I am not, nor ever have been, a western rider. With that being said one of the goals with my young horse Tempi (Temptation ASH) is to not only do regular dressage, but to also do Western Dressage. So I have been very gingerly saddle shopping for a western saddle. My musts: show/equitation seat, not roughout, camel/light oil color, 25lbs or under, and ideally a little pretty tooling. Her musts: a wide bar set/gullet/whatever the heck it is called in western saddles.

Easier said than done when combining all the requirements, on a used saddle, with a low (ideally $500 ish) budget.

Then a GF posted a saddle she had for sale for a super reasonable price! And it not only met, but exceeded every requirement! It was like the heavens opened up for me LOL. I love it so much I haven’t been able to take it out of my office yet. I just want to look at it. ALL THE TIME. I need to give it a good scrubbing, condition, and then put it in my tack room (trailer), plus add a new latigo for the cinch just to ensure I stay up in the saddle. But overall it is in just fabulous condition.

I haven’t gotten a chance to ride in it yet, but I cannot wait to try it out on a horse. In my saddle rack it seems to fit me really well, and does a better job at seating me correctly than most western saddle styles (compared to my dressage saddle seat position). I still feel a little chair seat, but I think that is a thing western saddles just do, and this is WAY better than most western saddles have offered me. It’s an older saddle which doesn’t bother me since the weight was still under my requirements, and it is so solid, and pretty, I hope it will last me until I cannot ride anymore (but let’s be honest I will never give up riding because #horsepeopleareridiculous).

Western Dressage, here we come!