Tekna Saddle - have any pics?

canterhavenfarm · Yearling

Tekna Saddle - have any pics?

justice · Grand Prix

Absolutely powerless to advise you but I DO admire your specific-minded outlook. Saddle fit SHOULD be taken more seriously than it has been so it is nice to see someone thoughtful and deliberate about their needs.

Welcome to the Forum, CHF : )

Barnmouser Ash · Grand Prix

Agreed. Welcome to the forum and kudos for being proactive! :)

canterhavenfarm · Yearling

Thanks for the Welcome! I think buying the saddle is one the most difficult parts of horse ownership. I have gone through so many different brands, styles, high end, not so high end, etc. in an attempt to find the perfect fit for the horse. And then each horse is different! Also add that each manufactures idea of 'size' is never consistent. A prestige 33 cm, I have learned, is more like a MW for similar manufactures. I got the Stubben new 2 years ago, all thrilled with myself that the flocking could form to the horse and for the first few months, all seemed well. Then he was starting to get cranky. I really looked at the saddle and saw that the gullet narrows towards the cantle. Well, that cannot be right so I start researching and find that this does happen with some makers.

I liked the look of the new wintec pro jump and I have always loved the suede seat. So bought that and love it. CAIR pannels see to get along well with my horse. It just does not have the more traditional look for the hunter ring. I was going to stick with jumpers but for me, part of showing is hanging out with the group and the group is mainly into Hunters. So off I go to find a more CC looking Hunter ring saddle but still sticking to what I like: room for the horse and suede seat for me!

-- Edited by canterhavenfarm on Wednesday 30th of March 2011 03:49:06 PM

Barnmouser Ash · Grand Prix

Great points, CHF! I'm glad you've thoroughly looked into saddle fit! It's a pretty big thing here on Barnmice, I've found. We like to keep our ponies comfy. :)

Unfortunately I ride mainly western, so I've got no tips for you in finding a Tekna/other close contact that will fit your horses. Best of luck, though! I'm sure someone around here can help you out!

canterhavenfarm · Yearling

Hi! I thought I would return and give some feedback if anyone is looking into these saddles.

I bought one! There is a tack shop that sells them for much less than others and the customer service was top notch! They just stopped selling wintec due to Weatherbetta requiring that they keep $3000 worth of inventory on hand. This is a small tack shop, they could not do that, so they went with Tekna. I think I may have been the first to purchase this sadddle from them. They called me to confirm my order and also gave me a direct contact to the Tekna rep. since I did have a question about tree size. Super service

The saddle - I purchased the jumper version with suede ( the reason I like synthetic saddles is that I get suede! until I can spend $$$$ on a leather with suede, I default to the synthetics). The tree is a continous,even width so I was thrilled. Unlike my stubben Edlewise that narrows under the seat, the Tekna tree does stay the same width. I went with a med-wide since after talking to the Tekna rep, the wide is not going to be offered on a regular basis since they found it is too wide for most. And she was right, med-wide was perfect. ( you can have these saddles adjusted. I believe it is a heat type adjustment)

It is very close contact. There is no bulk between you and the horse. That was a bit odd at first since my wintec pro jump has more bulk. But after a few minutes of riding, all was good. Unlike my stubben, my leg felt very solid and my jumping position was easy to maintain and not forced. When riding in my stubben, I felt that I was either an idiot for not being able to keep my leg still or it was the saddle ( I rode in my instructors saddle and we learned that it was probably the stubben) thus my new saddle search. With the stubben, I am guessing that the stirrup bars are too far back for me thus my leg would just want to go too far back. I had to force it to keep the position which messes up the flow with the horse. With my Wintec pro jump, I can keep a solid leg. Same with the Tekna.

I still adore my wintec pro jump and use it for jumpers. It is my preferred saddle but it looks a bit out of place when I do hunters ( I got the stubben for hunters last year) Thus the tekna is for hunters since it is more close contact and looks the part more so than the wintec.