Any thoughts on NSC saddles? I was Googling around and realized that one of the principals of this company is local to me here in Canada, despite the company being named National Saddle Company USA. I haven’t been saddle shopping in a while and never for a new saddle, so this fact is new to me.
As far as I know, they only have a presence in NW USA where Lesley lives just across the boarder in Canada. I think they are a spin of of Custom but could be wrong about that.
Their site looks quite weird with all those British references and links to nowhere.
Relation ? https://nationalsaddlecentre.co.uk/
Hmm I dont know. I couldn’t find British links on the USA site. The British company appears to carry a range of saddles, none branded NSC. The USA site stocks only NSC brands which are distinctive, and only has 3 dressage models shown.
Lesley McGill is now based in British Columbia and is a popular saddle fitter and sales, both NSC and consignment. I’ve never used her, just seen her truck around.
It’s unusual and commendable that someone has launched a new saddle brand way out here. I think it’s been around for some years, I just wasn’t paying attention :). I’m curious where they are made and at what factory.
They are clearly quality “serious” saddles that have had thought put into the design. Not sure they are what I’m looking for right now, but I’m generally curious about them because of the local connection . I will ask around.
There are only a handful of companies that subcontract out to other brands. So I have an educated guess that they are made by the largest that does stuff like that.
I recently saw (maybe on Facebook) a blurb about Lesley McGill’s business. She has something like 200 saddles on site, new of every size/shape plus used. It said that the saddles are made in the UK.
I know she is a good supporter locally, sponsoring local riders and prizes at shows. I bought a sheepskin saddle pad from her last year after a fellow barn-mate won one at a show. I really liked hers after seeing it in use and got my own. Lesley was easy to deal with to order the pad (she gave me a show discount even though I couldn’t pick it up in person) and helped have someone pick it up for me.
Yes, I have only heard good things too! I knew she was repping something, just didn’t know it was her own brand. That’s admirable!
All the pictures are of British reference.
Same lady;https://www.thesaddledoctor.ca/about/ You will find her on Ideal Saddle’s list of stockists.
Check this from H&H; https://forums.horseandhound.co.uk/threads/nsc-saddle.722692/
Oh, very interesting. Rebranded or special order Ideal saddles at least in 2016. The Ideal saddles aren’t an exact match for the NSC models. But that makes sense because actually starting independent production of a new line of saddle would be a huge investment.
“Not long after getting my SMS Qualification I acquired the ownership for the NSC brand for North America. This is a saddle brand that was at the time only available in the UK and New Zealand. As horses all over the world are different shapes and have different needs, and the riders all require different things from saddles, I then began to design saddles for my own NSC line of saddles. These saddles have been successfully selling in BC and Alberta, and now are selling quite well throughout the US.”
Current; https://idealsaddle.com/stockists/
Just because they are made by Ideal, does not mean that they are not propriety designs. I was at a product day maybe 4 or 5 years ago with Rob, the owner of Ideal. At the time the made something like 85+ brands of saddles. They are also have one of the largest collection of tree designs, I believe. So they may make the saddles, but depending on their agreement, no one else can use that design.
Ok, interesting. I clicked through some of the stockists and found at least one other saddlery doing the same thing, putting their own brand buttons on a selection of Ideal saddles.
It is fairly common. There are only a handful of saddleries making saddles. I know of at least 5 companies that make saddles for other brands. May or may not be different designs/trees Etc.
I think that’s called “stating the obvious”.
What are the other companies that do multi brands?
When I look at British tack stores online, I see a lot of brands of tack and riding boots that are never distributed in North America, especially the medium range of gear. And I’m in Canada, which tends to have less selection than the USA.
In my region, we have distributors for County, Black Country, Bliss by Loxley and NSC/Ideal. For French we have Voltaire and CWD reps. For German we have a Stubben Rep (edited to add, no they are gone) but the Passier distributor is in another province. There is an Equipe (Italian), a Zaldi (Spanish), a DP (not sure), a Custom (American), and a Schleese (Canadian) rep. Some of the reps have two brands.
Our national chain tack store Greenhawk just sells Mondega and Santa Cruz low end saddles. I might have missed something, there’s no central database and some of these reps are very low profile.
I guess that’s not such a bad range of choice, but I’m a dedicated second hand shopper 
so I’ve noticed how changing trends affect the second hand market.
My current mare likes her second hand Passier, as do I, so I haven’t been giving much thought to the saddle market. I’m now saddle shopping for a project horse, so getting curious about the total range of current brands and what saddles are related to each other.
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Check this; https://www.mastersaddlers.co.uk/directory?strCategory=master-trade&intRegion=2&strSearch=&button=Search
Equibrit: What is obvious? I have learned a long time ago that things I sometimes take for granted are not known to other people. We have different experiences and thought patterns. Before I was a saddle fitter, I doubt I would have thought that other brands were made by other brands.
The SMS list is a good start of saddlers but not complete by far.
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You are correct in the fact that the list shown is not a listing for all saddlers in the UK. If you look at the filters applied you will see that it is a list of Master Saddlers who sell to the Trade, and are located in the Midlands. You are certainly free to change those filters should you wish to. I guess you cannot take for granted what other people will see when it is laid before them
I’m in Canada. We only have a handful of English saddle makers here and I think Schleese is probably the only one with any international brand recognition (I understand the founder is a German immigrant to Canada, with extensive European experience.
Even in the USA there are not as many high end English saddle makers as you’d expect from the size of the population, and they tend to be small scale . There are a lot more Western saddle makers in North America.
Most of the good quality English saddles we buy here are from companies based in Britain, France, and Germany, with some Italian and Spanish brands in the mix. They are sold through brand reps who communicate the semi-custom measurements and features long distant to head office and the workshops. If your brand rep is incompetent or sloppy you can end up with a useless saddle and very little recourse. We have no access to the head office, can’t deal direct with the master fitters, etc.
We only see a fraction of the high end saddle brands available in Britain, as I noted above locally we have reps for County, Black Country, Bliss, and NSC/Ideal. And that’s it.
It’s amazing to me to see the amount of saddle manufacturing companies in Britain and impossible for me to memorize or evaluate or understand the connections between them since I never see their saddles. If I was regularly seeing their saddles it would be easier to understand how one brand was related to another.
So the idea that you could have a dozen saddle companies manufacturing scores of brands across the price/quality spectrum is absolutely unfamiliar to us in Canada. Like I said, our one big name player here is Schleese, which is probably a boutique operation compared to the bigger British manufacturing operations. So I am learning lots from this thread, thank you!
I dont think this information would be obvious to most folks in North America who weren’t in the actual saddle business (and these saddles don’t get sold in tack stores so working in tack stores wouldn’t get you there).
Interestingly, many of the best Western saddles are true custom, built from the tree up with everything chosen, including the carving and silver, built by a single artisan. They are scattered all over the place and known regionally. There are of course also bigger companies. But it’s very different from the semi custom, remote fitting, English market. I
GB is lucky to still benefit from the existence of ancient (14th/5th century) Crafts guilds; http://www.bbk.ac.uk/library/downloads/guilds-part-1.pdf
These were founded throughout the cities of the British Isles and they took care of the interests of their members involved in many trades. Some of these still survive, and underpin success in various and many occupations; Saddlers, Loriners, Tanners, Farriers etc…etc. They provide apprenticeships, standards, and support for their members. https://thesaddlers.org/…https://www.mastersaddlers.co.uk/membership_categories
