I was recently at a trade fair that gave me an opportunity to sit in a lot of saddles. I am thinking about up grading at this time. The 2 that stood out the most were the Black Country and Voltaire. Any opinions or comparisons? Thanks
IMHO, wildly different saddles. Black Country is classic English made, center-balanced, wool flocked, with lots of fit options for the horse (different front and back gussets, serge panels, etc.). I’ve owned several Vinici’s and love them. Very close contact feel, but also very comfortable to me, and very acceptable to several picky horses.
I have less experience with Voltaire. I’ve never personally owned one, although they do sponsor one of my trainers, and I’ve ridden her horses in them. They are beautifully made, albeit expensive. I personally don’t like the lack of adjustability that foam panels provide. To me, they sit down more in front like a jump saddle - with less room in the withers. Assuming it fits right, it doesn’t really matter - but it does make the seats ride differently to me. Several of them reminded me of Amerigo’s with the more forward balance point - but I can’t say whether they had someone to do with how these horses were fitted or if that is how the saddle is meant to ride. I also find that the standard block shape doesn’t work quite as well for my leg as some others do. I suspect I would need to order the standard length, slightly forward flap option to get the block off of my knee.
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No experience with Voltaire, but love, love, love my Black Country. Have a horse who at the time, needed several specific options in order to make his saddle work and would have taken ages to find 2nd hand. Black Country said, “No problem.” The saddle was made and shipped quickly and is gorgeous. My only regret, especially after reading @joiedevie99’s post is that I went with the Eden instead of the Vinici.
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I just ordered a Black Country, so kind of biased. Wool vs foam is a no brainer for me. Wool is adjustable, foam is not. I love the quality of Black Country.
Another Black Country fan here. If you order new, you can get a number of semi custom options for no extra charge. Mine is a Celeste, which is a dressagey trail saddle, and they did the super short, forward flaps I needed, and some other things.
There were some problems, though, but I attribute that to the dealer I worked with rather than the company. Afterwards, I had a !omg talk with the owner of Hastilow USA, who very kindly looked into the cost of getting it right. I ended up not making any changes and am still using the saddle, but would go with Hastilow USA if I wanted another BC saddle. Left the dressage world and my mare is older and her back has dropped a bit, and the saddle fits her much better.
One other plus is that BC saddles are tough. No butter-soft, easily scratched leather here!
I also have no experience with Voltaire, but love BC saddles. I currently have 4 - a Vinici I had custom made, an Eden, Eloquence (those two are for sale 
), and a Quantum jump.
I had the Vinici made on their standard wide hoop tree to fit a previous horse (round 15H appy). It then fit my next old-style WB mare like it was made for her. I nearly sold it once she was gone, because I thought my appendix mare would never fit into it. Well, 100# of muscle, and some flocking up front, and it works for her. Now I have a lanky modern-type WB baby and was so convinced it would never work for her, that I didn’t even put it on her until the other day. Well, it darn near fits her too. I’m thinking a little shim up front and we’ll be good to go. So yeah… it fits a lot of horses!
And did I mention it is lovely to ride in? I’ll probably get another one custom made when my WB matures enough.
One thing I really like is the availability of serge panels on these saddles (the Vinici and Quantum have them). IMO, it increases breathability, helps the saddle stay in place, and molds to the horse’s back more readily than leather panels. The horses seem to agree.
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I would check out the quality of the reps available in your area. The adjustability of the Black Country isn’t helpful if there is no one local enough to fit it for you. I loved my Voltaire dressage saddle as did my old horse, it didn’t fit new horse though so I sold it, and Voltaire handled that superbly from a customer service standpoint.
I’m a BC fan and have owned 2 of their Eloquence models and have ridden in the Vinici, which is nice too. No experience with the Voltaire, I don’t think you could’ve picked 2 more different saddles, LOL!
