I need some help figuring out a jump saddle for my new horse. I am considering Stubben, Equipe, Albion, Black Country, or a Patrick saddle. Are there others I should consider? Pros/Cons of them. Foam vs Wool----I’ve heard arguments strongly opposing or supporting both, and I don’t know are they both okay? I have always been in the wool is better camp, but seems like the new foam might be greatly improved? I will also need a custom or at least a knowledgeable fitter that will be able to help me figure it out my hard to fit mare. Have you had good/bad experiences with the companies or their reps? Anything to watch out for?
I recently got an Adam Ellis, and I really like how it rides.
I’d be careful with any “rep”, as they will sell their own mother. Get educated yourself, don’t fall for anything hook-line-and sinker - best yet, find an independent rep
3 Likes
Yes be careful of the reps - in particularl the French saddle reps. That being said I bought a saddle for my hard to fit mare from Patti Merli and she is truly fantastic. I also loved Voltaire saddles but couldn’t get the tree quite right, where the Black Country is a custom T (template) tree. I will say I don’t think all horses require custom trees, and a lot can be achieved with foam, saddle pads, and reflocking. If you mare has a lot of growing left to do, I’d probably hold off on the custom saddle. Stubben can’t create a custom tree they will flock to your needs, which may or may not work for you. Foam saddles basically achieve the same thing via amount of foam padding. If you can find trees that truly work for your horse, you’ll have more options.
1 Like
Where are you located? I agree a good fitter is a must and each area has “their” brands. Otherwise each of brands will ride differently for you.
I have had 2 Patrick jump saddles. I love both of them. I prefer the monoflap Society. Beautiful craftmanship. I have a really good local fitter that works with a number of brands. My horse was so hard to fit she started working with Patrick just for him. She found him at one of the trade shows. She has since sold a few to other clients.
I’ve sat in most of those and they feel very different, so my suggestion would be to sit in as many different brands as you can, on your horse if possible (you can write some off on a rack but they will feel different on different horses, and you’ll want to know what your horse thinks as well). Good luck!
All good saddles, really boils down to fit for the horse and you and your budget. Go with the best fit that you can afford.
OP, If I may ask, where are you located?
Last year, I bought a custom saddle from Kate Wooten, who is in TN. She travels to KY and OH, too. She comes out and measures you and your horse. She does represent Bliss of London saddles. I have the Loxley cross country saddle. It is a wool flocked saddle. The cool thing is that you design the saddle. If you want a deep, medium or flatter seat, you can have it. I chose flat. I added D rings on the front of my saddle, so that I won’t worry about the usual ones pulling out, when attached to a hunter breastplate. You pick the color of the saddle leather, as well as the type of leather for the seat and knee rolls. The knee blocks, as well as the thigh blocks, attach to Velcro, so you can move, or remove them as needed.
My saddle fits me to a T and is very comfortable. The only thing that I do not like about the saddle is the quality of the billet straps. They seem to stretch a bit. You can opt for short or long ones. I chose the long, because I wanted a closer feel. Even with the custom things, which I added on, it cost a little over $2,600. (I paid a heck of a lot more for a Richard Castelow that I hated, because the flap was not far enough forward for my long thigh. :mad:) I even had to have the flocking adjusted on the Loxley last Fall, because my horse’s back had changed for the better. 
If you are interested, I believe that Kate posts on here? I can give her a heads up.
Good luck with your saddle quest. They can be very frustrating.
Each brand uses its own tree. Of course they offer narrow, medium and wide, but the basic shape of the tree including the “rocker” or curve front to back, and the drape side to side, is the same in all their saddles (unless as someone says about Black Country, they offer several different trees). This means that you need to get tracings of you horse’s back and spend some time seeing what saddles are a good basic match for them. There is only so much you can do with reflocking panels or shims or saddle pads, if the basic tree is not a good match.
English “custom” saddles are really semi-custom. You get a choice of options on a standard model. This is different from the old handicraft Western saddle makers who will build to your specifications and have 20 different trees to chose from, and fit the bare tree to your horse in person as the first step.
So you need to find out what brand fits your horse. My horse does fine in Passier and Country, but modern Stubben and Pessoa were too curvy and rolled on her back.
When I was last saddle shopping this past summer, I brought my mare’s back tracings to a good local reseller of French saddles and she said maresy’s withers were too wide for most of the French foam brands, except some models of Equipe. I ended up with a second hand Passier.
The problem with ordering a semi custom new saddle through the rep, is that no saddle will fit all horses. But the reps have a vested interest in making a sale and overpromising, and some reps through ignorance or dishonesty will send buyers away with badly fitting saddles, even at the $5000 price point. Some reps are trained saddle fitters, some just did a quickie course through the company. So unless you are already educated on saddle fit, you run a risk here.
Personally, I like to buy used saddles and work with an independent saddle fitter, who makes tracings that I can use to shop, and who will come out and verify my choices and restuff them. Much much cheaper, and you know what you are getting.
4 Likes
Full disclosure, I am a rep, but have you considered an Ansur as well?
Thanks everyone! Pretty much everything is on the table for saddles, I just want to find something that fits my horse well and keeps his back happy! And the other part of finding the right saddle is finding a really good fitter or rep that can fit a very challenging horse.
I wanted an Albion but got no response. Leased my mare with one that was so perfect, but couldn’t even get any response from the web site. I would have bought one! Got an Antares and the rep was great. Fitted to me and my draft cross mare for fox hunting. No bull talking, just a lot of saddles to try, tweetking and got just what I needed, plus Dee rings for my case and on near side for my wire cutters. I don’t like overly padded saddles like Black Country, actually like my Butet the most but they really don’t make a sadldle wide enough for my mare. A too deep saddle hurts my back so the fitter really took that into consideration. I think the best thing was having a rep/fitter who was so great. Leather is lovely, it is tough, and looks great.
I’m a big wool fan. Have seen too many friends get foam saddles that eventually don’t fit their horse. Most of my saddles (that I like) are Counties (from what I’ve read on here it sounds like I would probably like Black Country as well).
I recently tried Peter Horobin saddles, though, and I can say with certainty that will be my next purchase. Half of my horses went better in it than anything else I’ve ever put on them and the other half went the same as they go in their (well-fitted) Counties. They have me sold on the lifetime warranty as well. But they don’t have much of a US presence, so that could be a total no-go if you don’t have anyone near you.
My tb went best in a foam saddle, but for me personally I prefer the adjustability of wool. I got the tb a custom Antares that he went super well in until he was put down. We also both really liked the Equipes, but the rep for Equipe in our area is not someone that I would be comfortable buying a saddle from, and our Antares rep is super so that’s the only reason I went that direction.
Where are you located? For me with my difficult to fit sensitive horse when looking for a saddle it finally boiled down to which rep I was able to get out to my place, you can have the best rep in the country but if they aren’t local to you (and your budget does not cover flying someone out to your farm as one rep suggested I do) it is sort of irrelevant
I am a huge fan of Black Country, they are very customizable as well. Super quality and lots of options available. Patti Merli is the rep I am familiar with.
Find a good saddle fitter first. Preferably one that does not Rep. a particular brand. Sometimes chiropractors also do saddle fitting. If you are in the New England area, Pelham Saddlery is a huge retailer of used saddles and Janie does a great job of fitting.
The saddles you mention are good brands but have differently shaped trees. You need to get someone to do some tracings and determine if you need a curvier tree or a flatter tree before you even start trying stuff on.
These look really interesting… it looks like maybe the stirrup bar is set further back? As a fellow County lover, I would love to hear more of your thoughts on the Peter Horobin saddles! (Feel free to PM)
The fitter I’ve been using carries Albion, Black Country, Patrick, Adam Ellis, and Passier. I honestly can’t remember which ones we tried on my guy, I know one or two of those he ruled out off the bat because of my horse’s shape. A couple brands/models, he sat down on the horse and took it right back off again. I think three or four brands/models made the cut for me to actually try and ride. One of them, he said “You’re going to hate me for this” as it was one of the most expensive saddles he sold and he anticipated it working well for me. It just didn’t (I think it was a Black Country monoflap of some kind?). The Adam Ellis Chloe was clearly the best option for both me and the horse, and he made no effort at all to talk me into the more expensive option (like saying he could change the flocking or the blocks or whatever).
I’m hoping for the same sort of “clouds parting and birds singing” moment of clarity trying out dressage saddles with the same rep this week.
Peter Horobin is the only way to go! Must be wool flocked, foam eventually breaks down and cannot be adjusted. Go to YouTube and look up Peter Horobin saddles. I work with the amazing Karen @ Art2Ride in California and I’m all the way in Indiana. She has a fantastic online saddle fit site if you don’t have current tracings. Art2ridesaddlery.com She will ship one out to you on trial also. I’ve been burnt by ill fitting saddles, uninformed fitters for the last 20 years. Schleese has 9 points of saddle fit on YouTube that are super helpful. Educate yourself so you don’t get talked into something that damages your horse. I’m also an Equine Massage Therapist which is why I feel so strongly about this. Saddle fit is everything! 
Best of Luck!
