Dale Chavez
San Simeon QH Show Saddle
Show Saddles
Manufacturer: Dale Chavez
Model: San Simeon QH Show Saddle
Category: Show Saddles
Purchase: From a local tack shop for $1900 in 2006. This is an used San Simeon show saddle with full QH bars and a 16" seat. Regular skirts. It's about three or four years old, and retailed for $5800 brand new.
Likes: Pretty much everything. It's super comfortable, absolutely gorgeous and well-balanced with a good equitation leg.
It fits flat backed, mutton-withered or low-withered quarter horses very well, and has excellent contact with them if they aren't wide- or round-barreled.
Dislikes: The seat is a bit wide under your thigh, and creates slight bridging, reducing the amount of contact you can get easily. It's hard to fit on anything with withers because the gullet is rather low, and hard to get your leg around a wide-barreled horse. This lack of contact is amplified if you have to pad up your horse to keep the gullet off their withers.
Also, it's been a real pain trying to find the bridle with the matching silver pattern.
Quality: Excellent. The Hermann Oak leather is soft, supple, and the tooling is exquisite. The suede on the seat is soft and fine. The silver is drop-dead gorgeous, even with a relatively simple pattern. The saddle is well-sewn and well-balanced with wonderful attention to details and the overall statement "this is quality" is loud and clear.
Summary: Awesome show saddle for any level, for any one who appreciates and demands quality in their show tack. The width across the seat where your thigh lays could be narrower to allow more close contact, and the underskirts being close-contact/cutaway would also help with this.
Excellent saddle for those low or mutton-withered pleasure horses, though you'll want to have a horse with a slightly long back or a big tall horse as the skirts are quite long.
Rating: 5
Author: Sarah from MacFarlane Show Horses
Date: 2007-03-03
Usefulness Rating: 4.87097 out of 5.
31 reader(s) voted.
Other Reviews You May Find Interesting
Victor Victor Equitation Model Show Saddles
Ortho-Flex Cutback Show Saddles
Simco Saddle Western Pleasure Show Saddles
Showman Western Pleasure 16" Silver Show Saddle Show Saddles
Tex Tan Imperial Show Saddle Show Saddles
Custon RS Saddlery Roughout Training Saddle Show Saddles
Reinsman Deluxe Show Saddle (4500-170W) Show Saddles
Circle Y Western Show Saddle Show Saddles
Rocking T Saddlery Roper-Custom with Extra Wide Tree Show Saddles
Alamo Saddlery Basket Weave and Tooled Equitation Saddle Show Saddles
Showman Saddlery Western Pleasure Silver Tooled Show (model 5328-16) Show Saddles
Dixieland Gaited Saddles Show Saddle Show Saddles
Showman Western Pleasure Saddle 16 Inch Show Saddles
Dale Chavez San Simeon QH Show Saddle Show Saddles
Blue Ribbon Custom Show Saddle 219A Show Saddles
Circle Y Western Pleasure Show Saddle 1396-4 Show Saddles
Mary's Tack Show Saddle Show Saddles
Billy Royal Classic Work Saddle Show Saddles
Champion Turf Custom Show Saddle Show Saddles
Showman Saddlery 16" Silver Trim Saddle Show Saddles
