My Stubben Portos II was bought new from Dover in 1985.
It was comfortable from Day 1 & fit every horse I rode or owned up until my WB in 2010.
I replaced it with a semi-custom (pencil roll, no thighblocks) Maestoso - no biomex seat either. The demo I rode in with that seat felt “squishy”.
Still using that saddle.
I donated the Portos to a Theraputic Riding program last year.
After sitting unused & uncared-for in my barn for all that time, a good dose of Stubben’s soap followed by Hamanol had it soft & looking good.
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A Stubben Siegfried (sp?) was my first decent saddle, bought new in 1970. Kaufmann’s Saddlery could not fit me in one of the Argentine saddles, the only one they had that looked like it fit me and would fit my horse was the Stubben Siegfried 18" Extra Forward flap.
I sold it for the same number of dollars maybe 2 years ago. My riding teacher had a student who NEEDED a decent 18" saddle that could fit her horse. Of course with inflation I got nowhere the value I had spent on it, but I thought it was pretty good for a saddle around 50 years old, never reflocked, though I had replaced a billet strap twice.
Breaking it in was almost torture though, but this saddle had the good, tough leather that can last a very long time with decent care.
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