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[RC] First saddles - Julie Fuller

What Ed said is good advice, and I'll add this:

If you feel comfortable in a western, look into the bighorn saddles... they are resonable, well built and look pretty good. In my experience, stay away from the low end A-Betta's. My husband had one, and it was a piece of junk! I doubt it would have held up a year in an endurance and/or training for endurance situation. The other problem he had with it was that the seat was so danged slippery! Good thing he knows how to fall from all his years of athletic endeavors! *grin*

English saddles are light, and there's alot of good cheaper ones out there. But, like Ed said, if you aren't used to riding in one, it's going to add a lot of stress to your starting a horse, and possibly changing riding style too.

Don't forget about Aussies, but stay away from the cheapies. They're crap too. You can find decent ones cheap if you look. I rode western for years, then english, and now Aussie. I swear bu them, in spite of their being heavier than most endurance type saddles. To me, the fit, quality and security of these saddles make the weight a moot point. (If you want a big plug for Syd Hill saddles, email me!)

My advice is to ride what you've got and research all the saddles out there on the web. And when you are out riding, ask everyone about their saddles, and try them if yu can. You may want to look into getting your horse's back measured with a back gauge (some saddle shops will let you rent them, some horse chiropractors will do the same, or you can pay to have your horse measured. Ths will help a lot in looking at saddles, and is really important if you get to the point where you decide to have a custom saddle built, in any style.

Julie


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