
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I know absolutely nothing about saddles or fitting. I just have a question. Does the fitter sell a lot of saddles in your area? It is frustrating. The last time I bought one I considered ordering online, but ended up having the opportunity to buy a used one from a different fitter which definitely worked out better because of the postage. She offered a trial, though. I did respond to a number of ads online for used saddles without a trial period. I wasn’t willing to take the risk of buying one online without a trial at all, but I figure that some people must do that or it wouldn’t be so common.
I don’t know
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I second Pelham, I’ve bought the majority of my saddles through them. Their saddle fitter has worked with my saddle fitter in order to get something that fits my horse. We used multiple tracings, photos, my fitter came out multiple times, and the two fitters had a phone consultation to discuss. They’re great about working remotely though!
I’m refitting some of my horses, they grew/muscled up differently over the winter and my fav. saddle that fit all is no longer ideal for all. I have a very convenient stash of 10-20 saddles I’ve accumulated over the years… So, go shop in my basement for me 
So, here is the pertinent and unexpected bit I experienced: Saddle A is a fine fit for horse B, I feel so so in it on horse B, decided to give it another ride and see what I think of it…
Saddle A is a fine fit for horse G, almost like a custom made for him… I feel AMAZING in that same saddle on horse G, better then my long trusty fav saddle. Horse G is instantly moving better, using back better and easier, I’m out of his way with less effort, I don’t even have to work as hard at our usually more challenging moves. Def keeping him in that saddle!
So, I would suggest considering keeping your appointment, trying what is suggested and if by some miracle you have a saddle you and horse LOVE instantly, by all means buy it. You may loose a hundred or two or three on it reselling, but you’ll loose that trying a saddle or two or three remotely. And chances of striking PERFECT FIT on first go in shipping… Do you feel lucky?!
The issue with the fitting is I only get one ride in the saddle, no trial.
My whole point was that I knew in ONE go ! Neither horse has had a second go yet in the “new” saddles. Maybe you’ll get lucky and find “the ONE”, maybe you’ll have a list of “NO” and “maybe” . IME, even saddles of same brand and labeled same width (used saddles, not new) can fit very differently!
If you know kind of what you need - why not ask the fitter if they have that on hand for you to try? Best in whatever you decide!
Are you paying for the fitting appointment? If so, then there is no reason to feel that you have to buy. Just like you would pay for an eye exam and then take your prescription to a different retailer. It is a bonus to the fitter if you purchase from them, but if they are a certified independent fitter (certified by SMS for example) , you pay for their expertise in the tracings and their ideas of which brands may be a good place to start your search.
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Yes I’m paying for the fitting.
Is this a guy who has made saddles, or had them made in Walsall under his own name/nailhead? Lives in VA, I think? Was in Aiken, recently?
Generally speaking, I don’t think the fitter in your case is offering the kind of service we think we are getting from them. What your person seems to be selling is, (maybe) a set of tracings: opinions about fit of the saddles you can assemble on that day; access to saddles that are on his truck. One might fit!
I think you’ll end up feeling that you didn’t get what you paid for, almost no matter what. That’s primarily because there’s not much they are doing to reduce your risk of having bought the wrong saddle. To me (and I have paid and been disappointed… and then in retrospect realized that I set myself up to be disappointed by ignoring the signs of bad practices but went ahead anyway) this only works if you value access to the saddles they have.
I think you or anyone can make their own tracings.
I think the kind of horse-shape you have tends to say NO to a too-flat or otherwise non-fitting saddle quickly. When you feel the saddle goosing him in the canter, or his bunching up his back against that where the back edges of the cantle are hitting that part of his back that curves back up to the croup, that’s his NO.
But so what? You are paying a professional fitter to evaluate smaller, more subtle aspects of “non-fit” and to know whether or not a flocking adjustment will help. And they should be able to do that there, with you and the horse feeling a difference after the fix.
If you have been around a lot of saddle fitting blocks, you can afford to be your own fitter while you are paying this fitter to bring his saddles and give you his opinion. I don’t think horse fit is rocket science. I’m not a pro so I’m sure a good pro can do better than I can… but I haven’t caused problems with my fitting choices and I have not often had a pro who brought The Cinderella Glass Slipper saddle that fit my horse anyway. So if the fitter doesn’t have a saddle that’s close and some skill (as well as honesty) I won’t be able to buy one on that day anyway.
If you have ridden in the brands of saddles the fitter has, you are ahead of the game. Why not ask the fitter what’s on his truck, tell him about that Scandica that kind of works and see if he thinks there are some legit candidates that will make you likely to have something you could buy? If he doesn’t have those, I’d say to cancel the appointment; I don’t think tracings from a pro are worth that much and his looking at your horse’s back and putting a bunch of saddles that clearly won’t fit on it isn’t worth anything. The “miss” is just too big to provide any education for your saddle-fitting eye, so you aren’t even getting any education for your time and money.
Most saddle fitters are silent on rider fit and balance. So you have to know about yourself just how fast you can figure out a saddle on your horse. With a close contact saddle, I need 20 minutes and I have a set repertoire of things I do in it in order to “ask the questions” about fit that I need. Heck, I even devised a weird set of measurements to take of any saddle to see if I’ll like the balance. That let me buy sight-unseen and nail it when I lived in the boondocks and had to shop online.
But i’m relative newbie in dressage world. It takes me longer to really figure out if a dressage saddle is good enough or actually helping me. I know my level of ignorance, so I know that I can’t buy a dressage saddle without sitting in that actual saddle a few times AND, preferably, having a lesson in it with a pro so that I’m helped to ride the very best I can at this point and the horse is made to go the very best he can. When I like the saddle in that situation, it’s the right one. But I have to be able to get there.
Hope this helps.
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Ps, a fitter is fitting both the horse and rider. If you have a fitter that only address 1, then they are not a good fitter. You need both the horse and rider to be comfortable to have a successful saddle fit.
Now having said that, I hardly ever actually say out loud everything that is going though my brain. Most people don’t want to hear it. So a lot if times, I am looking at both the horse and rider when being ridden to choose the next saddle. I normally can tell within a couple of strides if I like the saddle better for the rider than the previous saddle. However, I generally try to let the rider come to that conclusion themselves, so it might not appear that way.
