Native American Collectibles

What Do You Look For in a Barrel Saddle? Best Brand?

What do you look for in a barrel saddle, rawhide horn, rawhide laced cantle, etc.? What barrel saddle brand do you like best? Billy Cook, Circle Y, Martin Saddlery, etc? How do you know what seat size you should get? I'm looking for one and just looking for some input!
Bayley

When I use to ride barrels and gymkhana's, I had a Circle Y
because a) is was affordable b) it looked great & c) great quality

I look for a small rawhide horn as it's easier to hold onto and not
get in the way. The rawhide laced cantle would look nice but I
just had a regular leather scalloped style one.

Billy Cook is actually a very nice brand for barrel saddles. Lots of
people like the fit and style and they can be pricey but used usually
is a better deal. I would've bought one but there were none available.

Seat size all depends on how tight and how much leg room you want.
I had a 14" seat back then (I was 11 years old) and even that was a
little big. So it is almost the same as regular western saddles... usually
people buy barrel saddles in a smaller seat size than regular pleasure
saddles for more fit. Remember to just sit in it, make sure your
legs can have some room but also not too much where they can move back
and forth too easily.

If you go to a tack shop, they can probably help you fit a saddle well.

Hope you find a good saddle !

PS here are a few places you can look online:
http://www.horsesaddleshop.com/barrelsaddles.html
http://www.pleasantridge.ca/barrel_saddles.htm
http://www.affordable-tack.com/western_barrel_racing_saddles.htm
http://www.runningroantack.com/saddles.html

Kind of just have a lookie at different reviews for different saddles;
compare prices to quality, etc. =)

Sorry I edited I can't believe I spelled "where" like "wear" lol.