@KPH, I have not. I just looked them up. Those are interesting looking saddles. Might help me learn how to ride bareback. XD I always struggled with that.
hummer oof gross. It's so weird to say that to someone to be honest. The horse isn't ALL that matters, if the saddle fits him but not you it's pointless to have fitted. By the way, have you heard of a Total Contact Saddle?
Hummer I plenty get that. There's bad apples everywhere. The trainer before I moved barns is known for her poor care and her interesting choices of training
@Rockwall, I dealt with a lot of that and my whole experience of owning a horse kind of turned me off from the horse world. Had a trainer scam me out of $1,000 because she was supposed to be training my horse, but wasn't. If I ever get back into horseback riding it will be western to avoid the people I dealt with while riding english.
The probability might be small. But dealing with enough animals in a year, I've seen enough. I had 20+ colic episodes in a single summer. Two horses went in surgery and only one came out.
Yes you can become paranoid - but also seeing it in person brings it to a whole other level.
The saddle fitter did the same thing when she tried to sell me a jumping saddle that was too small for me, but fit my horse. "You aren't going to find a saddle that fits you in your price range and all that matters is the horse. Don't you care about him?"
@Rapcoon, proper fitting saddles are important, but you don't have to buy a $3,500 custom one. My trainer and the saddle fitter made it sound like if I truly cared about my horse I would spend that much money.
I mean, I owned a horse for less than a year and used up ALL my savings. Granted, I probably provided him extra things he didn't need, but was told he did such as a custom fitted saddle, chiropractor, and fancy tack.
boulder the only way we can afford 2 horses + 7 ponies and a menagerie of other creatures is that my mother trims their feet herself(and has done corrective trimming for 3 of them) and uses some natural remedies for minor issues.