Cob Jockey

I know I said I'd do some more Royal posts, but these saddle fitting posts are getting backlogged!  Gotta get them out.

Brand: WOW Saddles
Cost for Fitting: Trip fee (not split among very many people) + fitting fee: $225
Number of Saddles Tried at the Fitting: 4
Number of Saddles Trialed: 1

WOW Saddles wouldn't have even been on my list if it wasn't for Teresa, who strongly recommended them.  She also hooked me up with the fitter, who just happened to be coming to Indiana from Virginia right in the middle of my saddle fit extravaganza, but I'm glad I took a look at them.

WOW Saddles is a modular saddle company out of the UK.  Everything about every saddle can be changed out.  Suddenly hate the seat?  Buy a different one.  Feel like you need a more forward flap?  Sell your flaps and buy new flaps.  It's the most low-risk saddle buying experience ever, because anything can be changed at any time.

Just dismantling and rebuilding a saddle in the barn aisle, NBD #wowthings

The fittings take four hours because the fitter (who is a very good fitter and not just a sales rep) has to build the saddles on-site as you determine what you like/dislike, so we had a lot of time to chat.  Interestingly, the fitter's primary business is a fancy used saddle business you've all (I guarantee) heard of before, and she's slowly winding that down to focus exclusively on WOW. 

Besides believing in the positive changes she sees in the way the horses react to WOW, she also got disillusioned with the traditional saddle market by customers bringing her almost brand new custom-ordered saddles to consign that didn't work for the horse/rider once they arrived, that were being sold at a huge loss.  I am starting to develop some strong feelings on the saddle industry that are along these lines myself after trying all this stuff, but that's a post for another day.

I ended up sitting in a total of four saddles, although that's kind of a misnomer because some parts of the first saddle carried through until the end because I liked them.

Saddle #1, shown with the "air tubes" sticking out so that the flocking could be adjusted quickly.  Those are taken off of the saddle for regular use.

After taking some measurements with a special fitting kit, she nailed the tree and panel fit right out of the gate, and we kept this configuration through the rest of the saddles she built.  All of the panels I rode in were Flair, but they do have wool flocked and a foam-Flair hybrid panel that supposedly rides more like a French saddle.

On saddle #1, I liked the seat, even though it had a wider twist than the others.  However, I hated that flap, which was so stiff, it felt like I had to work to transmit aids to Connor.  I also hated the knee roll position.

Saddle #2

On Saddle #2, she gave me a slightly narrower twist, more of a skirt over the bar region, and a much softer panel that I vastly preferred.  She also changed the billet placement to where it could take my regular girth instead of the WOW H girth, just so I could feel the difference.

WOW H girth

Interestingly, with the same tree and panel configuration, the back of the saddle moved substantially more with the billets in the traditional place vs. the H girth.  Makes sense, since it's linked up much further back to where the billet is actually underneath your seat.  But part of me wonders if the H girth (and similar billet configurations, like Devoucoux) are able to hide fit issues because they keep the back of the saddle pinned down.

Connor went well in this saddle, especially considering he always goes terribly during saddle fittings, and we were on hour 2 at this point.  The headplate on the WOW saddles actually twists with each backward swing of the scapula so the horse never feels restricted by the tree points, and I think he really liked that.

Finally we took that same saddle #2 and put their "flapless" flaps on it, although she only had jumping flaps.  Because I also have the Eq Saddle Science saddle, I wanted to give this a try.  If I bought it, I could switch back and forth between regular flaps and these.

Plz to ignore the ghetto girth rigging we had to do on this one, this is not how it's supposed to go

I didn't like this very much. Those are pretty stiff and fairly long panels to be "flapless" and while it did give me the "horse body" feel under my boot top, it didn't feel any different from a regular saddle in the "leg pit" area, as MW would say.

WOW Saddles
Likes

• Almost risk-free saddle buying experience due to the interchangeable parts
• Connor seemed to like the trees
• The saddle could change with my preferences over time
• The saddle seemed to move with the horse well
• The seat was well-balanced
• The H girth distributed pressure well across the entire saddle

Dislikes

• I could see myself incessantly experimenting with different configurations for the rest of my life
• Leather quality was just okay
• In terms of position, I never got that "coming home" feeling in it, but then again, I could probably get there with interchangeable parts, so IDK how to feel about that.
• Heavy!  So heavy!

Right now, I'd place the WOW in the #2 spot, behind...

(tune in tomorrow)