Torsion Saddle - help!

[casspks]

Does anyone know anything about the torsion GP saddles. I am considering buying one for hacking and fun rides, i normally ride in a dressage saddle but going up and down hills in the dressage saddle is no fun especially as i am a nervous rider anyway. What are the Torsion GP saddles like to ride in are they comfortable and does your bum stay in the saddle!:D

[No_Angel]

I have a similar type to a torsion, a trekker talent, when i first got it i thought it was fab, really held me in, but after having my konklusion and then fhoenix i feel really open and exposed:eek: I have a freeform aswell (similar price to the torsion) and much better in my opinion:D

[jovi_y2k2]

i used to really like the torsion saddles but after selling them and having to deal with the company we've stopped selling them now unless a customer requests one as they are really crappy to deal with, the saddles themselves are good its just aftersales care thats rubbish!

[gordo]

Loathed the saddle entirely! Flat and slippy to sit on, hard to grip and very expensive. Now have the Barefoot Cheyenne, better leather, very comfy and half the price! See www.horseandharmony.co.uk

[FRED]

At 1st I had trouble sitting in canter especially on the more extravagant horses,my legs swinging all over the place/a number of my friends experienced the same problem too.
We put this down to a complete lack knee rolls.
Now I don't miss knee rolls at all:) ,can't understand why there needed outside jumping,I feel secure as I ever will and have no problems with the saddle slipping,balance or faster work,I love the saddle and have no problems going down hill or with riding setting my stirupps as long as long can be.

One horse had quiet a nasty trip down hill at walk,I sat like glued to the saddle, the horse recovered easily with me staying balanced and still .
I will occasionally use a HM hip saver because you certainly feel the width of the horse.

The Barefoot is a nice saddle too and overhaul has better feed back,but I can't go into details, {sorry because it would not be ethical.}

I prefer the Torsion and probably will have a Fhoenix one day:) .

[Brychen]

couldnt find it on her site, my trekker causes me gip re the hips but puts me in the best postion ever for me re upper body...just off to do a 12 mile pelasure ride tommorrw , oh throb ache!

p.s. funnily enough I could never sit my bouncy cobs canter until I got this saddle!

[Emerald_city]

me :) i have 1 !

its lovely! so comfortable for me and also puzzles back mussles have improved amazingly and his paces are much more relaxed and free moving.

We will be doing trekking in it next yr , and his old owner took him 30 miles in it and said they both ended up finishing still comfy no rubbing/saddle sore or anything :)

xx sara xx

[KarinUS]

We love our Torsion saddle... but:
we got it after riding bareback for 8 months so it feels like lots of saddle and security to us.
And we ride Western/Trails in it so our technique may be quite different.

One thing if you do get one: make sure you get a good treeless pad for it!

[jinglejoys]

Ah Fred-you make me feel old,when I was taught to ride there was no such thing as knee rolls and guess what?--we jumped anyway:D

[FRED]

:) yesterday I was talking to a retired farmer who used to hunt and now drives a horse ambulance, He looked at the Barefoot sadle and asked lots of questions about Treeless.
He said he could see one problem and asked if I could see the problem?.
I said do you mean for jumping, he said no:) , the sadle offers you no protection if a horse was to fall traping the riders leg :eek:

I said ah but we use safety stirrups, he replied that they didn't look very good for the horses side if the hores fell onto them:eek:

Its always a dilema when it comes down to some things in the horsey world:D
;) not saying who, but I have seen a very famous NH person jump with no bridel, no sadle either:cool:

[doris]

I also have a Barefoot Cheyenne and think it's a good saddle for the price and I find it comfortable to sit and ride in.

[Brychen]

Just a quick update, I did what was going to be a ten mile pleasure ride with my Trekker talent today. I was a bit worried as i was concerned it might hurt my hips and laos about it being on my horses withers.

To cut a long story short we enjoyed the ride so much we neded up doing the 18 miles route:rolleyes: My horse moved very freely down hill often so what more freely than I wanted:cool: ! he felt very happy in the saddle, my hips were fine and when I got off he had no marks on his withers what so ever.

A lot of peoepl on the ride asked me about the saddle and also were very complimentary on how both of us looked in it. I can really recomend them. We also jumped a log ( I was expecting to trot over it:) ) and its not quite like a treed saddle but he jumped really well, I could also ride his shys before they happened. I have a top of the range Albion but I really am much happeir in my cheapo trekker as is my horse.:p

P.s.I would have thought if a horse fell on you or worse rolled over you with a treed saddle it would do much more damage to you and the horse surely as the frame would press against both where as a treeless could not do that.

[FRED]

I couldn't find the HM hip saver on the EE web site, so I got mine from Better Saddles after a member here kindly guided me that way, there is a link on the right hand side of the NR pages>
I use mine when riding the very wide cobs and its just the perfect solution for my hips.{I get my leg pulled about Seat Savers:p }

Cheapo saddle or very good value for money saddle , something rare these days.
I have read of stirrup bar pressure problems/sores on the horses side too with treeless, but in all honesty I can't help thinking this may be a rider issue.
I haven't seen any stirrup bar problems myself, the most common fault I see is owners fitting the saddle about 1 to 2 inches to far forward which usually affects the girth position too,being to far forward.Oddly with treed saddles its usually a case of fitting 1 to 2 inches to far back that's a problem.

I think the retired farmer/hunter has seen many incidents in the hunting field, this reflecting the reasoning of his questions which I thought very reasonable,{I have never hunted or watched a hunt} if we look at the western saddle and you watch how a good rancher rides, its rare their horse falls and just think about the saddle horn and the athletic manoeuvres of their horse in a difficult environement.

So I wouldn't worry, I did think the guy had a very valid comment about the shape of safety stirrups, its a dilemma really when we analyze things that might happen.The ground maybe real soft and there be no problem at all if the horse fell onto a safety stirrup or rolled over