Hey everyone,
For those competing prelim and above, I am curious of the following:
do you compete with a show jumping and cross country saddle?
What brands do you ride in?
Do you have a recommendation for a jump saddle? I am looking for a) a saddle for a short coupled horse and a tall, large rear-end woman, b) something very grippy and c) something that can be semi-custom (like custom saddlery, county, etc.)
Exploring my options now!
At the BN level I have one saddle that I use for all 3 phases. And it ain’t a dressage saddle 
I’m not sure what’s typical for ULRs for the jumping phases. Doesn’t seem like you’d want different saddles for stadium and XC, but I could be entirely wrong.
I have a few friends that are UL riders (jumper here) and they use the same saddle for XC and Stadium.
Each of them ride in different brands. . . Devoucoux (which is owned by CWD now), Voltaire, Bliss of London and Antares. They all love their saddles and are all sponsored, so take that for what it is. . .
I’m a fan of the Bliss and Loxley by Bliss, simply because they are wool flocked, and have endless options to make the fit perfect. I have no idea where you are, but it makes sense to have several reps and independent fitters come to you so that you can test ride saddles. You need to figure out what is comfortable for you and your horse and having the expert eye of a good fitter will help.
When I was riding at prelim, I had two. A County Conquest for jumping and an old Neidersuess for dressage. Most UL riders I know use two saddles, but some may have a different saddle for show jumping, especially if they ride quite short for xc and longer for show jumping.
Youre best bet for finding saddles is just to try TONS of them. That’s what I did when I ended up with the County.
IME, two is the norm (one jumping and one dressage) although I’m sure there are people out there with three. I’ve had good luck with Stubbens, and that’s all my trainer rides in at the moment as well (she is sponsored by them, though-- I’m not.) I agree that your best bet is to try as many saddles as you can. I wouldn’t hesitate to ask your friends/ barnmates if you can at least sit in theirs-- sometimes that’s all you need to cross one off the list.
Even at sub BN, I have two (well, really, I am at like, 7, but this horse has 2 :lol: ) Take a look at Frank Baines saddles – mine are both semi-customized through a good fitter for the off-the-rack prices. Lovely quality and excellent service. 
The ULRs I have worked for had an assortment of saddles and typically had “the two” that went for a particular horse at any particular time. They really didn’t have specific saddles for specific horses unless it was a top level horse with owners buying - otherwise the horse went in a saddle from the sponsor, whatever one was fitting best at that moment.
I am not an ULR, but I have two, and both are Antares. I had a bad experience with wool flocked saddles and I won’t use them again after this, at least not for this horse.
I ride at prelim and I have two for my horses. I have more than two as I have five horses and one doesn’t fit into my jump saddle.
I have a Childeric for XC, Butet as my backup jump saddle, Spirig for dressage.
I have two saddles- I use the same for cross-country and show-jumping, and then Dressage gets its own saddle.
Most have two saddles including me but when I have volunteered at events, there are are some, even at recognized events that use only one and I’ve seen that up to training level at least.
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