As a former saddle fitter who sold saddles, I will say I can see both sides. I personally have had a fully custom saddle not work as well as I’d liked and like everyone, taken HUGE losses when I sold the saddle.
Most saddles are customized orders, not fully custom. There are a handful of saddlers who will make fully custom, and IME, you don’t get to ride in much of anything unless you happen to be in a barn where a others are using the same brand.
Saddles are super expensive to stock and there are a huge number of models available in a huge number of combinations.
For a saddle company to have an exhaustive inventory of every possible permutation you could order they would have to stock about 6000 saddles. Assuming they have 3 jumping models and 5 dressage models…one leather combo here. It would take stocking 750 saddles to cover every single combination for each model.
Jumping demos 2250 (3 * 6 * 5 * 5 *5)
dressage demos 3750 (5 * 6 * 5 * 5 * 5)
Total Demos 6000
This is simple math, based on what is “Available to order”
6 Tree widths NM, M, M+, MW, W, XW
5 Seat Sizes 16.5, 17, 17.5, 18, 18.5
5 Flap options
5 options for Panel customization for your horse
Why should a company stock a NM 18.5" jumping saddle in every model available for that unlikely combination of a very lean, high withered horse with a sizable rider? Most of the time, that rider who needs an 18.5 or 19 (didn’t even include that in the count) is hopefully choosing a horse who has a MW-XW build.
So SuzieQ rider has the fitter look at a swaybacked horse who is unfit, or the fat table-top horse with huge shoulders, or whatever other poorly built riding horse they present. Many times, the horse is sore. The fitter can try to guess if the fat horse will go down a tree size with fitness, stay the same with fitness, or will it actually muscle up even MORE on the top line and get wider…
I will do my best to buy a demo saddle if it is 95% or better for what I want and I can make it work for my horse.
My last customized order was a Takt and I really like it, my balance for jumping is great. The demo/loaner I rode in while waiting on my customized order was meh…it was too big for me, I didn’t like the feel of the demo saddle’s covered hide leather or piping colors, but it did fit my horse.
My choice was completely customized, I didn’t want covered hide flaps, but old school leather with a sweat panel, I wanted short flaps, my seat size, and with a tree and panels for my horse. It’s great for both of us and as a result, I went with the Takt for my latest dressage saddle, but in this case, the demo I tried was great, just not a short flap, but I really liked this demo for the hide and trim choices, and it fit my horse.
Many companies will take a customized saddle back with a restocking fee. It’s usually on the form you sign when you order a new, customized saddle. If it’s an error in the build, I know Takt will rebuild the saddle and let the customer keep a loaner, and that does not take a restocking fee, that’s how they do it. I also enjoy working with the company on fit for my horse.
The restocking fee on a customized saddle makes sense if it is because the buyer does not like it, or the horse has substantially changed, died or been sold.
If it is a stock saddle, stock size, stock leather, then it’s a good chance it could be returned because you’re actually probably in a demo.
