Kieffer
3000V
Dressage Saddles
Manufacturer: Kieffer
Model: 3000V
Category: Dressage Saddles
Purchase: I ordered this saddle over the phone after reading about it online. I paid $2595, plus fittings, saddle pad, girth, and stirrup leathers.
Likes: I like the comfort of this saddle, it is very comfortable. I like how balanced it feels. It has a key you put in the saddle so that you can change the gullet width of the saddle to make a fine tuned adjustment to the horse. It also has flexible panels that work on some horses. The leather is nice but very plastic feeling for leather.
Dislikes: Here is the thing, despite what the manufacturer tells you this saddle will not work on a flat backed arab. I have tried it on six horses and it just doesn't work. While the gullet widens, arabs need a flatter panel and a wider tree head to accommodate wider withers that are not the tradition V shape. Also the panel of the saddle is WAY to long for short backed arabs, hits them in the kidneys. Also the saddle points are to long and dig in to their shoulders. Simply adjusting the gullet doesn't do it. Also what they don't tell you is you can't adjust the entire widths of the tree sizes you can only adjust within the tree size. So for example if your horse is a medium narrow you can adjust just a bit up or down within that tree size. You can't take this saddle from a narrow horse to a wide horse. Just doesn't work that way. My horses hated the flexible panels, well at least all but one of them. Also the panels popped over and over regardless of what horse I used it on. Also no returns, you can exchange it but no returns and the shipping back and forth will burn out your money!
Quality: I would consider it low, the saddle has a bubble in the leather, I complained about it and the panel popping and was told the bubble would go down (it hasn't) and the panel popping was from the saddle being to wide for the horse (a saddle fitter said that is not the problem) The leather feels like wintec synthetic, its not very grippy or soft, and after several months I noticed scratches really easy.
Summary: Don't buy it if you own an Arab or flat backed horse. Don't buy it if you are a stickler for leather quality. If however you like a wider twist comfortable seat, this saddle does meet that qualification, not sure it does anything for the horse though.
Rating: 2
Author: K. C.
Date: 2010-01-16
Usefulness Rating: 4.95745 out of 5.
47 reader(s) voted.
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