Treeless Saddles

Sol

Sol

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Ok, I'm so sick of not having a saddle that fits that I want to cry. In fact - I already did cry. But my parents keep saying 'wait until the new year' despite the fact that I've been asking for months, and my £180 isn't going to buy me a saddle... anyway. Was thinking about treeless saddles...


I quite like the look of the Solution saddles & the Fheonix ones also.
Does anyone have one of these saddles? Can you tell me what they're like to ride in, good or bad?

Danny's a 15.2hh 5yo TB type gelding, used to be quite forward and is now incredibly backwards, stupidly short stride etc. I'm pretty sure his saddle is the worlds worst fit, and it's not helping at all It would be nice to have a saddle that I didn't have to worry about prompting my parents to get the saddle fitter out to check all that often! (it sounds like there isn't much to go wrong with these??)

I know they are pricey, but so are a lot of things :/ I'd be looking at getting one for dressage and one for jumping at some stage. Whatever it was, it'd have to be a make that I could compete in.

Any info much appreciated
Sol x.
 
am not sure what they are like to ride in or anything but i enquired about one to my saddler and she sed she wouldnt go near one, she said something the saddle depends on the tree, therefore it just doesnt work! dont quote me on that but ino she definatly doesnt like them, and shes a master-saddler!
 
I have a Barefoot London and my horse goes MUCH better in that than his nomal treed dressage saddle, in fact I am thinking of selling the treed saddle as I will never want to use it again. They are OK for dressage competitions.
Not so expensive as the two you mention, although they don't look so "normal"

I still have a GP though.

Treeless take a bit of getting used to, some people don;t like the feeling as you can feel the muscle working underneath you. It is important to get a good make. I think with the Heather Moffat ones you can hire them or take them on trial.
 
I have the Barefoot London which I use on both the young clydesdale and my gypsy cob. I personally very much like the saddle for general schooling and it is very comfortable for hacking out on.

Jumping - personally anything more than 2' max is not on for me in it.

Some people hate treeless saddles. They do not offer as much support and you need a good seat in terms of balance and leg control as the treeless shows up any weakness in this area.

I think the best description is the Barefoot feels a bit like a cross between western saddle/conventional and back bare. You get a lot of feel from the horse and they are a bit wider to sit on.

The Fhoenix has a lot of good feedback and it is more coventional looking than the Barefoot, but also a lot more expensive.

I also have a nice WH saddle which I use for jumping and competitions, but the treeless is my choice of everyday hacking and schooling saddle.

If you can try one first that would be a good idea to see if you like it. Finally the correct pad for the saddle is essential and I would recommend you avoid the cheap end of the market - anything under £500 I would be suspicious of. Every horse I have put my Barefoot on has gone very well in it. Cairo particuarly liked the Barefoot when it was put on him.

You do also need to ensure the saddle fits. My Barefoot has a choice of three pommels - narrow and high, standard and table top type and comes in two sizes for the rider. I am a size 12/small 14 and have the size 1, anyone who is a 14/16 would need the size 2.
 
I have a cob X warmblood, she is very wide and round and has no withers, her previous owner had several saddlers out to fit a saddle for her, but none could get a saddle right for her. So I appreciate she is a completely different shape to your horse.

I've had a Heather Moffet SBS saddle (one of her first types), the seat is made from memory foam and is incredibly comfortable, very well made out of the softest leather. It was fairly straight cut, but not quite dressage cut. I could jump over 2' with it, but it wasn't very stable on her, so I tried it with a Limpet pad, it still didn't stay put and it made her buck!

I now have a GP Solution saddle, the workmanship and quality of leather are no where near as good as the SBS, but with liberal amounts of Ko cho line, it is acceptable. The main benefit of itis, it stays where I put it with a thin everyday numnah from Nuumed. It's that good that I can mount from the ground.

But as I said, my horse is very different in build to yours.

There is a rep for Solutions on here, but I can't remember her user name.
 
Having had so much trouble trying to get a saddle to fit my boy and even ordering a made to measure saddle that he didn't like.

He was hunching and not moving forward and bucking if I made him move off with the M2M saddle on.

I took the risk of buying a barefoot London last week off preloved and I tried it at the weekend. I walked round the yard and no sign of any hunching and he felt so free and floating in his movement, much better than any treed saddle we have used.

I'd certainly give a barefoot london a trial. I think horse and harmony have saddles to try. There is also a new barefoot lexington that I looked at but decided on the London.

Good luck in finding the right saddle.
 
Hi,

I've been using treeless saddles for about 10 years now. Started off with a loaned fitform for a young section d with big shoulders then bought a Trekker for him. I've also ridden another horse who had a Barefoot Cherokee which I didn't like as much as the trekker.....he then had a freeform which looked much more "traditional" but it didn't suit me!

I have a trekker pro now which is much like an english saddle with a gullet (and the front handle can be removed!) and open stirrup bars
http://www.trekker-flexible-saddles.com/proendurance.html

and I love it - always fits and unlike treed saddles my back doesn't hurt when I ride
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I have alot of friends that HAD them and have now gone back to the normal. The people that I know that have had always seemed to slip around and had to be constantly moved back etc. I also have noticed that hardly any of the professionals use them, But i think they are a personal choice and some people love them others hate them, but our saddler also said she would never touch them. Im sure if you try some out you will see if they are suitable for your horse or not, Good luck saddle searching
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A have a TSS saddle for a high withered WB who developed back problems with his previous treed saddle (similar to your, he went from being forward going, to really short strided). He's been ridden in it for 2 years now with no problems, he is very happy, works correctly (competes BD at Elem/Med), has developed a lot of new muscle, the saddle does not slip and I can get on it from the ground (although personally I prefer to use a mounting block with any saddle). I had it fitted the first time and the fitter explained about shims, etc and I have been able to re-fit it myself since.

On the negative side it cost A LOT of money and the leather quality and workmanship is not very good. My other horse does not like it and he prefers a treed saddle.
 
Got treeless and tree'd saddles.

Not all treeless's are the same - some are crap and some are good. Unlike tree'd saddle it's not just all about the quality and fit - there are some very very different designs on the market and they will not suit all horses.

What I DON'T like about many treeless are their inability to distribute weight well, due their lack of tree. Some are good at it (due to their design) but many are poor. For that reason I really dislike the Barefoots and similar designs. They are nothing more than a thick bareback pad with lots of padding and a cantle and pommel stuck front and back.

Some are much better at distirbuting weight - I have a FreeForm and it's one of the best. It has a fairly solid 'base' to it that is almost inflexible. It gives enough to mould to the horses back but spreads weight well. The Heather Moffet saddles (which my friend has) is similar.

You also need a good suitable pad with treeless - it doesn't mean it 'doesn't fit' as it would with a tree'd saddle - the pad is the intrigal part of the saddle and for many the sole means of providing spine relief (a fact that makes them unsuitable for hig withered horses.

Tree's saddle are great IF THEY FIT and if they remain fitting, at all times. However, regardless of how soft the flocking is, they can't allow the full movement of the back like a treeless does. I had a treeless current because my horse keeps changing shape (young horse) and has a HUGE movement through his back and loins which causes problems with a tree's saddle.

If there was a perfect, definitive answer to all saddle fitting problems then there wouldn't be all those different designs of saddle on the market. The truth is that no saddle has quite got it right yet and all saddles (tree'd and treeless) have benifits and downfalls.
 
I have a heather Moffat fhenoix for my boy. He loves it and so do i, but takes abit of getting used to re the seating etc, especially when it is cold and the memory foam hasn't warmed up. Feels like sitting on a lump of wood then.
 
The best purchase I ever made was my Balance saddle. They are part treed I think! It looks like a normal saddle, fits a treat and my arab moved better in it, especially from the shoulder. I soon got used to having slightly more feel through the saddle, now I feel a bit 'detatched' riding in other saddles. Bloody expensive though!
 
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