If you would like to go for bonus points, see if you can figure out how to attach the snap to a standing martingale attachment on a breast plate.
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lol, mine got patched on the inside, then the patch wore out. I finally caved to peer pressure and got the zips. My road manager was thrilled that he didn’t have to pull the stupid things off of me anymore.
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I’ve never moved on from the classic flat hunter saddles. They are still my choice to ride in. I went from the jumper division, to the racetrack in 1985, where I rode in a beaver tail gallop saddle, that made a PDN look fat. I used the PDN as a gallop saddle until I got the beaver tail (the jocks were not in favour of the PDN). I sold the PDN, but kept my other HJ saddle, a Courbette Stylist that I had bought in about 1977. I still have that saddle, and use it when it fits what I’m riding…it’s my favourite. I successfully bought another PDN a couple years ago. I paid $50 for it, complete. In pristine condition. I pick up other classic flat HJ saddles for cheap when they pop up locally… Crosbys, a flat stubben, and another narrow Courbette (my old one is a medium) which fits my shark fin TB mare perfectly! I can’t stand those fat saddles with all the huge padding, blocks and rolls that people use these days and pay all the many thousands of dollars for. I figure that the closer you are to the horse, the more secure you are, by the laws of physics, forces being applied on a lever (the padding that holds you away from the horse’s sides). The beaver tail gallop saddle is so very secure for a rider for a reason, racetrack riders are not so much followers of fashion as horse show riders are. I saw that one of the current GP riders was using one to jump in a few years ago… Made me laugh! I’ve jumped in mine too! If the old style flat hj saddles we’re good enough for Bill Steinkrous (sp?) and Burt Denemathy, they are good enough for me. And I don’t have to worry about anyone stealing my tack, because it’s not worth anything. Also, these saddles do not get damaged if you look at them wrong, or ride in jeans. It’s not the saddle that holds you on the horse, it’s your seat and leg that holds you on the horse, and the closer you are to the horse, the better. Minimalist saddles still RULE! ( jmho).
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I’ve moved on from the narrow ones. They now make super gummy ones and let me tell you… GAMECHANGER. Never.Going.Back.
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Oh, great. NOW I know. Writing this down so I’ll remember 20 years from now, when I’ll again have to replace a rotted stop.
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HAHA, love when the super hard ones would randomly shoot out of my hand and go bouncing down the aisle 
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My gummy one died after not many uses.
I once installed one of the regular ones while inching up a light-controlled freeway onramp.
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@NancyM can you please take my dad’s Crump Prix De Saute off my hands? Why, after it’s sat in his house for 30 years, it has now become my problem, I’ll never know. But I was told to finally clear out all of the horse stuff. It’s near pristine because he hardly rode. My version of this saddle is long gone because it was kid sized.
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That name just rang a bell in the back of my head.
I think that may have been the kind of saddle that somebody in pony club many years ago bought brand new. And then within a week or so, at a cross country practice, her pony decided to swim straight across the pond with her and the new saddle, even though he was only supposed to walk into the edge of the pond and then come right back out. That was a long time ago, but I can remember it like it was yesterday. Lol.
Instant break-in!
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I had a Warwick, a super-flat/no-kneerolls job from that town in England that did nothing but turn out high-quality tack for a bazillion years. What that thing did for my leg and overall contact — amazing. You clung because you HAD to cling. Now I’m in a borrowed French number — something that fits me far better — and the ride is something else. Like a La-Z-Boy. But how I miss that close contact. It’s a real puzzle to pick up the diagonal via seatbones, for starters.
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My Warwick is identical.
I couldn’t help but notice that only the front two billets have wear marks. Is there a reason he didn’t use the first and third?
I vaguely remember there was some specific circumstance for only using the front ones, but I don’t recall it off the top of my head.
I used a hair tie. Much easier and no one will know the difference.
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NOW I have this knowledge. NOW.
What a great Tack Hack! 
As for the “no one will know the difference” aspect: My friends and I have a saying. “If a man on a galloping horse can’t tell the difference, then it’s fine.”
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I had one those vets up until last year when he passed.
The epitome of old school but he was never wrong.
French Canadian, referred to his ability to palpate soft tissue as his “delicate French fingertips.” Always got a laugh out of it but it was also true.
He could preg check 20 mares at 13 days post OV using palpation only and be dead on for 19 of them.
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A troubled soul now resting in peace.
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And now they make them with Velcro. They are the only standing wraps I use.
