Saddle Fitting

6 Ways to Get Better English Saddle Fitting Advice

June 28, 2016 by The Saddle Geek

It’s not like people say, “You know what I want today? Some really bad saddle fitting advice that will waste my time and money. I would be so into that!”

But if you’re new to English saddle fitting, you might not know how to ask for good advice. Because when it comes to saddle fitting, you have to feed people the right info, or else they can’t really help you.

And if you don’t? People start making huge assumptions about your horse, and you, and your budget. And as a result, you might get really bad advice.

And here’s what’s really freaky: half the time, you don’t even realize the advice is bad until you’ve spent the money and have a dud saddle on your hands.

So how do you avoid this situation? In my experience with hundreds of saddle shoppers, there’s six critical pieces of info that increase your odds getting great saddle advice. And I’m gonna share those six things with you in this blog post.

Meme showing screenshot from the film The Sixth Sense. Caption reads, I see bad saddle advice. It's everywhere. People don't even know that it's bad.

How do I know that this is need-to-know information for getting great saddle advice? Because it’s the info I’ve come to ask for, over the years, from my own clients. In fact, this post is based on the intake form that I use for my Digital Saddle Fitting Consultations.

Tip #1: Don’t be shy! Tell us your budget.

I have a friend who’s really into luxury cars. But I would never call him when I’m car shopping. Why? Because I’m not buying a Rolls Royce or an Audi. I’m more of a Honda Civic kind of girl, because hay and shavings and mud are realities in my life. And my friend knows nothing about Honda Civics and Toyota Corollas.

Why did I tell you that story? Because my point is that stating your saddle budget clearly pays off, even if it makes you squirm to talk about money. By stating your budget, you’ll attract the right helpers who know that segment of the saddle market well.

Telling us your budget won’t confine you: it will set you free by helping you hone in on your real options without getting lost in the wrong part of the forest. There’s tack from MSRP $100 to MSRP $8000+, so if you don’t state a clear budget, people might make suggestions that are way outside your wallet’s expectations.

Here’s three tips for stating your saddle budget:

Use actual numbers, not adjectives like small or big. Words mean different things to different people. I worked with a client once who thought $4000 was a small budget. And I’ve worked with college students who scrimped and saved $400 from their waitressing job, and to them, $400 a really big budget. So use numbers. It avoids confusion.
State your budget as a range from $X to $Y. By stating a range, your helpers get a good sense of how much you’d rather spend and how much you’ll spend if you must. For example, if you say “I’d like to spend between $1500 and $2200,” I’ll assume that means “you’d rather spend about $1500 if there’s a good option in that range, but if there’s some majickal unicorn at $2200, you will stop drinking lattes for a few months to get there.”
Shave some cash off your budget for the incidental costs of saddle buying. When you buy a horse, you might have to pay for incidentals like vetting, trailering, or gas/flights to go see the horse. There are similar incidental expenses when you buy a new saddle. These might include:
- farm call fees for saddle fitters
- shipping fees for mail-order saddles
- new stirrup leathers or girths for your new saddle
- correctional padding to accommodate your young or growing horse
- medical bills when your Significant Other finds out how much you spent on the saddle (kidding, kidding)

So when you’re setting your saddle budget, set aside cash for these expenses. Every situation is different, but in my experience, people end up spending $100 – $400 for such incidentals.

Tip #2: Show us a great, saddle-fitting-friendly picture of your horse.

I know what I’m asking. When you’re desperate for saddle advice, and you’re sitting in front of the keyboard right now, the idea of waiting to take pictures is not appealing. You want help NOW and you want to make word salad because it will make you feel better and HALLLLLLLLLP you say.

But when you ask for advice, not including a picture of your horse can be a very expensive mistake. I’ve seen this Word Salad and No Pictures move cost people thousands of dollars.

Here’s why. When you say something like “my horse has a typical Thoroughbred back” and there’s no picture to back that up. People are going to assume whatever they want about that phrase. And to give you an idea of the spread…here are six versions of what clients have described to me as “a typical Thoroughbred back”:

A paper sketch of six different, but supposedly typical, Thoroughbred toplines — Six toplines that people have described to me as “typical Thoroughbred”

Cue that Sesame Street song, “One of These Things is Not Like the Other.” In fairness to these clients, each was describing a typical Thoroughbred in their world!

But the point is, these six horses needed very different saddles. And seeing the horse, in pictures or in person, made all the difference for their advice.

Not sure which pictures of your horse to include? Bare minimum, break out your smartphone and get the single full-body picture that I describe here:

show the ENTIRE horse, not just the horse’s back. Nose to tail, wither to hoof. Otherwise, we’re all playing a guessing game about whether we’re seeing your horse’s back at “neutral” or “with a back foot cocked and his head in the air and standing on a downhill slope, etc.”
front legs lined up with each other, aka “square”
back legs lined up with each other, aka “square”
head in a neutral position, neither grazing nor tossing the head

Sample saddle fitting photo of a horse, pictured from the side, with front and back legs square and head in a neutral position — Sample saddle fitting shot, from the side, with front and rear legs square (lined up with each other) and head in a neutral position.

For best results, enlist a buddy to hold the lead rope. Ask me how I know. It’s tough to get this shot without Person A holding the lead rope and squaring up the horse, and Person B taking the actual picture.

That said, I’m a fellow horseperson and a realist. Sometimes all you have is some cross ties, a squirrelly horse who won’t stand still, a winter storm outside, crappy lighting, and your back plastered against a stall walls so you can get a wider angle on the barn aisle. Do what you can. But the more horse we can see, the better your advice will be, I promise you.

And if you want really amazingly great advice, here’s a full run-down of the photos I request when I do Digital Saddle Fitting Consultations. Whether you work with me or not, these are good photos to include with any online plea for help (or an email to your local saddle fitter!). Post ’em to TinyPic or Imgur or a public Facebook album or whatever you like. Just make them available.

Tip #3: While you’re taking pictures, take a picture of you–the rider!

Fitting the horse always comes first. But if the saddle doesn’t fit the rider as well, the horse might suffer too. At bare minimum, an ill-fitted saddle might cause bad equitation. At worst, the rider’s weight won’t distribute evenly across the saddle, which can seriously injure your horse.

That’s why it’s really important that your saddle helpers assess your body proportions and point you toward saddles that fit your horse and you, the rider. And a picture of the rider ensures that we’re all on the same page, to accommodate the same rider.

And if you’re worried that people are gonna get judgey about your body, here’s my line on that: I’ve worked with riders from ages 3 to 80+, from 30 pounds to 300 pounds. And you know what? All of them are beautiful to me, because they all care about the horse’s in their lives and share my passion for riding.

I can’t speak for the whole Interwebz, but personally, I don’t have a perfect body and I don’t have perfect equitation. And I never forget that when I’m consulting with clients. My goal isn’t to judge your body. My goal is to help you feel great when you mount up, every time.

Here’s my advice about rider pictures for saddle fitting:

If you can, provide a picture of yourself riding in your current saddle. That way, we can assess whether your current saddle might be feeding your equitation woes.

Side shots are best, but almost any saddle position will do: jump position, flatwork, halted. It doesn’t matter much.

If I can see your body proportions, that’s what matters. Things like “how long is your thigh in relation to your torso and lower leg?” or “Do you have unusually short arms?” or “Do you have a large behind or a small behind?”

If you don’t a photo of yourself on horseback, I’ll take any shot of you that shows your general body proportions. Side shots are preferred, with relatively tight-fitting clothes.

If you’re concerned about privacy, it’s okay to crop out your head above the neck. But I’ll admit, I enjoy seeing my clients’ smiling faces (or their “I’m concentrating really hard on this dressage test” face, or their “I cannot believe my horse actually jumped this jump and we’re airborne” face, or your resting bitch face, or whatever!)

Two sample riders on the same horse, over two different jumps. One rider is tall with a long leg. The other is much shorter. — Pictured above: Two sample “rider” shots for saddle-fitting purposes. That’s the same horse and same riding discipline, but these riders have night-and-day saddle needs because they have very different bodies.

Tip #4: Tell us about your riding goals, with this horse, in the next few years.

Your current and future goals matter. So throw in a few sentences about what you’re doing with your horse now, and your realistic goals for the next 2-3 years. A good, experienced fitter will take this into account when they fit your saddle.

In a perfect world, you could find a forever saddle that you’ll keep for decades. But it’s often a mistake to buy a saddle that suits “the rider you want to be someday.”

The saddle that suits your needs as a hunter rider who just converted to dressage will likely be different from the saddle you’ll prefer at Fourth Level or Prix St. Georges.

If you’re an eventer, the saddle that made you feel secure and confident at Beginner Novice probably isn’t the saddle that you’ll take to your first run at Rolex.

And if you’re a hunter rider who’s still developing a secure leg position, then the saddle that worked great at 2’6″ may not work so well at 3’6″ and above.

And that’s before we start talking about your horse. By the time your horse reaches Prix St. Georges in dressage, his muscle pattern will be totally different than it was at Training or First Level. Upper-level eventers often lose fat and gain significant muscle as they get Prelim fit or above, which can change the saddle-fitting equation. And so on, and so forth.

Tip #5: Tell us your priorities for your saddle search. If you’re not sure what those are, here’s six to choose from.

You know that old saying, “When buying a horse on a budget, pick two of three adjectives: sound, young, OR quiet”?

Saddle buying is like that, too. Unless you set some priorities, you’ll go crazy looking for a unicorn saddle that doesn’t exist. So to avoid a unicorn chase, I ask my Digital Saddle Fitting Consultation clients to rank these six priorities from most important to least important:

Budget – Do you definitely need to stay within your budget, or can you flex your budget for the perfect saddle?
High resale value – When it’s time to resell, do you want to recover all or most of your money? Do you want a quick and easy resale, or will you wait for the perfect buyer to come along?
Comfort – Do you crave supple leather, sticky leather, or a couch-like ride? Or are you the kind of rider who finds most saddles comfortable, even if other people think they’re hard as a rock or slippery?
Durability – How long do you want your saddle to last? Do you want it to look great in 5 years? 10 years? 15 years? 20 years?
Looks and fashion – Do you want a beautiful saddle? Does you prefer a classic timeless look, or do you want a saddle that’s fashionable and “on trend”?
Speed – When it comes to saddle shopping, “getting your saddle faster” sometimes means “paying more money or taking more risks.” So how desperate are you to speed things up? Do you need a saddle in your barn aisle within 1 week? 3 weeks? 7 weeks? 12 weeks?

If in doubt, pick three of these six priorities and share them with others. I ask my clients to rank all six priorities, from most to least important. That helps us laser-focus their search.

Tip #6: Tell us where you are and how you plan to shop.

Please don’t give out your full street address online. But knowing your state, your region, or your nearest major city can lead to much better advice.

Here’s why: There may be local options that you don’t know about. Maybe it’s a fitter who travels through your region just a few times a year. Maybe it’s a tack shop that just opened up about 3 hours from you and sells a particular brand. Maybe it’s a used saddle for sale that’s poorly advertised but is right in your backyard.

Or maybe you live in The Far Boonies, which means we should focus on mail-order options. That’s useful info too.

It’s also useful to know how you plan to shop. Here’s five common ways to shop for saddles:

Online or via mail order, with a trial period that makes it easy to return saddles
Online or via mail order, with no returns (example: buying from most private saddle sellers on Facebook, or buying from Ebay)
Buying from a saddle fitter or brand sales rep who comes to your barn
Purchasing in person, from local tack shops within driving distance
Shopping through people you know, such as buying saddles from people at your barn or from your trainer

These are all good ways to buy a saddle. You just have to decide what you’re comfortable with.

Unfortunately, there is no risk-free route. But if you’re not sure how you want to shop, read the questions below. Choose whichever routes seem least cringe-worthy to you:

Suppose you call out a local saddle fitter and they have nothing interesting or relevant to show you. Will you be annoyed to “waste” that saddle fitter call fee, or will you consider it a cheap education in what you really want/need?
Suppose you buy a saddle on Ebay or Facebook with no return policy, and it doesn’t fit you or your horse. Suppose it takes a long time to resell that saddle, or you lose some money on resale. Are you okay with that?
Suppose you bring a saddle in by mail order, and it doesn’t fit. Are you okay with losing a week or two of transit time, and search time, while your money was tied up in that trial saddle?
Suppose you buy your saddle through a local tack store. Many local stores won’t let you girth up or ride in a brand-new saddle, or they’ll only let you trial-ride the saddle without your boots or half chaps on (<–that’s not comfortable, let me tell ya!) Are you willing to trade convenience for not being able to test-drive the saddle? Keep in mind, if it’s a brand new saddle and you buy it, you’ll lose about 20% of its resale value the minute you girth it up.
Suppose you buy a saddle from your trainer, or a barnmate. And suppose the saddle isn’t all you hoped it would be. Is that going to make things awkward between you and your trainer?

If you’re now thinking, “Ugh, this sounds like a minefield!” I sympathize, but remember, thousands of shoppers survive their saddle search every year–and they ride off happily into the sunset. And because I know how much risk shoppers are already taking on, I choose to have a 100% money-back guarantee on my Digital Saddle Fitting Consultations.

Go forth, saddle shopper, and get awesome advice!

So there you have it: 6 things you can share with your saddle helpers to increase the quality of the advice. I hope you’ll use this advice when you’re talking to anyone about your saddle search. In fact, I’ve met saddle shoppers who keep their photos and intake form on their smartphone. That way, if someone who might have good advice comes along, they’ve got the right info at hand.

If you found this advice helpful, there’s plenty more where this came from. My Saddle Geek mailing list is often the first to know about cool new stuff here at The Saddle Geek. To join The Saddle Geek’s mailing list and get a copy of the FREE English Saddle Brands List, click here. And thanks for reading!

Saddle Fitting Crash Course for Beginners: What to Read and Watch If You’ve Only Got One Hour

June 27, 2016 by The Saddle Geek

Suppose you only had one hour to learn as much as you could about English saddle fitting and shopping.

What should you read first?

What videos give you the most knowledge with the least time investment?

Well, let’s start with what not to do–and that is Google the term English saddle fit. ZOMG folks, it’s a jungle out there. There are three million results for that search term. And trying to find the amazing resources within those results is like trying to find a horseshoe, at dusk, in a huge turnout area.

So in this blog post, I’m gonna save you from The Googles. If you were my good friend, and you texted me tomorrow asking what saddle-fitting resources you should look at first (“asking for a friend,” yeah of course you are)…this is the stuff I’d probably send to you.

Let’s assume, for purposes of this post, that you’ve already consumed everything here at The Saddle Geek, which is a really good first step. For example, perhaps you shouldn’t leave The Saddle Geek without nabbing a copy of the English Saddle Brands List.

But we’ll assume that you’re on a tear and you’re done with literally everything here at The Saddle Geek, including the online custom saddle fitting advice service. And you’re still chugging resources like sangria after a Friday-night ride.

Alright then. Pitcher #2 of saddle-fitting info, comin’ right up after the jump.

If you’re starting with ZERO knowledge of English saddles, start here:

Saddle Fitting Basics from SmartPak Equine is “the article I’d send to that overwhelmed first-time horse mom in your barn.” You know the one. She’s sweet, but she can barely tell a saddle from a bridle. She definitely can’t tell a jump saddle from a dressage saddle. This is for her.

But most people will quickly be ready to move onto…

Seriously, The One Saddle Fitting Video that Everyone Should Watch

If every rider in America watched this video, the overall level of saddle-fitting knowledge in this country would double overnight. It’s not a perfect video, and I don’t agree with every single word, but it’s a helluva crash course if you need one.

Event riders Dom and Jimmie Schramm of EventionTV made this awesome 10-minute interview with Keith Brooks, a fitter for Stubben North America. Yes, in some ways, it’s a glorified commercial for Stubben saddles. But there’s also a lot of solid, basic fitting advice that applies across lots of brands and saddle-fitting situations.

I recommend skipping to the 1-minute–50-second mark in this video, which is when Dom and Jimmie stop messing around and get serious.

And if you really want to cut to the chase, here’s some links to specific points in the video:

1:50 Evaluating seat size for the rider
3:18 How to measure your saddle’s seat size
3:45 Saddle width for the horse and why it matters
4:32 Saddle rocking is bad. Here’s what it looks like.
5:39 Saddle balance, aka “What happens when your saddle tips too far forward or back?”
6:32 Easy tests to see if your current saddle fits your horse
8:35 Using corrective padding to fix saddle rocking…sometimes
9:35 Buying a used saddle? Inspect this stuff before you buy.

For the Extreme Video Junkie: A 30-Minute Crash Course on English Saddle Fit

Okay, same disclaimer as the last resource: once you leave The Saddle Geek, you are back in the land of People Who Give You Saddle Advice Because They Want You to Buy an Expensive Saddle. That certainly applies to this series by Jochen Schleese, owner of Schleese Saddlery.

You can read all my disclaimers about this series below, but again, I think it has some value. Jochen demonstrates mostly with a dressage saddle, but much of the info is applicable to searches for jumping/all purpose/eventing/trail saddles too.

Quick links if you’re only interested in one issue:

If you really want to geek out on this stuff, there’s even a comprehensive web site to go along with the video series. Ooh, ahh, pretty.

Watch the whole 30-minute playlist here, or use the Playlist button in the top-left corner to skip around as you please:

Okay, let’s talk about where the Schleese marketing creeps into this video. Obviously, if a saddle brand pays to make a video series, they’re expecting a payoff. Ideally, that payoff is a) you buying their saddle, and b) you drinking their brand-specific Kool Aid about how saddle fitting is supposed to work. I’m not saying this in a critical way. I’m saying this in a “businesses gonna business” way.

So it’s hard to blame Schleese for mixing sound, generally great, widely accepted saddle-fitting advice with things that Schleese believes are truly wonderful innovations in saddle fitting that everyone should subscribe to. But as with everything in horses, most “innovations” here are actually “matters of opinion.”

Here’s an example of that fine line between good saddle advice and brand-specific innovations: In Schleese Video 4, Jochen Schleese starts talking about the gullet channel that runs between the under-panels of a saddle. And it’s a very “Schleese” thing to obsess about having enough room down the middle of the under-panels to drive a Mack Truck between the panels.

That said, nobody–including Jochen Schleese and I– want to see a saddle’s panels pressing into a horse’s spine. OUCH. We can dicker about exactly how wide the gullet chanel needs to be to avoid pinching a horse’s spine. But we can all agree that pinching a horse’s spine = bad.

So if you’re a noob to saddle fitting, that general “don’t mess with your horse’s spine” point makes Schleese Video 4: Gullet Channel Width-a-palooza worth the watch time. Everyone should be aware of how much gullet clearance they have down the center of their saddle.

But does it really take four gigantic Jochen Schleese man-fingers to create enough clearance for the horse’s spine? That’s a matter of debate. Especially since I don’t know the exchange rate between Jochen Schleese Man Fingers and actual inches or centimeters.

In my experience, it depends on the horse. Every horse needs some gullet channel clearance on either sideo of the spine. But on some horses, you could get away with 3 Schleese man-fingers instead of 4. Or even–get ready to gasp–possibly as few as 2. Other horses absolutely need a wide gullet channel, and the wider the better. Hard for me to say, without seeing the horse and knowing its fitness level, how tactful its rider is, whether it has a history of back problems like kissing spine, and so forth.

So if you’re thinking “Okay well better safe than sorry, I’ll just buy a ginormous gullet channel that you can drive a truck through”…that’s not a panacea either. I’ve met horses who were sored by having a too wide gullet channel. In short, the saddle panels were so wide and far apart that the saddle “fell off” the sides of their topline muscles and right onto their rib cages. If anyone’s ever given you a noogie in the rib cage, you know how this feels. OWWWWW.

But I’ve also met horses who were in terrible pain from too-narrow gullet channels, which pressed directly on their spine.

The point is, every fitting situation is different, and you can reach a point in your saddle fitting education where you know just enough to be dangerous. So look for the general takeaways in this video, like “your saddle should not hit your horse’s withers” and “your gullet channel should provide sufficient clearance for your horse’s spine.” That’s the value here. If you need advice about particulars, get a professional involved in your saddle fitting case, whether that’s local eyes on the ground. Or a distance fitter (<–and if you don’t know where to find one, scroll down, I have a whole section about that.)

Also, for the record, Jochen Schleese is not just some random dude who doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He’s the youngest guy ever to achieve the rank of Master Saddler after seven years at Passier in Germany. Schleese is a well established and well respected Canadian saddle brand that has also built contract products for other reputable brands, like the Barnsby Special Crown dressage saddle. So needless to say, this Jochen Schleese opinions about saddle fit have value.

But asking Jochen Schleese “What makes a saddle fit?” is sort of like asking Henry Ford, “What makes a great car?” You would not be surprised if Henry Ford described a Model T Ford as a great car. So don’t be surprised when Jochen Schleese describes a Schleese dressage saddle as a great saddle.

The Topic You Ignore at Your Peril: Saddle Fit for the Rider

Us horsepeople love our ponies, so we tend to prioritize the horse’s needs when we’re shopping for a saddle. And I’m on board with that, about 95%. But if the saddle doesn’t fit the rider just as well as it fits the horse, then we’re not really helping the horse.

An ill-fitted saddle for the rider means imprecise aids and unbalanced weight distribution. That profoundly affects your horse and can even muck up/negate the excellent fit for your horse. I’ve seen saddles that fit the horse perfectly cause serious soreness. For example, maybe it’s too small for the rider, so the rider’s weight is coming down disproportionately on the cantle. That means the rear of the horse’s rib cage (or worse, the flank and kidneys) are supporting too much of the rider’s right.

So when you’re saddle shopping, spend at least a little time learning about how to evaluate a saddle for rider fit. Your horse will thank you.

Make Sure Your Jumping Saddle Fits You, Too by Jimmy Wofford for Practical Horseman –This article is designed for event riders, but it’s good readin’ for almost any saddle shopper. Wofford is witty, he’s an Olympian, he’s an eventing coach to the stars, and he knows his saddle fit. What else could you want?

“Saddle Fit for the Rider” from Trumbull Mountain Tack Shop – Not the most riveting document to read, but there’s lots of helpful pictures of rider’s butts in saddles. If you’re a visual learner, you’ll like this piece.

Articles about Fitting Saddles to Horses

9 Points of Saddle Fitting by Stacey Nedrow-Wigmore of Dressage Today magazine = In this article, the author reports on things she learned in a course with David Young, a crackerjack saddle fitter from the Carolinas that I consider to be among the best fitters in America today. Great advice and super clear.

Beval Saddle Fitting for the Horse – Not the most beautiful web site I’ve ever seen, but there’s some good, practical advice here in easy-to-understand language. To be clear, I’m recommending this link for the article only. I have little direct experience, good or bad, with the in-house Beval saddle fitters mentioned at the end of this piece.

Points of Saddle Fitting by the Master Saddlers Association – There’s a pretty reasonable checklist here of things to check when evaluating a saddle for fit. That said, I don’t want to oversell this link. A lot of people mix up the Master Saddlers Association, which wrote the page I just linked to, with the Society of Master Saddlers. The MSA is the name for “the in-house training course taken by brand representatives employed by County Saddlery.” It’s not the same as the British trade organization Society of Master Saddlers, a renowned independent trade organization whose saddle-fitting certification program is world famous. That said, MSA has put together a pretty nice little checklist here for general saddle-buyer use.

How to Take a Wither Tracing

Every horseperson should learn how to take a wither tracing. It’s easy to learn, it’s cheap to do, and you probably have the right equipment lying around your house.

Even if you’re not actively saddle shopping, it’s a good idea to have a wither tracing on file each 6 months to a year. That way, you can see how your horse’s back is growing and changing over time. I often do wither tracings in the spring and fall, on the same days that I do fecal tests or vaccines. That way, I can see my horse’s back condition coming out of our winter slump and after a productive summer of riding and showing. It also means I don’t forget to do it, or put it on my to-do-list which is really a to-do-never list.

The person in the YouTube video below, by the way, is Kitt Hazelton of Panther Run Saddlery. She does a lot of distance fitting, and she worked for years at the distance-saddle-fitting juggernaut Trumbull Mountain Tack Shop. So nobody’s explained wither tracing as many times online, or explained it as clearly, as Kitt has.

Custom Online Advice about Saddle Fitting

Suppose you live in an area with few local saddle fitters. Or suppose your budget or needs aren’t a great match for your local saddle fitters. You can still get help with your saddle search by hiring a saddle fitter to consult on your case online.

In the interest of full disclosure, before this gets weird…I do online video fitting consultations myself. But I’m all about giving you the maximum number of resources for your saddle search, so here are some other outfits that give online saddle fitting advice.

No saddle fitter has a flawless batting average, but these are all highly reputable organizations that have been in business for a long time and get generally good reviews.

If you’re not sure which one to choose, try browsing the saddle inventory at each vendor’s site. The inventory tells you a lot about where the organization’s expertise lies. If you see the sorts of saddles that you’re interested in buying, in price ranges that match your budget, then you’re probably barking up the right tree.

Equestrian Imports in Florida specializes in wool-flocked British saddles and wool-flocked Italian saddles, including Prestige, Amerigo, Albion, Loxley, and other brands. You send their fitting team a set of digital photos + a wither tracing. A saddle fitter on staff, usually the owner Ann Forrest herself, will call you back to discuss your case. At the time that I published this article, the price for this service was $125.

Trumbull Mountain Tack Shop in Vermont has been a major player in digital fitting for English saddles for over a decade. They specialize in British wool-flocked saddles by brands like Black Country, Kent and Masters, Frank Baines, Thorowgood, and others. But they do carry some occasional non-British trump cards, like some of the more popular dressage saddles by Passier (a German brand). As far as I know, they don’t have a consultation fee, but their advice tilts toward the saddles that they keep in stock (no surprise there.)

Fine Used Saddles in Texas is a real class act. If you can find a brand being used by top-level riders in hunter/jumper, eventing, or dressage, Fine Used Saddles probably carries it. I never hesitate to recommend clients to Patricia, the owner. She gives thoughtful saddle fitting advice within the scope of her own inventory–she knows her specialties and she sticks to them–and she keeps her business small enough that she can give white-glove service. Patricia also does an industry-best packing and shipping job: your trial saddle arrives with this classy little envelope of how-to literature + cut-off white socks to slide over your stirrup leathers for the test ride. (PS, don’t confuse Fine Used Saddles with a now-defunct operation called Danforth Fine Used Saddles. Danforth was a hot mess, and it’s now out of business. Patricia of Fine Used Saddles was never, at any point, affiliated with the train wreck of Danforth Fine Used Saddles.)

High End Used Saddles by CoriMcGraw focuses almost exclusively on the high-end brands that are popular with American hunter/jumper riders. Think French brands like Devoucoux, Antares, and Voltaire or Italian brands like Amerigo, Equipe, and Prestige. But Cori does sell some British inventory that’s highly relevant to the hunter ring, such as the County Sensation or County Innovation. At the time that I published this blog post, Cori was giving free consultations on whether or not saddles from her current inventory will fit your horse. And if you want to ask Cori more general or wide-ranging questions about the saddle world, you can ask her up to 5 questions via email for $65. More about that service on her web site.

Panther Run Saddlery is run by Kitt Hazelton, an independent saddle fitter with tons of distance-fitting experience. She worked for many years as a staff fitter at Trumbull Mountain Tack Shop before cutting out on her own. She’s now repping saddles for the British brands Albion, Bliss of London, Loxley by Bliss, and Duett. (True at the time of publication, anyway.)

Duett Saddles – If you’re shopping for a saddle for a wide horse and you’ve got less than $2000 to spend, Duett is a popular option. Nancy Temple, the brand’s national distributor, gives very thoughtful advice about fitting wide horses. She knows wide brands, including her competitors’ brands, like the back of her own hand.

Smith Worthington – President George Washington rode in a Smith Worthington saddle, and the company is still around today. Their saddles aren’t always sexy to look at, but the quality is high relative to the price, and the fitting advice they give by phone is great. As with the other options on this list, their advice will be largely confined to the brands they carry–but they have a very diverse lineup and they know that lineup backward and forward. Smith Worthington also does tons of saddle repairs and have extremely reasonable repair rates. Also, fun fact: Smith Worthington allows employees to bring their dogs to work. I always smile when I call them because aww, doggies in the office.

And, of course, The Saddle Geek Web Site!

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