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Post by jadehollinshead on Jan 4, 2009 22:22:55 GMT 1
those solution saddles look good.... bit tooo far out of the price bracket haha not sure what kind of back marley has, the withers are his main problem, hes higher than normal lets say, which has proved a bit of an obstacle when getting him sorted. the treed saddle we were going to have fitted was a Woodseaves Saddlery saddle... made by Martin Gulliver, they are sooo nice, i love it, we paid £600 for it, 3rd hand, and it will cost £350 to have it made to fit marley as it needs a new tree fitted into it... which bumps it up to £950, we took the saddle to martin, he valued it as it is as £800, so we would lose out really.... and my mums done some research into treeless, and shes beginning to have her mind changed to treeless, so i think candys going with her fitted saddle and we are investing in some type of treeless saddle, whichever make it may be
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Post by julz on Jan 4, 2009 22:26:56 GMT 1
have a look on ebay... sometimes you can find, solutions on there for a cheaper deal than brand new.... still ask someone from solutions to fit and balance, then off ya go...!!
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potto
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Post by potto on Jan 5, 2009 11:25:50 GMT 1
I am interested in treeless saddles with the ' fibre glass bits in front and back'... If people have chosen to remove them... what effect does that have.. do we know and what have they chosen to stuff them with??? can we get bits of memory foam to refill them with from anywhere???
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Post by ladynowak on Jan 5, 2009 12:04:55 GMT 1
There are so many different types of treeless saddle that its hard to give a definitive yes or no answer.
Now, I think part tree'd saddles have a better place than fully treeless saddles. I don't like treeless saddles, I don't like the way the cheaper ones distribute weight and generally I am rather sceptical. I had an SBS for my arab and it caused the most awful pressure points and my CBx wouldn't tolerate it so I wasn't converted!
You just have to go by trail and error and keep a close eye on any pressure points. Ideally rent a port lewis pad to have a look at how the weight is distributed.
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Post by Amanda (S Yorks) on Jan 5, 2009 14:57:44 GMT 1
My mare has been ridden in treeless saddles for the last 6yrs or so (well, minus time off which has never been saddle related). I had a Fitform to begin with, bought primarily because I couldn't get a treed saddle to fit due to injury related muscle wastage. My mare rebuilt all the missing muscle and more in not much time at all. I "upgraded" to a Freeform because it looked more traditional but this didn't suit my mare as well and I didn't keep it for very long. I then bought a HM SBS, which I had for a couple of years and really liked for schooling but had a nightmare with it slipping when hacking.
I went to a Saddle Co treed saddle but had to have the fitter out every month to adjust it as my mare built muscle and changed shape. Even then it couldn't be made to fit perfectly and would slip to her weaker side, which would have caused problems in the long run. I sold this when I thought my mare had to be fully retired due to arthritis.
Miraculously, my mare is now back in full work, and is also back in a Fitform. It suits her best of all the treeless saddles and she's pretty much rebuilt all of the muscle wastage that she had as a result of a lot of time out of work.
From a rider point of view, I prefer the support of a treed saddle, but my horse doesn't, so we stay treeless.
There is no one "fits all" treeless saddle available though, and buying a treeless doesn't give you carte blanche to plonk the saddle on and never give it a moments thought. I personally also think that treeless puts far more onus on the rider to have a correctly balanced and secure seat, which not all people possess.
As for the person who commented that a treeless saddle automatically equates to a horse with a sunken back, cobblers! I see far more horses with dippy backs as a result of poor riding than I do due to treeless saddles.
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Post by moongirl on Jan 5, 2009 15:06:14 GMT 1
My Icey is really hard to fit for a saddle, she is very flat and wide and has a high bum and short back. I did lots of research into treeless saddles and tried a few. I now have a Freeform SB and really like it, I find it really comfy and as far as I can tell so does Mani.
I got mine on ebay second hand, which is a good idea, as if you don't get on with it you can re sell it.
I would be very wary of some of the cheaper ones though.
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Post by waverider on Jan 6, 2009 15:03:14 GMT 1
This is really interesting as i have experience of both hm saddles and woodseaves saddlery treed saddles. I got my very fussy hard to fit ( flat back, croup high, no withers,)horse back in april. I was told he prefered to be ridden in a treeless- he came with an sbs saddle. As the weeks passed we realised ( we being freinds and instructors- e.e instructor at that) the saddle was collapsed at the front ie it was unbalanced and downhill.This was putting me in a really weird position - think breastroke!!And every time i rode it slipped to the right. So i shimmed the front up with a wither pad- worked for a day or two and then the pommel just opened up more.looked into having saddle repaired/ restuffed it was going to cost £200 and nurseys said they couldnt guarantee it would work.So i tried a borrowed fheonix with suberpad, i personally didnt like it as i felt i was wobbling about up on top of the suberpad, i just felt too far away from the horse- plus i fell off at a gallop, not the saddles fault more not doing the girth up enough. The vet then came out to a stifle issue and saw him ridden in the sbs - he advised me to get rid of it and get another new saddle either treeless or treed but that the old hm sbs was causing him problems. I personally think that the new heather moffett saddles are good, and as i am inspired by the whole e.e ethos i really, really wanted to be able to ride him in a hm saddle,but because of my bad experience with the old one i got with my horse ( i think it was about 4/5 years old) it has put me off. The other thing to consider is your own balance and riding ability- i i have scoliosis of the spine so am crooked - so this would be highlighted in the treeless saddles, which is why i made the decision to have a woodseaves saddlery one made to order, its is treed and it fits well and is made beautifully. It is taking some getting used to though in that i cant feel the horse so well and he cant feel me so well, and not sure if this may become an issue- more spooky ( but could be other reasons for that)-however i cant fault the saddle fit at all, and his back has started to muscle up much better. But just because the saddle fits- doesnt mean the horse likes it and one thing i have found is that it can take several months for a problem to show up, if a horse doesnt like a saddle they dont always show you straight away. Other treeless that have been reccomended for him is the fit form -which i dont think is made any more i think its called freeform now-( but he doesnt like those apparantly) Its a nightmare isnt it - one thing i did think of is hiring saddles to see how they worked - as it were - and there is a company that does that but they dont hire treeless. Good luck with your saddle search, i know what its like!!!!!
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Post by maggie555 on Jan 6, 2009 18:09:08 GMT 1
I've just switched from a Torsion Endurance to a Startrekk Icelandic saddle, both treeless. I've had the Torsion for years and found it very useful as I was riding many different horses and I could adjust it (with a proper pad) to fit most of them. The horses were always happy. But, as with this kind of saddle, the seat is very wide, not comfortable for me. The new Startrekk looks and feels like a treed saddle, has built-in spinal clearance and an adjustable gullet (like the wintecs). The saddle is a German make, very good quality but also very expensive (990), and will become more expensive what with the exchange rate. I can recommend it. It has proper panels, so no problem with pressure points from the stirrups and safety stirrup hangers.
I recommend browsing the archives of the "treelesssaddles" yahoo group for information on almost all brands of treeless saddles.
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Post by Amanda (S Yorks) on Jan 7, 2009 12:18:39 GMT 1
I am interested in treeless saddles with the ' fibre glass bits in front and back'... If people have chosen to remove them... what effect does that have.. do we know and what have they chosen to stuff them with??? can we get bits of memory foam to refill them with from anywhere??? My Fitform has wooden inserts at pommel and cantle, shaped the same as the newer fibreglass inserts. I recently removed mine from the pommel for a couple of reasons. It was mostly to do with my position and how I sit in the saddle, my instructor felt the pommel was hindering this. She also has the same saddle so understands how it works and how it affects riding. I had wondered if the pommel was a touch too narrow now that my mare has muscled up a lot and had been contemplating removing it, so when my instructor suggested it I gave the ok. It's been about a month since I did that and the only negative effect is that when cantering downhill I don't have the nice safety net of a big pommel to catch me if I tip a bit too far forwards! Otherwise it's not caused any problems so far and my mare seems to have gained muscle in her wither/shoulder area. I have her checked monthly by a bowen therapist (who also is my instructor) and she has regular massage sessions, so any problems would hopefully be picked up early on. So far there are none. I haven't stuffed my pommel with anything, the pocket seems to hold it's shape pretty well regardless. If I get round to it I might pack it with some felt fabric I have lying around. You can purchase normal foam from fabric shops, that might be worth looking at if you wanted to replace the block with something more moveable.
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