*Poll* Which type of saddle?

[Cliqmo]

My brain is fried with looking at various types of saddle and hearing the +/- of all of them! Therefore I have devised a quick poll to find out who is really using what!

If I have missed out any obvious options please let me know!

NB "conventional" refers to any widely available saddle that has a traditional wooden/metal tree and wool/similar flocking

 

[CBAnglo]

There are so many different makes of saddles out there, and lots with changeable gullets, adjustable trees, adjustable panels, treeless, half trees etc etc that the best thing when buying a new saddle is to get as many fittings as possible to see which suits you and your horse the best.

Of course people compromise, for e.g. where they have a youngster bound to change shape, or a fat/thin horse who is being brought back into work etc etc. but I guess you have to factor in that you will go through a couple of saddles until they stop changing, unless you go for something adjustable.

Find a good saddler in your area and get them out to see what they think. Often people are surprised by what actually does fit them and their horse.

 

[Rowreach]

I have 6 horses/ponies of my own and 3 Solution treeless saddles (dressage, jumping and GP). I am more than happy with this set-up

Any other horses which come and go on the yard can be ridden in treeless, whereas before I used to have to keep around 10 conventional saddles in the tack room and still quite often didn't have a suitable one to fit.

Everyone has their views on conventional/unconventional saddles, but tbh I've seen a lot of rubbish (including this week as it happens) written on here about treeless.

Some treeless saddles, particularly at the lower end of the market, are bad for the horse and a potential death trap for the rider. The top end are not, if they, like conventional saddles, are used properly. These companies do not claim that "one saddle fits all", but rather that "one saddle can be fitted to all" - which is a big difference.

I wouldn't go back to treed saddles.

 

[nuffield]

having used several types of saddle on various horses over the years I've come to the conclusion that taken overall, you cant beat a conventionl saddle. As one old saddler said to me once "Horses backs and peoples bums havent changed".

 

[Ali2]

I've put I've got more than 1 unconventional saddle cos i have 2 WOWs so it seemed the best fit but the WOW has air panelling and an unconventional tree so I could have been in 3 categories.

I fear this poll may confuse you further LOL!

 

[Coffee_Bean]

I would be interested to ride in a dressage/jumping treeless as I had some shitty one which was really awful. One painful ride was enough for me!

I hate hate hated my wintec too, that had cair and an interchangeable gullet and was generally crap, ill fitting and uncomfy.

I now have a keiffer, 2nd hand, leather GP, it is away for reflocking as we speak, but I prefer it to any treeless I have ridden in (which to be fair is only one) or any synthetic.

 

[Silverspring]

I have one free'n'easy for one horse

 

[Hollycat]

I have a WOW that I loved but sadly did not fit my new horse as the tree shape/type was wrong!!!! I then bought her an Amerigo dressage saddle though not sure what it would be classified as since it is pretty conventional but there are different trees/shapes to suit horses with diferent back conformation, and once you select the correct saddle for that horses back the width can then be changed as the horse changes shape/grows etc. I also have a wintec Isabelle that doesn't fit current horse. I will need a jumping saddle at some point but will really need to sell the WOW, Wintec and my soul as it costs almost £3000!

 

[Cliqmo]

An Amerigo? I will look them up?! Ta x

 

[Hollycat]

The Amerigo website is Cr*p! It doesn't really tell you what you need to know. It is a fantastic saddle though and I am very, very happy with it. My four year old works forward, swinging nicely through her back so she obviously finds it comfy too. Its also nice to hack out in and not hard and uncomfortable like some dressage saddles. I can put my stirrups up enough to feel safe on my baby and can take a forward seat when cantering etc with no probs. The jumping ones are lovely too - that is my next purchase when I can afford it!