Of course the saddle can be taken apart, and the gullet plate replaced, presumably on any saddle where the wooden tree had enough integrity to survive the operation, but that is not usual practice in fitting saddles, and is not in general a cost-effective way to fit saddles. The old ones have been landed on by horses and the tree breaks, but not the head/gullet plate. I’ve never heard of one being able to be pulled or pressed wider. There are two master saddlers in the US that are approved by Passier to replace the gullet head part of Passier trees, so the saddle can be made wider.
and can also fix anything dubious like billets, etc. If you buy it, get it reflocked by a good local saddle fitter who will measure your horse, etc. Get it reflocked! One of the problems with saddles this old and cheap, is that for the past ten years, its owners/users have no doubt been saying “I can’t see spending $200 to reflock a saddle that is barely worth that.” So they ride around forever on rock-hard stuffing that also doesn’t fit the horse in question. An as-new current model could have been smashed up if the horse fell or rolled.Īs far as flocking, the Passiers are wool flocked and can be reflocked. You do want to check that the tree has not been broken through some kind of accident, but that is true of every single saddle you buy. The trees/gullets are not easily adjustable, though someone down the line could have put the saddle in a press and torqued it a bit to alter the width slightly (like the Schleese people do these days). IME, these old Passiers wear and last forever, and while they don’t fit every horse, they do fit many horses well. People feel well balanced in them, if they are balanced riders and haven’t gotten too used to the big rolls and blocks and bucket seats of the current models. If you like a minimal saddle, you will like this Passier. I just didn’t feel secure enough in those to want to buy one, but ended up with a 2001 Passier that was as-new shopworn. Your saddle appears to have some knee rolls the really old ones do not, they are pancake flat. There are a set of riders out there that love the old, old Passiers, including my coach, so I’ve seen quite a few, and sat in some of them. Mine slid forward horribly on my horse, through no fault of the saddle, but I want to say there wasn’t anything about it to keep it back, either, if that makes sense.īottom line: you won’t be able to resell it, so it’s a $200 gamble that you’ll like it and use it. The trees can be adjusted fairly easily, so don’t assume that the width is the same as might be stamped on it someplace - it’s likely that it’s been adjusted, and/or reflocked, at least once. The stirrup bars on many of these are more forward (mine came with little bits of plastic to keep the leathers toward the open end). That said, they feel like silk underwear - there is very little between you and the horse, nothing to keep your leg in place (other than self-discipline!), nothing to help you sit the trot besides your own core strength and correct position. They feel really odd if you’re used to the newer style of big, black dressage saddle. The reason it’s only $200 is that nobody wants these any more - they don’t have any of the new features, like a wider channel or thigh blocks or anything people expect to see. I have this saddle in my basement! it was my first saddle for my first horse, and it was old when I bought it in the mid-90’s.
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