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Message:: [QUOTE="SBSVC, post: 341755, member: 136"]Here is the reply from my daughter, who is off with her BF for a few days (or I would have posted sooner!): hi mom, I am always happy to give my two cents when it comes to tack! My first instinct is that this is a hand/ custom-made (probably 60s or 70s but hard to tell without feeling how crusty the leather is) saddle for a kid and pony. Without the measurements I can't be entirely sure if that is the case. If I knew how large the seat was (which on a deep-seated saddle like this would be done by measuring from the top of the cantle in the very back to the central rivet by the top of the skirt flap) I'd have a better idea.  If the seat is less than 16 in it's definitely a pony saddle! Based on the suede/ nubuck (since I can't touch it I don't know which it is) seat and the fact that it has a bar in the back for crupper, makes me think it's a pony saddle. That kind of seat is a little more sticky which helps a kid sit properly. Crupper bars are usually on pony saddles, as fat ponies are more likely to have the saddle wiggle around. The tooling and lack of  a brass name plate  under the skirt and  a lack of any stamping  by a brand on the under flaps  makes me think it's either a semi custom small Saddlery/ handmade saddle. Those can be really nice and they can be shoddy; it just depends on the stitching and the feel of the leather and the tree. Since the flocking doesn't appear to be coming out... I'd say it's probably at least fairly well made. Now, the billet for the girth: two Short billets and a ring, looks very strange. That is not like a normal English girth which has three short billets. It's more like a western-style girth without a long billet but with a large ring. That would allow you to put an overgrowth on to keep the saddle from sliding more if it were a really fat pony. In some cases that kind of ring tucked under the flap is a means of attaching a stirrup so that the leather doesn't rub against the inside of the leg along the outside flap, but that's not very common in English saddles at all. I can absolutely say  with confidence that  it is definitely not a standard jumping saddle (seat is too deep), a dressage saddle, a saddle seat saddle (the pommel would be cut way back if it were), or a standard Australian saddle. Now, if the seat is larger than 16 in, I'd gather that it could be some sort of hand-tooled parade saddle perhaps for a Paso Fino or another Spanish style horse, as the Spanish breeders love flair and tooling their leather. Alternatively, the bar in the back for the crupper could also be used for attaching a pack. That and the deep seat would mean that it could be some kind of light endurance saddle - but the lack of padding and knee rolls or blocks on the flaps and the tooling where a knee pad would be, makes me think that it would not be a comfortable saddle for long distance riding. Which again would support the idea that maybe it's some kind of parade saddle. I hope that was a helpful and not to roundabout way of saying it's either a pony saddle or some kind of parade saddle.... I most likely composed this email using talk to text software. Please excuse any strange spellings, weird word swaps, peculiar punctuation, formatting fumbles, etc. For those who can make sense of it, there you go![/QUOTE]

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