Total contact saddle? Whos tried it?

I'm more of an anti-social network person :D;) No faceache for me.

I'm sure (well, almost) that the prices have changed in the last week or so. I'm trying to sell a saddle at the mo, which will hopefully contribute most of the cost of the TC. I'm a little bit excited about it!

I'm a couple of miles south of Newton Abbot, where are you?
 
Is it charged at £205 or something like that because that's what it was on a couple weeks ago.

I'm on dartmoor nr yelverton! So fairly close!
 
I'm probably going daft, or maybe got the price mixed up with euros on the Italian site. Doh!

When's your saddle coming?

We've got friends over Yelverton way. It's scary over the moor! :eek::p:D
 
Claribella, do let us know how you get on once you get your saddle, will be quite interesting to find out what someone else thinks of it once they experience it :)
 
beausmate-hehe:) I love it here! So much open space to ride and cordeo. Dont need a school out this way:) So two or three people on another site have orddered (I beleive I should be getting commision lol) and it was one seven five plus seven quid postage:)

ppp-I will let you know how we go! It should arrive either tomorrow or mon. Tues at the lastest:)

blond1 will check out the link thanks:)

OHHHHHHHHHHH exited!

On a positive note the physio came out yesterday and said that her back certainly isnt sore from the saddle she is in at the moment so Im pleased about that:) Its a treeless and Ive fitted it myself so I was a bit worried that maybe I hadnt done a good enough job fitting it. I worry about everything concerning my horse! Its silly:)
 
Oh shush.:( I'm really jealous of people with nice hacking, it's a bit pants around here-not as bad as the last place, but pants all the same. :( The last time I cantered on a hack was three years ago when the horses were the other side of the country! I always thought Devon would be a nice place for horses, but it doesn't seem so unless you're on the moor. You're too jammy :p

Wonder if the TC will be a good thing to have next week? It's due to get cold, so no saddle underneath, more horsey body heat to warm you up! :D Too jammy again!!
 
Yes I have to say my last yard was rubbish for hacking and I lost my passion for riding really. The reason we moved to where we are is because of the riding.

The saddle still isnt here but it has been posted but to be fair the winds here today and yesterday are unbelievable so I wouldnt ride anyway. Will post up as soon as Ive given it a good go which might take me some time:)
 
I did try it very very briefly but it appears that everything is against me at th moment! The saddle arrived and my dressage girth was too short so ordered a longer on which took flipping ages to arrive. Tried it very quickly but it was clear i needed a gel pad and thicker numnah. I was hoping to use my bareback pad but it just didnt work. The next day my girl went lame with a suspected pull so was box rested fr six days and I didn't get around to ordering a gel pad. Rode her out bareback a couple of days whilst waiting for stuff and today I go up to find that her leg is all swollen! Grrrr! There is an extremely dominant mare in th field and my girl is bottom of the herd so I think she's getting pushed around a bit. So lots of cold hosing and danilon for her! One of these days we will try it!
 
I've bought one, it came last week. I was meant to try it on the weekend, but my pony came in lame on Friday, so I couldn't. :c I did put it on him briefly just to see how it fitted, though I guess I won't really be able to know until I get to ride him in it. I have a gel pad, but I have decided to order a Best Friend saddle pad as well, as the numnahs I have don't seem suitable for riding on. Hopefully I'll be able to properly try it out this weekend, hopefully he'd be fine by then! (He should be, as his leg isn't heated or swollen, he probably slipped in the mud and is a bit sore.)
I've always found saddles to be quite uncomfortable, and I love riding bareback, I used to gallop my pony up this little path bareback, and feeling all his muscles move under me was amazing. To be able to ride bareback and have the safety of stirrups will be the best of both worlds!
 
There were a few people on here who asked me to let them know how I got on with the total contact saddle when I tried it out so hopefully those that were interested will see this. I finally trialled it today and I really got on well with it. There were no slippage issues and it was comfy although I did realise during our first trot that my stirrups were far too long so Ill need to get some shorter stirrup leathers as I had them on the top hole. Not an issue though. I loved feeling every part of Bella and she responded really well to me as I had ‘total contact’ with her. So at one point a scary tractor went by quite fast and he had something big on the back. I could feel her tensing through her back so I relaxed my body and as soon as she felt that, her came down and she relaxed. She was happy to be out, much more forward going than usual when we are out alone and not once did she nap which she has done a little of lately because Ive not spent much time with her through the easter holidays so she was attached to the herd. She was also more responsive to turns etc. I was more aware of my position and realised how bad my libra saddle has made me sit so that’s something I will work on now that Im not being pushed forward by my stirrups. Despite using it with my best friend bareback pad I am in the process of getting a gel pad for underneath that for extra protection. Over all Im really impressed. I know Ive only had one ride of an hour and theres plenty more testing to do but first impressions are really good.
 
I'm not sure why they think a chick riding in an orange bikini is ever going to encourage sales :p. I think it would be really interesting to get some pressure data from one, its easy enough to do these days and the sceptic in me presumes they have and it wasn't great so don't report it.

Pressure data is a good idea. The trouble is that different companies use different calibration and that can give very flawed comparisons.
 
It has been pliance pressure tested which is on the facebook page but not the actual website which I think is out of date a fair bit.
 
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