Kent & Masters: our unicorn saddle?

Guys. I thiiiiiiiink we might have found our saddle. Maybe. Hopefully. At long last!

"we have answers now, yes?" - isabel

Saddle fitter J came through the barn last weekend with a whole bunch of saddles to try based on Isabel's recent tracings. She primarily deals with UK saddle makers, so that's what we looked at. Some familiar names, some less so. Among them were saddles from the company that produces Thorowgood, Kent & Masters, and Fairfax saddles.

snazzy purple cover doesn't hurt

Other saddles included Hastilows and Black Countrys, and perhaps an Albion or two?

so many pretties

I was particularly enamored with a certain Black Country - the beauty farthest left in the pic below...

drool much?

And that saddle was a freakin DREAM to sit in - a veritable butt cloud. But alas, 'twas slightly too wide behind for Ms Iz, and actually crept all up on her shoulders while we cantered. That's a cardinal sin in this mare's book, so the saddle was cut from consideration. Le sigh.

alas, not our winner

Next saddle up was a Kent & Masters, and this one looked miiiiighty promising. So promising after our test ride that I handed over my credit card number to initiate a 10 day trial period.

well hello, there

This is actually a brand new saddle, as opposed to used. Part of me is a little hesitant about that, with the thinking that a used saddle will likely be salable for exactly what I paid, whereas a saddle bought new never could be.

the other side

But frankly, this saddle fits the mare better than anything else I've ever seen on her. And it's still more or less in the budget range. Given all the stress this whole saddle shopping experience has produced, I'm more than happy to sink some dollars into it just to call it case closed.

And, in that same vein, I picked up the Prolite half pad that fitter J sells, given how nicely Izzy had responded to it last time. Recall I hadn't been sold last time bc the pad slid back during the test rides. So I picked up an old shabby consignment saddle pad with black D-ring keeper straps - snipped off the keeper straps, and sewed them to the half pad. So now it won't slide!

like my DIY d-ring keeper strap thingys?!? 

The saddle itself is pretty interesting, actually, and has a lot of the same features that drew me to our Bates saddle. It's an adjustable tree - with short and long tree bars, plus varying widths. It also features adjustable billet strap configurations, and velcro-on knee and thigh blocks.

options abound

My particular trial saddle features the black (medium) short (s) bar tree. Whatever that means lol. Oooh but it's also wool flocked, a major plus in my opinion.

the full picture

The test ride with fitter J left us feeling good about the potential fit for Izzy, but I had concerns about the fit for me. The blocks weren't quite right, and I felt like I was in a chair seat and tipping around with my upper body. Removing the thigh blocks seems to have fixed that completely tho.

if my butt fits i sits!!!

I'm reserving full judgement until trainer P can see me ride in it (we couldn't do so last weekend bc of all the rain and snow since I don't actually own this saddle yet). But after my most recent ride, I feel gooooood about it.

clearly doesn't impede isabel's desire to stretch for grass

And I've actually already done a little bit of shopping to assimilate the saddle into our getup. Specifically, the freakishly long billet straps required a new shorter girth. Fitter J recommended something with more stability, and with only one elastic end. So I picked up a 44" brand new Weaver Leather girth at Maryland Saddlery's consignment section (i <3 them) and was tickled to see that the colors match perfectly.

this pleases me

Oh and it also matches my bridle better than the Bates too. So obviously it was meant to be. 

So yea, I'm pretty hopeful that this saddle proves to be the answer we've been looking for this whole past year. Tho I have about another week to be certain about it.

My question to you, therefore, is: What do you look for to determine if a saddle is or is NOT working? Anything I should have my eye out for specifically?