The Pitfalls of Buying a Secondhand Saddle Online

If you are looking to buy second hand saddles on line - beware! If I have fitted for someone and their old saddle is faulty, as in not straight, the panels are uneven, the flock is very poor or the tree is ‘suspect’, or even broken, many will not accept my advice to burn it to save another horse from pain or discomfort. Rather, they want to get ‘something for it’, so I tell them to sell it on ebay or gumtree.

Buyer beware! Yes, you can send it back, but it’s not always just that straightforward. We hear many stories of sellers refusing to take goods back as they were damaged.  Try proving differently! 

You may buy a saddle on line and ask a fitter to come and check the fit, but I refuse to do this. Not because I want to sell one of my own saddles as many think, but rather, it is horrible to arrive at a yard to fit a saddle that the client has purchased, only to see straight away that there is no way in a month of Sundays’ that the saddle they have bought is ever going to fit their horse.

Now, the fitter may have driven many miles and booked an hour or so to do your fitting. Almost certainly, if they are a good fitter, they will have a 4 to 6 week wait for a slot, but here they are, knowing that the end result will not be what the client wants. Do you just say “sorry, it won’t fit” and drive away without charge, which will leave you considerably out of pocket, or go through the motions of a fit and charge for it, still ending up saying that the saddle is unsuitable and still having a disgruntled customer who thinks you just want to sell one of your own saddles.

In one case, I was told to “make it fit by squeezing the tree ”. Now, tree squeezers, if used properly can improve the fit of a saddle by bringing it in or out by up to one width fitting maximum, but this is only possible if the tree is of the correct shape and style for the horse in question. Also, there is always a risk that the tree can break, and who is going to take responsibility for that? In this case, the client had bought a new saddle on line, it was totally the wrong tree for the horse, apart from being extra wide when the animal needed a medium. I was roundly abused for refusing to squeeze it in. They then asked who they could go to to squeeze the tree, having chosen to ignore the fact that you can’t squeeze a tree in by that much.

You can see why now I just say “sorry, no”. Perhaps if you have had this response from a saddle fitter in the past, you might now understand why. 

Find out more from Kay Hastilow’s series of expert videos available online - visit https://vimeo.com/ondemand/saddlefittingknowhow/