[Huntseat123]

I'm not an expert with saddles, but I do know that this has never happened with any of my other saddles.



It looks like its been there a while, but I don't ever really look underneath my saddle. (Which i now know to do.) It looks painful, my poor horse. I guess this is why hes been tossing his head lately, I thought it was just because he hadn't been ridden in about a year.

My saddle is a courbette arosa with a spring tree, and I called the company. The lady on the phone said that she never really hears of any problems with the saddle tree, but I should contact the store where I bought my saddle and have the receipt on hand.

Uhh, I bought my saddle five years ago, does she honestly believe I still have the receipt?

But my questions to you are, what is protruding out of my saddle like that? Is it common? Is it bad? What can I do about this?

[kat399]

I have never seen ridges like that on an english saddle. Is it under the seat in the channel above the spine? If your saddle fits properly, it shouldn't be touching the spine. Has your saddle always looked like that? Might be something funky going on with the 'spring' tree. I have heard a lot of negative feedback about flex/spring trees.

[DiamondRio]

I havent ever see that in a saddle before. I would say to take it to your local tack shop and have someone in the saddle department take a look at it.
It doesnt look like the ridges would bother your horse because they dont look like the protrude that far but it is kind of hard to see from the pictures.

When the saddle sits on the horses back without a pad does that part touch his spine?

[Huntseat123]

you know what, you guys are right... its not touching his back. uh duh.

But it still makes me wonder what else is wrong with the tree that I can't even see, but my horse can feel.

[DiamondRio]

Yeah i would take the saddle in even if it isnt touching his back to get checked out to make sure something seriously isnt wrong with the tree.

I cant remember... do courbettes have warrantees on their saddles?

[Huntseat123]

When I called, I asked, but her answer was, "Well we usually don't have any problems with our trees because they are spring trees." So I'm assuming thats a no.

[DiamondRio]

Hmm, thats interesting. I had a saddle with a spring tree as my first saddle that the tree broke on so im not sure what to tell you.

[Aurical]

Originally Posted by HuNTSeAT123

When I called, I asked, but her answer was, "Well we usually don't have any problems with our trees because they are spring trees." So I'm assuming thats a no.

With the way she evaded your question I would imagine that if you insist enough they will take care of you. It just might take a lot of insisting. Remember it's probably cheaper in the long run for the company to give you a new saddle than to become known for shoddy craftsmanship or bad customer service.

[buck1173]

I think my courbette bernina (also the e-motion flex spring tree) has similar lumps, but not nearly as distinct as yours.

I had a problem w/ my courbette that I purchased second hand, the panels seemed to be stitched in uneven, making the saddle permanently skewed.

I called courbette, the FL office, and rc'd the same response you did "nobody complains about our saddles, take it to the place you bought it".

So I tracked down the person i bought it from, who sold it for a friend, so I tracked down that person (original owner). She put me in touch with the shop she bought it from, in MI I think. I had a long conversation w/ them, here's what I learned:

Courbette will only warranty the tree. It is impossible to deal w/ Courbette directly, you have to go through a dealer. The reason for this smokescreen is if Courbette started openly taking responsibility for flaws in saddles, then they'd be overrun with people who have little or no actual claims (ie, horse is tossing his head, scored low at a test, etc, blame the saddle).

So, what you need to do if you want to chase this up, is deal with a rep that sells courbettes. More than likely you'll have to pay them some kind of convenience fee too, as the dealer has no vested interest in helping a stranger they're not making a buck off.

The shop in MI I spoke to claims to be one of the biggest Courbette dealers in the lower 48, I'll find the info if you'd like, pm me.

BUT, you'd then have to ship the saddle to the dealer, Courbette insists that the dealer discover if there is indeed a problem, so dealer has to send said saddle to saddlery of their choice to investigate potential problem (I would've had to pay them $75 p/h for them to have the saddle looked over for me) ... if a real flaw is found, saddle is sent back to dealer, dealer schedules repair w/ courbette, saddle is then sent to switzerland for repair and stays there for a few months... saddle is sent back to dealer, dealer sends saddle to owner.

Owner picks up the tab for shipping in every single instance. I purchased an albion from a seller in the UK.... the saddle cost me $120, the shipping cost $210.

Yeah.

So, in my case, the cost of all of this potential shipping & waiting will, in the end, potentially cost about as much as I paid for the dang thing to begin with, so, if i decide I truly absolutely love the saddle, I'm just going to take it to a saddlery and have the whole darn thing restitched, whatever. It'll end up costing the same I believe.

Courbette is not an easy company to deal with from my experience. But then again, i've never tried to contact any other saddle co, so i can't say courbette is any tougher than anyone else.

[Huntseat123]

Wow, thanks for all the info buck!! I'll PM you about the courbette dealer.