Saddlesmith of Texas
Todd Bergen
Reining Saddles
Manufacturer: Saddlesmith of Texas
Model: Todd Bergen
Category: Reining Saddles
Purchase: I purchased this saddle online from www.affordableequine.com. Purchase price was $1289.00 plus the shipping charges. They were very helpful and contacted me well. The site was also user friendly and secure. The shipping time was very timely also. I sold my reining saddle to get a 16 inch seat, instead of my 15.5 I had. "no more tater chips for me" LOL
Likes: As soon as my Todd Bergen reining saddle arrived, I had it on my horse, and my rear in it within 30 minutes of it's arrival. I love the tooling on it, being basket weave and leaf edge tooling. I have a hard time getting a lot of saddles to fit my mare correctly, and this one fit her wonderfully (sweat was very even with no dry/pinch points). It has a narrower feeling seat, which I liked, and it does not put you in a real upright position, as your equitation seats do, but seems to put you in a real 'sit down' type of riding. Fender swing seems good so far, but will obviously get better as the break-in period continues. Pommel/horn does not seem to get in your way, but does not seem too low either. Cantle is not a 'deep' seat, but is not too low either. The bottom edge of the jockey area seems to ride a bit lower on my leg than most saddles, but I have short legs, and will get used to that in time. The thigh (jockey area) does seem to have a nice pocket area too... thus giving a narrower seat feel.
Dislikes: Of course a new saddle is stiffer and squeakier than the good old broken in ones. That will come in time. The ONLY thing about this saddle I am not totally taken with is the silver conchos. Those do not seem as high quality as I hoped for, but that is really not an important thing to me... those can always be changed without too much trouble or cost. I think the stirrups could have been more 'pre-turned' than they were, but for a brand new saddle, they seem to be pretty flexible and will break in fine I think. I also do not care for nylon tie/billet straps, but that's just preference.
Quality: The construction seems quite well. Stitching looks good and leather is heavy good quality. Nothing about the construction looks cheap, but the conchos could have been a bit better.
Summary: Overall, I like this saddle. I am pleased with my Todd Bergen reining saddle. I cannot give it a 5 rating, as of course nothing is PERFECT.
Rating: 4
Author: skip's mom
Date: 2006-09-13
Usefulness Rating: 4.53571 out of 5.
28 reader(s) voted.
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