Wintec Saddle

Advantages: Much cheaper than leather.
Disadvantages: Only available in black.

...young horse is a synthetic, Wintec saddle. The saddle actually came with the horse. I have a leather saddle for my other horse and I have always prefered leather, but am perfectly happy with the Wintec synthetic, at least for now. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ I will quickly explain why I am happy with the synthetic saddle. I have quite a history with saddles and they can make you spend a lot of money. Even though you sell the old saddle when you ...
...price. It is a Wintec synthetic saddle. At first I was not that keen as I prefer leather. However it meant I had a saddle and did not have to spend money straight away (she was advertised without a saddle). I know she will change shape and I will probably need to change it at some point. There is nothing more disheartening than finding the perfect saddle and then 6 months later having to get a different one. I knew even if the saddle didn`t fit for ... Read review

Advantages: Light weight, easy care, comfortable seat, easy change gullets, looks good
Disadvantages: A bit slippy on my low-withered pony, hard to fit to her shape

Wintec saddles are made by Bates Australia, founded in 1934. They originally produced synthetic saddles for racing, but over the years this has evolved into a wide range of saddles for all sorts of disciplines. The saddle I bought was a Wintec 2000 All Purpose back when I was breaking in my new forest pony. It is made with 'Equisuede', a convincing synthetic suede material that does not get slippery when wet and helps to keep the rider in position ...
...by wet weather. The Wintec 2000 also has adjustable knee blocks to help provide more support, real leather girth straps, two brass dee rings for attaching saddle bags etc, and the 'Easy Change Gullet System', so you can change the width of your saddle if your horse changes shape. The manufacturers say it is 'great for riders who enjoy participating in many disciplines including jumping, hunting, pleasure riding, some dressage and flatwork'. In ... Read review

Advantages: no saddle soap needed to clean
Disadvantages: none

Having owned 2 wintec saddles, I can't emphasise enough the greatest factor of all - not having to use saddle soap!!! With any style or model of wintec all you have to do to clean them is to just wash them over with the hose pipe!!! The first model wintec that I had was made of a gel type substance that in fact had no tree in it, so was impossible to break!! and because of being made of gel was less likely to cause any pressure points, as I am now ...
...As with any wintec saddle you are able to change the gullet at the front of the saddle, should your horse change shape. I have never had to change the gullet yet so cannot comment on how easy/hard this may be!! Being so much lighter than conventional saddles is another reason I chose a wintec. If you use them with the wintec stirrup leathers you don't have to clean these either!!! ... Read review

Advantages: Easy to care for
Disadvantages: Did not find any

...value. I bought a Wintec saddle some years ago to use for breaking in youngsters. Horses and ponies change shape according to the time of year, diet and the work that they are in. However, their greatest period of change is when they go through the starting process, when they combine physical maturing and development of first working muscle. I bought the Wintec to use on New Forest ponies, which can be barell shaped and hard to fit at the best ...
...matures, the equileather used by Wintec just keeps looking new. Wintecs come with an interchangeable gullet system so that you can change saddle width as necessary. This means you can ensure that you keep the saddle fitting well and make sure that your horse never becomes uncomfortable. Comfort is important for all horses (how can they perform for you if they hurt?) but especially so for youngsters, as a bad experience at breaking can leave long ... Read review

Advantages: Light, changable gullet, relitavely cheap
Disadvantages: slippage, expensive gullets

...to treat him to a Wintec 500 saddle. Being 31, Pegasus has quite high withers but as hes a quite chunky horse, narrow saddles get in the way of his shoulders and sit too high on his back. (A very hard thing to find is a saddle thats built for chunky horses with high withers!) Obviously there arent many horses who are this shape so no one makes saddles to fit them! Unless i scrimped and saved for about 20 years to have him a saddle made which I know ...
...oped for a wintec as I had ridden in my friends and found them very comfy and simple to alter. When it came it had a medium gullet in which i thought would be too wide for him as he had lost a bit of weight due to an accident a few weeks earlier. I went out and bought a narrow gullet for the saddle (£15 which I thought was quite expensive!) and it fitted him fine. Not being able to ride him for a month or so (due to his accident) he put on quite ... Read review