Ooo. Amy I love saddle shopping! I kind of like tack shopping in general. Did you say there's a consignment shop near you?! I'll help you go poke around if you want to!

Here's what I would say.

- Definitely go used. You want something broken in.

- Definitely go leather. Synthetic just makes you stick wrong and I HATE wintecs. Even the leather ones they've come out with are icky.

- Who are you looking to fit? Besides you. Are you wanting one for Red? Cricket? Big Blue? They're all going to need a different size tree most likely and I am really NOT a fan of the interchangeable gullet systems. It's really expensive to try and get a different saddle for every horse but one option is to buy a wider tree saddle and add padding underneath it. You can always add MORE padding, you can't take padding away. I'd probably try to find a MW or a W tree. Thornhill makes a pretty nice saddle that starts new at about $1000 but you can find them for a lot less on E-bay if you're patient.

- Figure out your budget and go to tack shops to sit in saddles. See which ones are comfortable for you. I'd probably go with an All Purpose just because it will give you a more secure seat while you're getting back into things but sit in EVERYTHING even if you don't think you'll like it. It's kind of like looking at dresses on a hanger. Some of them just don't LOOK right until you have them on.

- I'd go for a mid-range saddle over a cheapy any day. The cheaps do nothing for your seat. You have to work twice as hard to learn the same lesson which leads to a lot more frustration and a lot less progress. Not to mention that the mid ranges and upper ranges if you take care of them will always hold their value! If you change your mind about the saddle, find something you like better, etc, you can always re-sell it later. Pay attention to the stitching and to the billets and test out the flex of the tree. Saddles can be easily redyed if the color is funny or there are strange scratches but trees will total out the value.

My FAVORITE brands are Antares and Devoucoux but they're much higher end saddles. You won't usually find them on Ebay cheaply but sometimes you can find them at consignment stores at rock bottom prices. (If you find one in good condition for less than $2k at a consignment store let me know! I don't care what size it is!)

Courbette, Crosby, Stubben, HDR, are all good brands. Ansur is a treeless English saddle but I've heard mixed reviews about it. Everything from people loving it to it being a glorified bareback pad.

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Brian Rad: Try and feel the brisk sensation that that big cold wet dead fish I like to call reality produces as it smacks you upside the head.