Specialized Saddles

Light Weight, Custom Fit

Specialized Saddles are designed to be custom fitted to your horse’s back and can be adjusted as your horse's back changes from fitness conditioning (or being out to pasture for too long :-)  through the use of customized neoprene pads and shims.

 

Also, if you have more than one horse with the same tree width, you can use the same Specialized Saddle and simply have customized pads and shims for each horse,  - a big advantage for multi horse owners.

 

The neoprene pads and shims do require some care when storing. It's highly recommended these saddles aren't stored on regular saddle stands as the neoprene pads and shims can compress and become deformed. Also, don't stack saddles on top of each over for the same reason.

 

Specialized Saddles do seem to have a distinct benefit of truly fitting to the horse’s back, similar to traditional English saddles where the flocking can be adjusted to the horse's back by a professional fitter. This is especially important for horses with pronounced asymmetry in their backs. Also, these saddles tend to be shorter in length than most. The saddle in the review is about 22 inches in length which is great for breeds with typically short backs (Arabian, Icelandic, Paso Fino, etc.), but it doesn't compromise the rider's seat size. The saddle style selection goes from the bare minimum Eurolight (endurance style), to International (english type trail), to Trailmaster and TW Saddles (western type). All of the Specialized Saddles are known to be light weight, with the endurance style Eurolight barely there at only about 12 pounds.

 

The saddle pictured in the review is an International style weighing in at about 20 pounds. There is a large selection of options for your saddle, from color combinations, seat type, seat texture, stirrups, rigging, and more. The saddle for this review is brown with basketweave edging, black accents, smooth endurance seat, pencil roll cantle, leather covered trail stirrups, English rigging, and antique silver berry conchos.

 

All that being said, if light weight and a custom fit are what is needed for your horse then Specialized Saddles may be the answer for you.

 

The only disappointment so far is the poor level of craftsmanship in the details of the saddle. Upon arrival raw edges and crooked stitching was evident in several areas on the saddle. For a saddle in the $2,000 plus price range, better finish work was expected.

NOTE: Specialized Saddles were extremely good to work with and once they were notified about this issue they immediately went to work to correct the problem which means they built a new replacement saddle.

 

From a few feet away these issues weren't noticeable, nor did they have any functional impact, and in a few month's time normal wear and tear would make most of the imperfections much less noticeable. Again, it must be noted that Specialized corrected the problem with no questions at all.

 

The true test of structural quality and how well the neoprene pads and shims perform is yet to be seen. This review will be updated once we've put more miles under the saddle.

 

Specialized has a number of representatives who can perform saddle fitting, or you can use an instructional video to do your own fitting. We chose to utilize an expert for the fitting process which includes an examination of the horse's back both static and in motion. The fitter  determines the best tree to use, then neoprene pads and shims are attached to a demo saddle tree and used to build a saddle base which best conforms to the horse's back.

 

The fitter sells the custom fitted pad and shims, then you can select the saddle style and options you want. The saddle fitters and representatives we partnered with are Rick and Carol Brand of Lost Juniper Ranch. Rick and Carol explained the process, answered all questions, and were great to work with.