Featured ANY COWBOYS (OR COWGIRLS) OUT THERE? NEED HELP IDENTIFYING VINTAGE ENGLISH SADDLE

HA!!!!! I never gave pony a thought either!!!!! GREAT REPLY and probably a lot closer to the truth! 4 smileys for you!!!!!

 

Oh, Aqui, I don't deserve any smileys - it was ALL her!

Leave it to DD to answer a "simple" question with a page-long answer! (Now, WHERE did she get that???)

-C-

 

HMMMMMMM.....WHO could she have gotten that from?????????? And OK, pass the smileys on to DD!!!!

 

'tis a mystery, Aqui - a true mystery!

 

When I boarded my horses, there was a woman there who did long distance, competitive, endurance riding. Her saddle looked similar to this one and it came from Australia. I don't recall if it had that much tooling but it did have that very deep seat, although, this saddle does appear to be very small for an endurance horse.

 

Thank you! I am not sure about measuring - but measuring from top edge of back of seat to the rivet by small flap in photo 4 is 14" / it measures 13" from top edge of seat back to where pummel would be - so it's a pony saddle?
Or a pony parade saddle?!
Again thank you for all the help!!

 

Here is a English pony saddle with what looks like the same type of padding, right?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Pessoa-Jr-...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

 

We generally call small saddles child's or youth saddles, something like that because even though small people tend to ride small horses/ponies, the seat is really the size it is to fit the rider no matter how large the mount. Anyway that's us.

When you say padding, they all have padding some less, some more but I don't know that it's a way to determine a maker etc. Without a name label it may by impossible to figure out. There are no name saddles.

I have a couple saddles from when my kids were smaller and just as a size reference, this 13 1/2" was when they were young, we have a 15" that they used as young teens. My kids are small.

Anyway here is a photo of measuring the small one. Reading across the top of the tape from the center of the cantle to the middle of the button = 13 1/2". Hope it helps.

 

Then its 14"
Thank you!

 

HAHAHA!!!!! IF ANYONE'S INTERESTED....Here's a dream saddle!!!!! Don't forget to scroll down!!!! And check the price above!!

https://www.darkhorsesaddlery.ca/index.php/baroque/baroque-saddles/item/de-flor-2

 

I don't know if you're still looking for an answer for this, but it looks like an early 20th C all purpose saddle from Australia or NZ. The heavy padding under the tree as well as the ring on the back of the cantle (the back end) point to Australian construction, as do the billet straps and ring under the flap (common in Australian stock saddles). The square cut pommel (front) tells me its probably from the 20's or 30's, as that was the style then. As for it being an all purpose English saddle, the seat is too deep and rounded for a jumping saddle. To get the proper seat size, measure from the silver pin on either side of the front diagonally across to the center of the cantle. Tooled skirts are very uncommon in English saddles, so this is probably a custom or homemade, which is why you won't find any branding on it.

 

No it sold a while agi6 but thank you!

 

I know next-to-nothing about saddles, but I've had a lot of Math-ha! That "Roman numeral 2" Might be an Underlined Pi symbol---if you look again, you May notice that the bottom horizontal line does not Actually Touch the two vertical lines. Does that help to look at/think of it in a different way. I found several web sites listing Saddle makers' marks.

 

I can’t tell you the maker but it is a close contact saddle. Most saddles have a leather flap both on the outer side like this one AND beneath the girth straps, unlike yours. I’ve seen a few saddles like this but don’t recall makers. But perhaps you can use this for further searches. I wonder if the decorative work was added later.

 

@KSW

 

It’s definitely not an English saddle. The ring under the flap and the tooling isn’t something we see over here.
The half panel isn’t something seen in modern English saddles either, they are either full panel, so there is another piece of leather under where the ring is or mono flap.
I suspect this may be made in India, I’ll have a dig around and see if I can find something similar.

 

I think this could be a more modern version. Made in India.