I may end up being in the market for a new dressage saddle (in addition to my on going jump saddle search - SO not what I had planned) and am considering looking at brown saddles too but am not sure how they would look on a grey and/ or dark bay (the grey will be wearing the saddle more). So I’m looking for some photos! Share all your pretty ponies in their pretty brown tack please!
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Here’s my pretty lady in her brown dressage tack. She’s not grey/dark bay but thought I’d share anyway. If you look closely you’ll notice my girth is actually black. It didn’t come in brown. Much to my surprise, the mismatch doesn’t bother me at all, probably because the black matches her color.
Personally I prefer brown tack. It has more… character? dimension? than plain black tack. But maybe that’s because I spent years doing the jumpers and haven’t fully accepted black tack yet 
it also has the added bonus of making me look ~fashionable~ when I only got it because that’s what the saddle fitter had that fit my horse!
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Her coat is so groovy in the best way. I love the tail, the neck splash and the dots on her left hind knee sock. Can you call this a paint?
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Hehe, you obviously haven’t read the recent heated discussion on this topic. Somewhere in this thread:
My understanding is that she’s a pinto because she isn’t full Paint (which is a registry based off breeding), but some people might call her a lowercase “p” paint, and if she was in the UK she’d be called piebald. But we don’t need to drag that debate here where we should be debating the merits of brown tack over black tack
And thank you! I may be biased but I think she’s pretty cute too!
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I’m old enough to remember when black tack indicated cheap leather from dubious makers who dyed it black to hide the blemishes!
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Also not a grey or bay, but here’s my tobacco-brown saddle, discontinued tobacco micklem and my cognac Petries that need to darken up. I couldn’t find a recent unmounted picture, sorry. At least it was taken on a day when I wasn’t a serious fashion disaster!
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I think that color scheme looks SO good on a chestnut! It’s my gray that has me pausing. She looks good in black but man I just drool over the brown saddles I see (especially on chestnuts!).
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I think brown can look good on anything! I happen to have chestnuts.
Photos below include:
DeNiro boots from a show last weekend for inspiration
My very inexpensive brown lace ups
My mare doing a cartoonish 1 hoof out in what I think was the old 1-3? This is a coats waived summer show.
2 pics of the current saddle, used on my bright chestnut w/ flaxen mane and tail
Koenig boots with the older mare’s saddle
Older mare’s saddle (the cognac no longer really shows as cognac, 8 years later) and the retired guy’s old saddle with brown croc back - it was traded in for money off the younger mare’s saddle
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I really like the monochromatic effect it has on chestnuts. And I own 3 chestnuts, so… 
IMO any color brown is going to look good on a grey. Just look at pics of greys with jumper tack on - most jump saddles are some variety of brown. And the darker browns are hardly noticeable as different compared to black.
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That saddle, those boots (all of them - where did you get your lace ups?!) 
I really love the copper/ brown tones on chestnuts (fun story - when I bought the grey, who is the grey in my avatar, I swore up and down I wanted a chestnut with a star and to this day I have yet to own a chestnut - always greys and bays!).
GAH all of this is so, so stunning. I had intended to put brown tack on my chestnut but alas, the black saddle was the one that fit. He’s the orange variety of chestnut with 3 socks and an asymmetrical blaze so he’s fairly blingy himself. Once he stops growing, I will probably make the next saddle brown
files all of this away in the mental rolodex
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Halter Ego. They were on clearance, and are actually still a total pain to get on. As they break in I’m sure that will change. I have size 6 feet, and wide calves don’t actually go wide for size 6 most of the time, so there aren’t any brown relatively stiff boots available non-custom that I know of which fit me. MH Estelle polo boots did fit… and got discontinued from what I can tell. So, plans are to order more custom boots as the lace ups aren’t show boots to me at all.
Same. I have some polished cinnamon boots on the way. Maybe someday brown tack for my orange girl!
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Not entirely brown, but this is my current saddle:
And wearing his previous ensemble of a dark brown saddle and brown bridle w/ black padding:
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I don’t have a great pic of it on the bay horses, but here’s my chestnut. I am a h/j rider primarily and just can’t do black tack of any kind. I don’t think it ages well.
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That is a good point on wear/ aging - my current black saddle looks ROUGH for it’s age and wear (and of course there is the sun bleached look to it that brown saddles don’t get).
Any concerns regarding reselling a brown saddle?
Brown would mean I would only need one bridle for both jumping and dressage, but I don’t know if that goes on the pro or the con list 
Gosh, that dual tone saddle is giving me major saddle envy @see_u_at_x
I have a brown BC Vinici Eventer that I just love but… it’s darkened to the point you can’t really tell its brown unless you’re looking closely. 
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Definitely a consideration. That blue/grey colour that black saddles may develop isn’t a good look. Brown tack just gets darker with age.
I am a tack hoarder so I can’t help you on resale.
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