I know a lot of Saddle Co saddles are sold via Saddlecheck fitters, who have been trained by Kay Humphries and work closely with the Saddle Co and Barry Swain amongst others. Cathy Holloway did ours, she came and did an initial fitting and took a template for the saddle to be made to. The new saddle is then sent direct to you or she will bring it on her next visit, in our case it was the former, so it was well bedded in by the time she came. The check was extremely thorough, with the horse ridden at all paces and even jumped, and a further wither pattern taken.
You only pay for the first visit, and there was no sales pitch. If the saddle has to be sent back for minor alteration this is free of charge, they have an excellent track record in customer care. You put a deposit down, naturally but aren't expected to pay the balance until you have the saddle and are happy with it. Do a search on 'saddle co' on
www.intelligenthorsemanship.co.uk for some glowing recommendations.
I've heard and seen first hand so many bad things about the saddlers in this part of the world that I'd be hard pushed to trust any of them. The only one that is supposed to be OK is the chap from Throstle Nest at Silkstone Common.
The Throwogood Cob saddle is quite nice, but wasn't wide enough for Rio, I don't think its a lot different size wise to the Wintec XW plate.
It amazes me that up to now mass market saddles have stopped at 'XW' there are so many horses out there that are wider, some much more. If the angle of the shoulder and the saddle don't match and you can drive a bus under the pommel then its too narrow