Treeless Saddle Questions!

[Tor&Warrior]

Sorry if this is long.............

When Flyte returns from his holiday over the winter I'm going to be buying him a new leather dressage saddle. I've started looking around already and haven't liked ones that I've seen and I've looked at absolutley thousands. I've either heard rather awful things about them, their poor quality and ridiculous prices or just majorly uncomfortable. At the moment he has a Wintec Isabell and although I love it I really want a leather saddle as I paid alot of money for it and its already showing wear! Its been fitted and then checked three times and we've only had it 3 months. Although I think its the best fit I could get unless I had it made to measure I'm still not totally happy. It looks fine I just don't feel that Flyte finds it fine and doesn't move and use him self as he could and I don't think he's as happy and comfortable as he should and could be. And because of this I'm not happy about just changing my saddle to the leather version, which is what I had decided, as it the identicle saddle so the problems would still be the same. And its £1200 which is rather off putting! Its not the fit which is the problem, more than the saddle just seems so rigid and leaves him little movement. I have found this with all the saddles that I've tried on him and had fitted.

He's extremley sensitive anyway. He gets very tense in his back, where the back of the saddle sit and regually has to see the pysio. When I bought him the saddle he came with, and had been rideen in for 2 years had a broken tree. When I tack him up he always looks so unhappy (usually a very happy person!) as soon as he sees his saddle and even when I put just the numnah on (always separate the numnah & saddle) he's ears pinned back and biting at me and the girth is always done up incredibly loose and he'll get lunged for 5-10 minutes before evry ride before the girth is done tight. But still hates the girth being done up.

So I'm now really considering getting him a treeless, and am very drawn to the Flexion SBS Dressage Treeless Saddle as it looks wonderful and I'd be able to compete in it wth no worries of funny looks.

So just a few questions:D !........

What is it like to ride in and how does it compare to a traditional dressage saddle?

Would it be practical for competition, possibly up to affilliated level?

How stable are they, not slipping moving etc if the horse was to buck, rear, spook etc. Flyte is very spooky so it would be essential a saddle could cope with this and although he doesn't buck & rear regually he'll often have mad broncing or rearing out bursts (although they may stop if there saddle related!!!) but I'd need to know that if he did start the saddle wasn't going to disapear from beneath me!:D

For what I want to do, dressage possibly to affilliated level, hacking and possibly one off fun rides (although I'll keep my jumping so that could be used instead) do you think this saddle would the best or is there other you would reccomend?

Do you think that Flyte could benefit from a treeless with the problems he is experiencing from tradtional saddles?

And anything else you want to say!

Thanks in advance. Anything else you think would be useful to know please feel free to put!

Torx

[nix]

Hi Tor

It might be worth posting this on the Enlightened Equitation forum http://www.enlightenedequitation.com/members/forums/index.php in the "Saddles" section?

It sounds to me though it would be worth giving the Flexion a go as it is a dressage saddle that you are interested in. The Torsion/Freeform types are now allowed in dressage competitions, but I'm not sure up to what level. The BDA rules are that the saddle must be "English in appearance", I believe. The most conventional looking treeless saddles are the Flexion and Ansurs.

I retail and offer trials of the Flexion SBS, so obviously I'm going to be biased ;) :) , but having ridden in both the Flexion and the Ansur, I do prefer the Flexion and found it much more comfortable. Feel free to have a look at my website too. :)

[Yann]

I'm not biased;) but I think it would be well worth a try. I personally found the SBS dressage very comfortable and stable, and feelwise pretty much like riding in a normal saddle with a seatsaver on. It would certainly solve your fitting issues, my only reservation was how incredibly stiff it was, but apparently they do soften and break in with a bit of use?

[Tor&Warrior]

Thanks Nix. I've posted it on the other forum. I've looked at your webiste to which is very helpful.

Thanks Yann. I've also heard it feels rather stiff, but then have also heard it does supple up.

Torx