Saddle Shopping Sucks

We all know it to be true, saddle shopping sucks.  Especially if you have a hard to fit horse and a hard to fit rider on a budget.  I'm also about an hour and half away from any tack store with any decent used saddle selection and I've already called them twice about their inventory. 

I've been looking mainly at used County's, as I really liked them when I've ridden in them in the past and according to the saddle fitter they should fit Peebs.  But finding a wide or extra wide tree with short flap in my seat size was damn near impossible.  I finally said screw it and emailed the local County rep to bite the bullet and get us a new custom saddle.  I had to email her multiple times, and she said it would take a few weeks to get demos in for us to try.  That was over 3 weeks ago and I haven't heard anything since. I know I'm not a big circuit rider, or a big name trainer with a barn full of clients all buying saddles, but when you have someone ready and willing to drop $$$ with you at least email them updates. I can definitely say I'm not impressed with her customer service skills at all.  I'm not holding my breath for a new, custom County anytime soon.

So fancy!

Even though the first saddle fitter said French brands probably won't fit the Peebs as well as English brands, I thought I'd just try.  I contacted the Voltaire rep and she got back to me with in a half hour and said she'd be down my way next week and had a couple for us to try.  A+++ for customer service!  I've never sat in a Voltaire or seen on in person so I'm interested to try them out.

And of course, the day after making that appointment, I find the exact County I was looking for used. Right seat size, wide tree, short flaps, barley broken in. So I paid to take it on trial and it's being shipped from Virginia today.  Hopefully it will work, or a Voltaire will because I am DONE with saddle shopping!

Please, please, please work!!