My Freeform Trial

Very interesting thread :).

I also decided to go down the treeless route with my horse as her weight can fluctuate, she has a flat back and no withers.

Although comfort for horse and rider are top priorities nI would strggle with anything too unconventional looking.

I've used a HM saddle, SBS one of the older HM saddles. Very comfortable to sit on, but I found it very unstable.
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I needed a Limpet pad with this saddle to keep it in place, my horse let me know she doesn't like Limpet pads in no uncertain terms :o.

I now use a GP Solution saddle
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Which stays where I put it with a normal numnah. My horse hasn't complained about it yet and we've done long pleasure rides, dressage and Trec in it.
I bought it from a Solution Saddle rep (it was her demo saddle) via ebay for £800 which I was happy to pay as they're twice that new and this had minimal use.
If you prefer the look of this saddle you could try Ansur saddles whic are basically the same but American, don't rule out American ebay for the ansur saddles ;).
 
I have a Freeform and it doesnt look anything like that one! I certainly wouldnt pay that sort of money for that saddle. The 17" seat is supposed to fit the short base but that one clearly doesnt??

I did have a bit of bother with my saddle moving around slightly. Firstly I used a bit of shelf liner between the pad and my horse and that made a major difference. Then I ended up buying a Mattes Treeless Pad with the pressure relief panels. That made all the difference (and was worth every expensive penny). All slipping or movement stopped immediately.

I didnt like the flexi girth though - my boy is a flat backed round cob and the flexi girth just didnt work for us unless we had it done up so tight it was cutting him in half:(.

I went treeless as I couldnt get a saddle to fit my ever changing and incredibly wide youngster. I did find though, as time went by, that I was having real bother with my hips - the freeform has more twist than most treeless saddles but I was still struggling. I finally went back to treed last year when my boy had stopped growing and this has helped my hips (and position - I can jump now, couldnt do it in the Freeform as I was in a terrible chair seat) but I have held onto the Freeform "just in case":D. I actually love riding in it on a slightly narrower horse, its so comfy. Its only on my boy that I feel so stretched that my hips hurt:(.

You can use your own stirrup leathers for a trial - just fasten them up at the bottom instead of at the ring and secure them with a rubber band. It will do to give you a better idea:D
 
whinney said:
Your horse has a similar problem to mine - a forward girth groove and flat back. If you look at the pic, the girth is not hanging vertical, but angles forwards when done up. This is what is pulling the saddle up on his neck when he bounces around.

I have a Freemax saddle and the girth hangs exactly the same on my horse as your pic. Guess what, it moves up on her neck after a mile or two. I also have a Dream Team saddle which has a more forwards girthing position, the girth hangs naturally vertically on her and it does not move at all (it is superbly comfy as well).

YES, the Dream Team might look 'ugly' (looks a bit like an Aussie stock saddle in the seat but with English flaps, knee rolls, etc) but my horse is an opinionated 4 yr. old TB and believe me, when her 'opinions' are shared out on a hack or in the school, that 'ugly' seat is a Godsend as it keeps you in the saddle, not on the ground!

(By the way, the 'Aussies' call classic English saddles 'Self-emptying saddles' and after you have ridden in an 'ugly' one, you can see why!)
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Yes he's exactly that, flat back, forward girth groove but with chunky withers...everything working against us, glad someone feels my pain. ;)

Now if he didn't have any withers or just had low ones, we'd be ok (at least we'd have more choice with treeless saddles), but because he does have withers but that was one of the good things about the Freeform saddle, because it was the model with the cut back pommel designed for horses with higher withers.

I thought because it had this different girthing system (unlike the Freemax) it would help but it didn't as you say and as I found out, the Freemax which is also one I tried (girthed up but didn't actually get on) was actually worse than the Freeform (as in where the girth straps fell) but I never took a photo of that one, the straps on the Freemax they were a lot further back, the lady who lent me it to try even found this, she even rang Freemax up and asked why do they design them like this, hence why she ended up with a Dream Team saddle on her TB (but had very low withers) she also loves her DT saddle and said it's amazing the difference it's made.

Now I really really liked the DT saddle (if you look at one of my previous posts 'Treeless Trials & Tribulations' ) you'll see I tried it, I didn't personally think it was that ugly neither, I was willing it to fit because I really liked it that much but the block in the pommel was still nipping and I correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think the DT saddles come with different size blocks like the Barefoot ones do? so the DT saddle didn't fit him either :(
 
That's interesting Skippysmum, wonder why yours doesn't look the same then? unless it's a different model perhaps or material?, the one they sent me was a Classic SB but in suede rather than leather, the seat on the one on the picture was a 16'' seat, they sent the 17'' as well but this then over lapped the back of the saddle and was clearly too big for the base, not sure why they sent it but I just presumed it was part and parcel of the saddle, I thought the 16'' seat was sent as the extra, until I looked at the invoice you had to buy either seat seperately.
 
Ashgove - By the way thank you for your feed back also :) and for posting those pictures, it's good to see both saddles close up.
 
im sure the DT saddle has a zip you can take the pommel block out of? or i might be thinking of another saddle but i saw on another forum they just filled it with bean bag sort of thing so it wasnt so ridgid
 
caroline23 said:
im sure the DT saddle has a zip you can take the pommel block out of? or i might be thinking of another saddle but i saw on another forum they just filled it with bean bag sort of thing so it wasnt so ridgid
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Yes your right they do have a zip in which made me originally think they might come in different sizes, so without sounding a bit dumb here, as I'm unsure, if you take the pommel out and stuff it, won't it then still press over the withers? I can see how it probably wouldn't effect a flat withered horse but I can't see how that idea would work with my horse :confused: one of the things that confused me about the barefoot 'soft pommel' not sure how it would work on my horse unless there was a cut away gap, isn't the brick pommel thing there to give some kinda of structure over the wither to prevent anything pulling down over that area? I'm sure once the saddle is girthed up (on my lad anyway) it would still press around his withers (if like people say you position a treeless further forward, which I'd need to do anyway to get it in line with his girth area.

I duno :confused:
 
ive heard some people with low withered horses have just removed the pommel bit and used shims on a treeless pad to get the clearance instead of replying on the pommel bit which your right it used to structure, if you join the forum on the new rider website there is lots about treeless in the tack section there are a few experts on there that have helped me!
 
A little update, I'm very interested in the Barefoot London (lastest model) I'd like to try the Barefoot London so rang Better Saddles but unfortunately they don't have this model to trial, only the only style cheyenne which is in use for another week, plus they won't send out different pommel widths (would of been handy then at least I could of played around with them to find out which one fitted best etc).

There is a couple on ebay, asked the seller of the second hand one if it's the old model but not got back to us yet, I could take a risk and buy a second hand one but again unless you've tried one it could be turn out to be wasted purchase, not so bad if it's only a cheaper second hand one but the one I like (the newer version) is £600 but it comes with a pad, leathers etc. so I'm umming and arrring about it at the moment.
 
I have been following your posts with great interest and thought I would share my own experience with barefoot saddles.

I am very traditional with saddlery and was really put off with the look of the barefoots and TBH still am slightly, but when I got my little mare she was so difficult to fit any type of saddle to I thought I would just give it a go and see what i thought to one. Now I didnt have much money to spend but wanted something that would fit her well, didn't want to give her any reason to play up :rolleyes: so decided I would try the cherokee. (they also hold their value well if you wanted to re sell it)

I have to say it was the best decision I have made to do with saddles. There are draw backs but the good points really out weight the downsides.
I would highly recommend them! (I dont work for them either :D )

The downsides I found were,
The saddle can slip a bit, but this is very nearly resolved by using the physio pad.
It looks UGLY :D
The pommel thing is quite hard, but you can replace it with sponge to make it softer
The good points,
I have used it on 3 very different shaped horses and it was fine on all of them.
It really improved my horses way of going and has really helped me to feel what the horse is doing under me
I feel really safe in it

If you can deal with the strange looks when you ride in it, it really is a lovely saddle. I would recommend you at least try one :D
 
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