Edix Union “bareback pad” for everyday saddle?

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zoon

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I have a semi retired horse who now just hacks once or twice a week with frequent periods of time off. His saddle is needing frequent adjustments because of his irregular work schedule, which isn’t helping to make it more regular!

I am considering ditching the treed saddle and getting a treeless for him as I would be confident in adjusting padding and shims to balance it.

My issue is that he is incredibly wide, but still with a high wither and I am rather small, so finding a saddle that accommodates our differing shapes has been a challenge and I think treeless will be even more difficult with their lack of twist to support my little hips on very large wide horse. Please no suggestions of a total contact - it just wouldn’t be comfortable for me!

I’m also not a fan of how they look generally - I want something more traditional looking, but without the huge price tag of a solution saddle

So I saw the Edix Union bareback pad. Which looks like a treeless saddle to me and not a bareback pad at all. Looks fairly conventional and that it’d accommodate his wither. Plus the padding on top to give it a bit of a “twist” for my comfort.

But as a bareback pad, is it suitable as his regular saddle? I’d be riding with stirrups, but only a couple of times per week and low intensity rides.
 
I don’t know but am watching with interest because I need a treeless dressage saddle for competitions for two of mine. I’ve been looking at the Union - but can’t find any second hand and it’s a bit pricey to buy new just to see!
 
OK...... you say "no Total Contact Saddle" (TCS) - but I am someone who disliked this saddle intensely the first time I tried it! - but then tried again with a different set-up (and the addition of the padded seat you can get to go with them) - and I simply cannot ride on any other saddle right now!

So firstly let's look at treeless saddles. You are right in saying that a lot of them (the vast majority in fact) put you wide. If you've got an already wide horse, then that's not what you want at all. Mine is wide (very!) and I realised early on that the Barefoot saddles were just not going to work on mine, who is also very short-backed (and unlike yours OP, low withered).

Torsion was better: but it did make her quite sore I recall. The problem with a lot of treeless saddles is they have the rigid pommel in them; and if you don't get the sizing right then they can dig in to the horse's withers/trapezius area horribly and cause issues.

With your horse's high wither, one particular treeless saddle I could suggest would be the TreeFree ones. They may be OK. I had a Tor (the new one they brought out) and it was fine on my old horse, but on my current mare, nope, it just didn't fit and wasn't stable. But it might suit yours? They have three saddles in their range: the Exmoor (with knee rolls), the Dartmoor (no knee rolls), and the Tor (a narrower twist & looks more like a traditional saddle). The thing I dislike about the Tor however is the dang snap-on saddle flaps! PITA. But they are nice saddles.

Freemax? Probably not for a high-withered horse. Heather Moffatt? hmmm....... possibly (personally I'm not a fan of her saddles!). However, I wonder whether the Trekker saddle "might" be good to try, as I believe they have an adjustable front gullet?? I'd have a look and see what's on Ebay, you can always sell it again if it doesn't suit (good luck selling ANYTHING on ebay though! It's a total disaster now they've changed everything).

Sorry, probably not being much help.

Ohh with the TCS - I tried it originally and hated it. Everything about it! Then tried again a while later as was desperate for a saddle-solution, using much less padding before, AND adding the padded-seat, and found that I could actually ride in it. My pony can't have a traditional treed saddle as she is very short-backed, and this is an ideal solution. Anyway, just thought I'd add that in, it might just be worth another try! At my yard one of my liveries uses the TCS on her TB; I use mine on my cob. Two totally different horses, but yet the same saddle can be adapted for both.
 
kaiserchief said:
@Hallo2012 has one and seems to rate it, she's put some photos on this thread: https://forums.horseandhound.co.uk/threads/treeless-saddle-where-to-buy.847929/#post-15913715

There's also a secondhand one for sale on Marketplace at the moment: https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/957626193527611/?ref=search&referral_code=null&referral_story_type=post&tracking=browse_serp:791840c5-3193-4dde-9ce0-6d73a738fe19
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thanks!

i do and i LOVE it, narrow twist and super stable.

used it on an XXW welsh and a TB and both went well in it.

had zero issues with pressure points with the slight caveat that i only weigh 8 stone but i do know plenty of people in the 9-11stone weight bracket also using the for daily sadddle with NO issues.
 
sbloom said:
There are treeless saddles with quite narrow twists out there. Unless you're very light in your stirrups a treeless saddle is likely to be better.
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Why does it class as a bareback pad rather than a treeless saddle? It looks more like the latter compared to a Christ lammfelle for example
 
Treeless on wide ponies can be difficult! Freeform treeless saddles have a fairly narrow twist and are't TOO weird looking, I have had them work pretty well on a horse with high withers before after careful shimming. I really can't see any reason why the addition of a decent shimmed pad under that edix union bareback pad it wouldn't be perfectly suitable for hacking out on a retiree if you think the saddle shape would otherwise be good for you.
 
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