The Quest for Quality

Purchasing a saddle of high quality and good value is difficult in today's market. You won't get what you don't pay for — but, at the same time, you might not get what you think you are paying for! Saddler Cliff Hatton described the quest for quality one afternoon in the workshop in Walsall: "It's not good enough to just make do. If you ask each day 'how can I do this better?,' that's saddling."

Handcrafted Saddle Trees

To make sure you get the best for your money, here are some questions you should ask along with the answers you should receive. If your saddle purveyor cannot answer these questions, keep your money in your pocket!

• Where was your saddle made?
  Your tack shop should be able to answer this question honestly. Understand that only statements on the saddle or tag reading “MADE IN….” are legally required to be accurate. Just as a T-shirt from China may legally have “London” or “Rome” printed on the front, saddles may be embellished with the names of locations that have no reference to their place of origin. Understand also that saddles made outside of the United States and Europe are routinely imported for as little as $75 to $300 (including the freight) and may be marked up as high as $2500. This is unfair to you. As a general rule, if the saddle has been made outside of the United States or Europe, the price should not be over $1000—that will leave plenty for the middle persons and tack shop.
• How is the tree made?
  Your tree should be made of laminated beechwood with ten to twelve laminations of wood. Why? Laminations make the wood very strong, so strong that you can use less of it. The resulting tree will be lighter, more flexible, and strong like a bull. This tree should be reinforced with steel around the bars and have steel springs to resist twisting or bending. Cheap wooden trees have only four laminations, not nearly enough. Click here to learn more from one of the top tree manufacturers in the world. (www.lariot.co.uk/english/home.htm)
• Is the tree symmetrical?
  The trees in many new saddles are not symmetrical—especially in inexpensive saddles. Look a saddle over very carefully, and check to see that the stirrup bars and billets were placed symmetrically! The Society of Master Saddlers and the Walsall Equestrian Group in England have instituted a New British Standard to insure that their trees are symmetrical. Click here to read all about it: (www.equiworld.net/uk/ezine/0703/beta01.htm)
• How was the leather tanned?
  The leather should be vegetable tanned. This will render the leather most pliable. It will breath and warm to you and your horse. Even among vegetable-tanned leathers there is a range of quality. Sedgewick's of England and Pittards of England are generally considered the top of the line, and the tanning recipes are top secret. Don't be afraid to ask the name and weight of the leather in a saddle. If your purveyors don't know, then they should be doing their homework. After all, you expect a car salesman to know what kind of an engine is in a new car and many other details! To browse through some high quality saddler's leather, click here: (www.abbeysaddlery.co.uk/
  catalogue/catalogue.asp?deptid=59)
• What is inside the panels?
  • If the saddle you are interested in has foam panels, you should request latex foam or gel foam. These are of very high quality and retain their elasticity for a long, long time. Inexpensive saddles will be filled with polyurethane foam, which is cheap, has little elasticity when new, and concedes defeat sometimes within a few months. Your horse will be feeling the tree points and stirrup bars in his or her back when that happens. Poured-foam panels, found in many jumping saddles, becomes hard with age. If your panels are hard, replace them.
  • If the saddle you are interested in has flocked panels, you should be sure to ask exactly what is inside. Many companies and tack shops will say "wool flocked" simply because the saddle is flocked — yet most saddles are flocked with polyester, some with a poly blend. A few are flocked with reprocessed wool, which has lost its elasticity. For the whole therapeutic effect, you should demand real wool. In cooking, nothing beats butter. In saddles, nothing beats wool. The longer the fiber, the longer it will retain its elasticity. Hot Tip of the Week: If you are on a tight budget but want great fit, consider purchasing an economy saddle that fits well, and then have it flocked with real wool. Your horse will think you spent $3,000.
• What is the Billeting system?
  Even if your saddle fits your horse like a mirror image of its back, that mirror can be thrown off balance by incorrect billet placement. On jumping saddles, the billets are often placed too far forward. Make sure there is support in the center of the saddle, and remember that billet straps can be moved. On dressage saddles, an ideal billeting system has the first billet roughly one inch behind the tree point and the second billet on a sliding D-ring under the rider's seat. The "point strap" that helps to prevent the saddle from sliding forward is only necessary on a minority of horses. Don't use it if you don't need it. It will only add unnecessary pressure to the front of the saddle and cause muscle atrophy behind the shoulder.
• How broad is the bottom of the saddle?
  Here you will look for a wide gullet, two inches at the very minimum, three inches is better, and wide panels to distribute your weight and allow for flocking adjustments as necessary.  If you flip a saddle over and see a stingy little gullet and skinny, hard panels, keep looking.