Saddles

I wrote this a couple weeks ago....

I'm assuming as I type this that the saddler is going to make my Wintec Endurance Pro work with Mara and me.  I am 90% certain that I'm dreaming when I think this.

So I wanted to let myself dream about a new saddle.

I want to know what is out there for an endurance/trail type saddle in the European Union, because I'm so uninformed.

My research led me to distance riding websites, and ebay/amazon.de have some distance saddles for sale, although what is put on ebay does not reflect what is popular, necessarily.

What is my dream saddle? My dream saddle makes the horse happy, and puts me in a very close feel with the horse. Orthoflex fulfills half of these criteria well, horses love Orthoflex. But I cannot stand that extra distance between me and the horse. (Oh, wow, speaking of distance between you and your horse, check out this European endurance saddle! Funnily, I see lots of European saddles with this "two-cantle" design. Cuz they don't like pommels or something.)

I prefer English-hybrid style distance saddles (I say distance because "distanz" is the German word for endurance). I also know that horses love a McClellan-styled saddle. If I were a lightweight, I'd go Stonewall. They are available here and they are so utterly cool. But, also, I hate Western fenders  - my knees cannot take Western fenders.

Speaking of minimal, here's a European saddle that says "I'm going to Dubai!" for 1,350Euros.

I think Tucker's endurance saddle is sweet looking - something I would design if I were a saddle maker, but with English leathers, and less tooling. Any sort of stitched patterny design is not my thing. But my friend had trouble with hers and I don't know many success stories.

The Tucker I love looks very similar to another saddle I considered buying, the Specialized International. That is one classy saddle. I just simply prefer less, and Specialized makes a "less" model that is very common in my blogosphere, a saddle you can pick up with one hand.

The thing is, they look cheap, cuz they are cheap. And those rivets for the billets just drive me crazy. And I hate the conchos, any concho, anytime, ugh. But I do appreciate the security this saddle offers, and the equitation help that you cannot say no to.

Some of these European endurance saddles have saddle pads that include a pocket for lead weights. I assume this must mean that there is a minimum weight for endurance riding in Europe. *shrug*

Here is a German endurance saddle that looks cool but at those prices I'd be foolish to trust the brand.

My saddle fitter said that Sommer makes saddles for short-backed horses, and look, the seat actually extends further than the bars in some sizes! This is the saddle I rode Galim in, I think, and it is lovely.1850 used. Not too bad...here's a pic, this saddle deserves to be an image on my blog:




ROC is another popular German endurance saddle. It looks pretty OK to me.

Here is a really nice one, and look, you can get booties.







OK, ROC deserves an image here too, that ebay one for 1500Euros:







It looks like it offers less security than the Sommer though.

Anyway, I'm learning my options here.

I'm finding that it may be cost-effective to order in America and have it shipped, even with the customs fee. Most things are just cheaper in America.

We'll see what happens.