Which Sopris saddle

[Mountain_girl]

We have used the Rookie saddles on our goats for a few years & also have one of the Lumbar saddles sets as well. I would have to agree with everything that Nanno has said. They are a great fit and easy on the goats without wear spots or hair pinching for the most part. The quality of the panniers themselves amaze me. Our goats have raked them on rocks, ripped them through underbrush & caught them on plenty of downfall branches & they look just like new. The attachments & straps take a but of practice but once you have it down, they are a very stable system. We have had one or (rarely) both of the pannier's attachments pop out on the Rookie sets (not the Lumbar maybe because they are so big & the weight settles lower). It seems to happen on really steep decents or gnarly tangles of brush & branches usually when the goats have to jump over deadfalls. Spring clips would solve that & I've wondered about adding them myself as that is my only complaint. The saddles are a fantastic low profile design that never catches when a goat crawls under trees, etc. unlike our crossbuck models from Northwest. The Lumbar saddle is big. Really big. The panniers are huge as well. Our goats are Alpines that weigh about 235# and stand 38" at the withers with long backs. The Lumbar saddle is pushing the limits on the length of their backs and I cannot imagine ever loading a goat to full capacity in those panniers mostly because it would limit their movement cross-country. The rookie panniers have served us well but on longer trips at least 2 of the goats are often at max capacity before they are at max weight. I haven't really wished for bigger panniers except on longer (5-7 day) trips or when we are packing in multiple people but that is the reason that we picked up the larger set as well as a couple rigs from Northwest. The straps on both systems seem more than adequate for securing loads appropriate to their capacity. If your goats are really large, the Lumbar set will do everything you ever need it to and you wouldn't have to buy multiples to adjust for length of trips. Just my two cents worth!