That's the price of a brand new English saddle from
Braymere Custom Saddlery.

I didn't choose that number arbitrarily. It's based on several factors including a reasonable hourly wage for me, the cost of supplies and prices of comparable model saddles from other
tackmakers. Honestly, I think I could charge a bit more, but for the time being, I'm pretty comfortable at two hundred dollars.
Still, there are always going to be some people who think that is way,
way too much for a "toy" saddle. These are usually the same people who feel compelled to tell me that they could buy a
real saddle for that amount.
I know I shouldn't be bothered by that, but it's hard not to get a little defensive. And the truth of the matter is that while you can buy a real saddle for $200, unless you are very lucky, you can't buy a real
good saddle for that amount.
With this in mind, I set out to find and photograph every single saddle costing $200 or less at the Rocky Mountain Horse Expo trade show. Here are the results of that search.
First up is this pink synthetic saddle. At $89 it was less than half the price of a
BCS saddle.

This brown synthetic saddle was just a bit more at $99.

At $125 this was the least expensive leather saddle I could find.

If you prefer English, this old battered close contact saddle was $150 with fittings. I didn't think to look, but I'd be willing to bet that the Pakistani looking brown saddle on the bottom of the stack was even less.

This used Western saddle with partial
buckstitching cost exactly $200.

At $230
OBO this Western saddle is technically a budget buster. Still, I suspect that an offer of $200 would have been gratefully accepted.
So, there you have it--one model saddle and six real saddles that cost $200 or less. If you prefer any of these real saddles to my model saddle that's fine by me. Just don't feel compelled to tell me about it,
ok?