Window Shopping Blog Hop

I saw a rider at a show I was watching with my dream saddle today, and It made me wonder what other people had as their dream saddles.  My next thought was, "That would be a good blog hop!"

And here we are.

What do you think? Needs more color, no?

If money was no object, what saddle/tack set would you go out and buy?

Believe it or not, this was actually the very first English saddle I ever sat on.

What can I say? I'm an overachiever.

It was a temporary booth set up at a horse show I attended, and I wanted to look at the pretty saddles.  I got cornered by a rep who came up to me and said, "Are you a rider?" When I said yes, he ushered me over to the saddle stand to make me try it out.  He pointed out various features that all went over my head because did I mention I hadn't even sat in an English saddle before? All I knew was that it was SO COMFY.  Seriously.  There's gel in the seat or something (I cannot overstate how little I knew about English saddles at the time and their website appears to be in French), and it is wicked comfortable.

True it has the weird carbon panels some find offputting and ugly, but comfy.  It's also apparently really well made to support the rider's leg and help with position, as well as being more comfortable for the horse.  And as a bonus, comfy gel seat (it was really cushy, ok?).

However, some lazy internet research (read: checking one forum link when I couldn't easily find a price on their website), indicates the saddle I had pictured in the back of my mind was called a CWD 2G, and it is WAAAAY above my price range.  I saw a few answers, and it depends heavily on which options you choose but it could be anywhere from $4500-$6000 or maybe more or less (I was really not feeling this whole doing research thing today).  

Maybe someday.  Then again, I did pay $100 for my saddle, so it's preeeetty unlikely I would actually pony up that much cash (pun intended) for a 2G.