Discover the Benefits of Modern Lightweight Saddles for Heavy Riders

Discover modern lightweight saddles designed for heavy riders. Achieve optimal comfort and enhanced riding experience for you and your horse.

If you ask the average English rider, what is the weight of a saddle, the frequent reply is about half a stone (7 pounds). However, for all ridden activities other than horse racing and endurance riding this is a significant underestimation. This article looks into the various weights of English saddles designed with saddle trees. The lightest designs are close-contact saddles while the heaviest are robust hunting saddles, also synthetic saddles are generally lighter than leather saddles.

For an article on treeless saddles follow this link.

When looking at saddle weight, the actual weight has to be the saddle plus all things attached and worn with it. This means that martingales, breastplates, girths, stirrup leathers and stirrup irons as well as saddle cloths and numnahs must also be included.
I have used a 4.55kg/10lb. With a lightweight numnah and light stirrups, stirrup leathers and girth this weighed 6.36kg/14lb. It can not be expected that a saddle of this weight will have the durability of a heavier saddle.
At the other extreme, I used a heavy hunting saddle that weighed 9.55kg/21lb and with all accompaniments weighed in at 13.2kg/29lb. which is just over two stone,