Bates
Caprilli
Dressage Saddles
Manufacturer: Bates
Model: Caprilli
Category: Dressage Saddles
Purchase: I bought this saddle new on Ebay for $1,400.00
Likes: When I bought this saddle I had just had a baby and weighed 175 pounds. I am almost 5'11 inches tall. I bought a seat size 18. The saddle seemed to fit me well and put me in a decent position. But....
Dislikes: I had a really hard time with filling my horse to the saddle. First I had a wide gullet in place, then a medium wide which was what the sizing guide said was right for my horse. Not so much.. So I finally tried the medium gullet and it finally fit. Until I actually rode in it. The darn thing was lifting in the back! Ahh! I have a friend who has had the same saddle for her narrow gelding for years and she loves it.
Also the quality of the leather is not great. I am used to the wonderfully soft Passier leather. Also being someone who has always ridden in Passier saddles, the seat of the Bates was too wide once I was back to my normal 150 lbs. The seat size may also have something to do with how I feel though since there sizes run big and I normally take a 17.5 inch seat.
Quality: The Leather, as I said earlier, isn't the highest quality.
Summary: Make sure that you try this or any other saddle for fit with your horse and yourself. The gullet system sounds great at first but you can't just pop in the new gullet, you have to unscrew and then rescrew and if you are at the barn you might scratch your new saddle up. Just because the gullets change, that doesn't mean the back of the saddle will fit since it isn't changeable. The saddle may still lift and move about. Unfortunately.
Rating: 3
Author: Little Margie
Date: 2007-01-07
Usefulness Rating: 5 out of 5.
1 reader(s) voted.
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