treeless question

[_daisy_]

for those people who own and ride in treeless saddles doe syou have any problems with them rolling on your horse/ponys backs?
bought a Torsion for told git (sasha) and mum nearly fell off tonight - it just slipped round whilst she was riding down the road. So off i gets to check girth and tighten it up as far it will possibly go. Round the rest of the hack its fine.
Is this normal? Shes ridden in the equitex numnah - do they get warm, then mold to your horses shape then stay in place better than when its cold?
could it be the girth were using? Its a torsion gel girth.

were seriously thinking of getting another normal tree-d saddle for her and selling the torsion if this is going to happen.

 

[claire1976]

I have a barefoot treeless saddle and occasionally used to have this problem. The first thing to remember is that most people fit their saddles too far forwards. The treeless, especially needs to sit a little further back than a regular saddle. I use a dressage girth and tend to tighten it quite a lot when onboard. When I had this problem I decided to add another numnah so now I use a regular numnah but between this and the horse I use a non-slip foam saddle pad that seems to grip really well then I use a polypad at the back to raise it slightly, but the poly pad is a personal choice and not everyone would need this.
The foam pad has a fur piece over the withers and is saddle shaped, it was off ebay and cheap enough. It really made a difference. However, riding treeless is a difference experience and you do have to work hard on your own balance and fitness to keep the saddle straight, its not forgiving for lazy riders and has no knee rolls to lean on so you do have to adjust your riding position a little and work hard to keep your own outline good. It takes some getting used to but I'm sure you agree long term that you've chosen the right saddle.
Good luck!!

 

[_daisy_]

Cheers Claire for that.
1) hopefully im not putting the saddle too far forward - will make a concerted effort to check tomorrow when we ride her to make sure its further back - see if this helps.
2) didnt thinkyou were supposed to use normal numnahs with the treeless saddle because of the way they fit? do you not have anyproblems with rubbing etc?
3) lazy riders - well cant say mum is a lazy rider but she doesnt have the best of balance most of the time - she says its down to old age

- personally i just think her and the pony want to wander aimlessly around the hack looking at all the pretty things

! will get her to behave and concentrate on the job in hand

did you have problems with cantering in it? just mum says shes having difficulty in the canter with the ponys' head being quite low down - assuming shes using her back more as shes comfier to ride this way???

 

[Happytohack]

I have had a Torsion for over 8 years and have loved it - it has never slipped. I recently decided to buy a new one (the old one was getting rather worn) and found it slipped backwards and to the side. The pommel on the new one was wider than on the old one and I sent it back and got most(!) of my money back. I have just bought a different treeless saddle which can be adjusted for each horse and IMO is much better.

 

[Cobnut1]

My sister has just bought a treeless saddle for her hard to fit curvy horse, his previous tree'd saddle was a nightmare with slipping and rolling, and two people fell off because of it..the new one, has been brilliant..I have wonky hips and tend to pull the saddle to the left purely because of the way i am, and in this new saddle, It has never moved. I did try a friends barefoot (similar to a torsion) on him, and it was a disaster. t's worth shopping around for another treeless

 

[claire1976]

Don't have any problems cantering at all and I've used this saddle for 3 years now. However, my sharer did fall off during canter when the saddle slipped but with the foam numhah its fine now.
As for numnahs, well I wasnt prepared to pay £90 for the treeless pads and when I looked into them they seemed no different. I don't have any problems with rubbing using the ones I have.
Good luck!