A gentleman came into the store the other day looking to consign a saddle he picked up at the local 4-H tack sale. He said he bought the saddle as a package with a girth, bridle, and fittings for just under $300, but said the saddle didn’t fit the horse and wanted to see if we could take it. The saddle, a (literally) no name close contact saddle probably wouldn’t fit ANY horse, as its poor construction meant that the panels were extremely crooked, and from the looks of it the tree wasn’t terribly straight either. I apologized to the man and explained why we couldn’t take it on consignment, and stated that it probably wasn’t a good idea to put it on any horse’s back because the panels would inevitably make a horse sore (and most likely lame). That was $300 thrown away.
There’s a very important lesson to be learned here: you should never ever EVER buy a used saddle without a). seeing it up close and b). trying it on the horse and riding in it. To do so risks the loss of a lot of money, because you don’t know if the saddle has been misrepresented or if the seller is unknowingly selling you a saddle with a broken tree or misaligned panels which would make the saddle essentially worthless. Finding a saddle for a “steal” on eBay probably means that there’s something wrong with it.
It’s also worth noting that just because a specific brand and style of saddle has worked for you in the past doesn’t mean that a saddle of a similar make and style will work for you now. Why? Because saddles take on the shape of its previous rider and/or horse and that could make it not fit for you and/or your horse. It is not unheard of for a wood tree to become twisted over time because a rider or horse is crooked. The panels can similarly take on the shape of a crooked horse, and while flocked panels can be adapted to fit your current horse, foam panels typically need to be replaced.
Ultimately we should be treating each individual saddle as its own individual entity, especially when dealing with used saddles, and blindly purchasing a saddle without test riding is tantamount to gambling it away in a game with the cards stacked against you. You MIGHT luck out, but you might also get badly burned…isn’t it better to play it safe? If you’re looking online and find a saddle you’re interested in, contact the seller and see if there’s a way you can test ride it. Most tack shops allow you to do this, but independent sellers typically do not, and if you happen to have the misfortune of buying a saddle without warranty, you’re stuck with a saddle that you’ll have to resell, and therein lies another gamble of whether you can get what you paid for it.
