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[RC] Saddles, saddles, saddles, Help me!!! - beth glover

Hi Paula; I feel your pain of the neverending saddle search,  its hopeless and getting worse!  Well, maybe not. I have had several western style endurance saddles, currently I have a Gorenscheck and a Synnergist. I am going to sell the Gorenscheck, because I am never happy with my leg position. The synnergist is my husband's so I can't sell it. I am a confirmed English person I guess. Even though I worked with a western trainer for 12 years.  What I would suggest for you, is, see if there is an English trainer, or a dressage trainer in your area NOW, instead of in the future, and see if they will let you take a few lessons, using their saddles! My dressage trainer will let me use her saddles if I want to. That could give you an idea of what kind of saddle you are comfortable riding in.   Did you say you have a Rocky Mtn. Horse? My neighbor has one, and it is actually built similarly to my arabs, compared to, say, my trainer's Irish Thoroughbred.  Hers is gaited too. I would think you would wa nt a saddle that wasn't too "forward" that may interfere with the shoulders.  The second thing I would suggest is that you get a catalog from Dover saddlery, and look at the various styles.  Dover has a program which is their "Test Ride", you can get one of theirs for 3 days to try.  If you have a saddle shop near you, you can often times try a saddle for a few days or a week before buying. You can also look at Stubben's on line. Now I have had a couple of Stubbens, I had a Siegfried, and now I have a Survival.  I prefer to buy a saddle "new", if I can, to make sure it is in good shape. Right now my Stubben is in the shop, getting restuffed, and worked on by a very good saddler. I've had it 11 years. I love that saddle, have thousands of miles of riding on it, and it has saved my bisquits many times, because of the knee rolls and thigh blocks.  I almost ate it at the riding lesson a couple months ago, when a guy on the street started up a jack hammer, and my horse "squirted" and then hit the brakes. If I had been riding the trainers smooth Crosby hunt saddle, I could have flown like a bird.  I like a saddle with decent rolls, and with suede or a rougher leather like water buffalo.  My show friends use a sort of glue stick to keep their knees quietly on the saddle for dressage tests, no lie. Which is funny compared with endurance riders using body glide ( which also works well for uncomfortable high heels, but I digress)  The Stubben survival also feels a little bit forward, and no I don't think its because it's unbalanced. Its the most comfortable saddle I have used for climbing up and down hills. But when trying to do dressage in it, it takes extra effort, because the legs are placed differently. And I know people hate Stubben's but I don't care to hear about it, 'cause I like it for myself, and later I am gonna get a dressage saddle just for show anyway.  The Stubben I have used on three different horses, which apparently is a major mistake and a sin from what the saddler tells me, but if I h ad $4,000 bills growing on the tree outside, I could follow his advice and get a different custom saddle for each horse. Sigh . The stubben has never caused me a problem with the horse's back at rides, and on NATRC rides, I didn't lose points from a sore back while using that saddle. I use a pad with foam in it, the close cell foam.  The only problem I've had this year with horse #3, is white spots that look very suspiciously like heart monitor electrode squares. Perfect one inch squares. Which is what prompted the saddle being checked by the saddler.
Good luck on your search, hope I could be of some help.   Beth Glover

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