Barefoot saddles

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gwniver

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Hi , I have a few question about barefoot treeless saddles . I have a Cheyenne that just doesn't seem to be working for us , it seems to be just a bit tight and cumbersome around his shoulders , though there is no physical signs of this , and it is not touching his withers or spin . It also slips forwards if we have been riding for longer than 10 minutes . Is there anything I can do to remedy this ? My horse has a very strange shape ...
I am thinking about selling this saddle , and scraping together some savings to buy a new barefoot saddle , but I have no idea of what model I would go for . Also I never ride with stirrups , and we rarely ride for longer than half an hour . I wasn't really expecting for us to ride regularly , but we are enjoying it so much .
Any help is greatly appreciated
 
Can I ask what pommel you have in? I actually took the pommel out and replaced it with toy stuffing, as my lad is quite wide, and that seemed to work well.
Mine never slipped forwards though, do you have the barefoot saddle pad underneath?

I've got the London (which I had as a "spare" and was glad of it when my albion no longer fitted), although I am going to be selling it as I've now got a HM Flexee - these look like a conventional treed saddle, but the tree is made from leather and it moulds to your horses back.

Perhaps the cashel saddle pad or a bareback pad would work for you if you don't use stirrups? I had a lovely bareback pad that I got from america.
 
Thank you for your reply , yes I use the recommended barefoot grandeur pad underneath . I never know about bareback pads ... I was thinking about buying one of those Christ lemmfelle ones , but I ended up starting to make one from some old sheepskin rugs I have .
 
Saw a Christ Lammefelle in action the other day and it looked soooo comfy! Otherwise maybe consider a Thorn pad deluxe? Can be used with or without stirrups and has knee and thigh rolls if you go for the deluxe plus.
 
You need to remove the pommel, and use either toy/cotton wool stuffing or leave it empty. It worked for mine, although I am selling my cheyenne now as I have a lovely new Solution dressage saddle
 
I have both a Cheyenne and a Christ Lamfelle pad :)

The Christ pad saved us when we were going through our endless procession of treed saddles that didn't work. It helped me to compare how the horse went when he felt great about what was on his back with how he went when something various saddle fitters had assured me was perfect but which was clearly not perfect was on his back ;)

After all the saddle issues, in frustration and on the recommendation of our physio I bought a Cheyenne. I don't get on great with it - I find it tips me forward - but the horse is as happy in it as he is in the Christ pad, so we're keeping it :D
In terms of fit, I had to try several different under saddle pads before getting the one that he liked, and even then I had to work with shims to make it sit as it should. I am another who has removed the pommel and replaced it with stuffing (in our case, socks :D ).
So a few things to try - see if stuffing the pommel makes a difference, and see if you can get hold of different pads. I have tried the Barefoot Grandeur pad (didn't work for us), a Haf pad (almost worked), an Equitex (pulled down over the withers) and finally a Christ treeless pad. The horse obviously likes his sheepskin ;) The Christ pad with one set of full shims and one set of half shims over the wither area sits really well and this is our current set up. We've been riding in this for a year now, and the physio can hardly believe how well he's developed over his topline :) I do use stirrups with the Cheyenne, but I guess after a year or so of riding on the Lamfelle pad I don't put much weight in them most of the time. I've also dealt with the rider position issue by adding a pommel bolster (same material as the shim, but located under the seat pads just behind the pommel).
 
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