The 24K is everything one is looking for in a saddle today! A Golden Design. Soft grippy premium leather, wide panels and balanced design make this saddle desirable for both horse and rider. Available in French vegetable tanned oakbark leather with calfskin seat and knee pads. Tree widths: standard, medium, wide, extra wide. Panels: Elvax foam and wool felt. Tree: Memory/flex tree with 10 year tree warranty.
In seat sizes: 16”, 16 1/2”, 17”, 17 1/2”, 18”.

HORSE JOURNAL

Tack Buying Guide 2000 -
Michael Plumb

Finding An All-Purpose Saddle That Doesn't Compromise Versatility
After an eight-way saddle shoot-out, we like Thornhill's approach which has a bias toward close-contact.

Thornhill Gets Our Nod In All-purpose Saddles
We expect all purpose saddles with a bias, usually jumping or dressage. But the bias we love is the one with true versatility: close-contact.

 Thornhill's Berlin By Jorge Canaves
This $685 saddle is the widest of the wide. For the truly hard-to-fit flat-backed horse, this is it. Plus, it thoughtfully offers a built-in crupper hook and comes in seat sizes ranging from 15" to 19". This is a heavy saddle with dense, wide fiber panels.
Thornhill says the biggest market for this saddle is in the West, where big Quarter Horses show English. The suede flaps, knee pads and blocks underneath are probably fine on a medium tree but add almost too much width for us between the knees on the wide model. We found the laminated/machine-stitched billets too wide (1 1/4") for some girths, but the front billet is quadruple-stitched for extra strength, which we like. (Saddle oil can break down the glue on laminated billets causing the billets to split, but since these are stitched their life should be lengthened.) Since the seat was a medium depth and the flaps more straight, we tagged it as a dressage bias, but fine for low fences and pleasure/trail riding.

Thornhill Pro-Trainer^TMEvent
This $875 saddle was stable on a variety of horses, the cutback pommel with low-medium clearance, medium depth seat and slightly forward flaps give it a close-contact bias, a plus for many riders. We found a good four to five hole range in the stirrup adjustments, due to the generous cut of the flaps and the positioning of the knee and calf blocks. The calf block is set low, so it sits right behind the knee with dressage-length irons.
The outer flap is padded fore and aft, but the inner offers only a block in front of the knee. Long legs may seek more padding under "gappy" knees, but we were pleased with the differing body types that found this saddle comfortable. The panels are rather tick layers of felt, fiber and foam, which offer medium withers clearance. But rather than taper down to the inner flap, the square-shaped panels end in a thick blunt edge. At longer stirrup lengths, this felt like a "shelf" under the thigh. We'd like the panel edges tapered. The medium-grained leather is a good compromise between instant comfort and minimal break-in. we like this saddle for the widest variety of horses, riders and disciplines.

Thornhill's Germania Two-Phase Event

The $1095 fine grained German bridle-leather saddle was comfortable and "grippy" from day one, but it showed early wear. Premature wear is a trade-off for comfort, but for a second saddle or "guest" saddle we like the saddle.
This model offers more leg stabilizers than the Pro-Trainer: thick dual padded flaps, with knee pad and large, high block and prominent thigh block. The gussetted fiber panels set well on our horses', but the extended panel arms and maximum knee pads make a wide wing on a burly-shouldered horse.
The overall seat depth (Medium) and cut (fairly forward) place it closer to a cross-country bias, although it is close to close-contact.
The billets are 1 1/4" wide as opposed to the normal 1", too wide for some girths. It was difficult to push the billets through the and to tighten the girth while mounted.
We found the seat width skimpy. It measures only 10.5" across the widest part, a full inch less than most saddles in this category.
Women felt their seat bones on the edge. The tester who liked this saddle best was a thin male with long, bony legs. The narrow seat was not an issue, and the soft padded flaps were a plus. Also, the overall padding and long panel arms are nicely supportive on a slab-shouldered horse.