Sales of low cost imported saddles have grown.
The riding consumers seem reluctant to educate themselves on saddle quality and safety and still buy on price.
What is needed to change this?
The riding consumers seem reluctant to educate themselves on saddle quality and safety and still buy on price.
What is needed to change this?
As a saddler always trying to make quality products and above all safe products, it has always been frustrating losing sales to cheap, unsafe, but pretty merchandise.......pretty in pictures that is!
Will the consumer ever learn how to judge quality? I have watched customers buy saddle after saddle before realizing that they will have to spend a little more to get what they need. But no matter how much you explain it they don't seem to learn. Unscrupulous sales people don't help.
Surely the latest experience with toys and food from China would be a lesson. Compare toys and food to saddles??? Simple. It's cheap labour, inferior materials, and no quality control!
A customer of mine came with a saddle they had purchased on the internet. They thought the tree was broken...it was OK when they bought it! All they did was pile a few other saddles on top of it. After examination, I discovered the tree was made from some synthetic material that resembled spray-in insulation foam. The seat on this saddle had to be 20 inches [Western], and the stirrup leathers were not adjustable. The gullet was too narrow even for a mini horse. I honestly believe it was designed from looking at a photo. Neither the designer nor the maker had any idea about horses or saddles.
It is cheaper to buy a $2,000 saddle once than four $500 saddles that will all likely sore up a few horses and perhaps the rider.
It's just a matter of time before someone gets seriously injured on a cheap import! How many horses have already been ruined?
Will the consumer ever learn how to judge quality? I have watched customers buy saddle after saddle before realizing that they will have to spend a little more to get what they need. But no matter how much you explain it they don't seem to learn. Unscrupulous sales people don't help.
Surely the latest experience with toys and food from China would be a lesson. Compare toys and food to saddles??? Simple. It's cheap labour, inferior materials, and no quality control!
A customer of mine came with a saddle they had purchased on the internet. They thought the tree was broken...it was OK when they bought it! All they did was pile a few other saddles on top of it. After examination, I discovered the tree was made from some synthetic material that resembled spray-in insulation foam. The seat on this saddle had to be 20 inches [Western], and the stirrup leathers were not adjustable. The gullet was too narrow even for a mini horse. I honestly believe it was designed from looking at a photo. Neither the designer nor the maker had any idea about horses or saddles.
It is cheaper to buy a $2,000 saddle once than four $500 saddles that will all likely sore up a few horses and perhaps the rider.
It's just a matter of time before someone gets seriously injured on a cheap import! How many horses have already been ruined?
