Would you ride with this??

Dizzleton

Dizzleton

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Would anyone consider these saddles for their horses?

It would be fun to try, but I don't think I'd use one!

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I am sure someone on here posted a picture riding in one the other day - cant remember who though. I would quite like to try it, looks like a slightly more secure way of going bareback really. Not sure I would want to do it all the time, I like my nice comfy saddle! :)
 
My biggest concern would be that there doesn't seem to be anywhere to attach my saddle flask?! It's the only downside of close contacts... :D
 
I have been riding bareback for the last 3 months on rio so this may be an option. no I wouldn't mind one except you cant use them BD :( but you can show jumping and hunter trials as far as im aware :)
 
Haven't watched the whole thing.. But surely the weight of the rider is putting pressure from each side ultimately on the spine from the stirrups??
 
I have one but bought for a reason, has doits job, and now he will go back to his normal heavy saddle, until he needs to go back in it. I do ride bareback a lot though and also i am a light rider, whilst i agree with the weight from the stirrups on the spine.
 
I would be concerned about the pressure from the stirrups on the spine and the fact that the riders weight is not spread evenly across the back. Not so much of a problem with the large horses and lightweight jockeys in the video, but I should imagine it would not be good long term with a heavier rider.

It also seems to develop a "chair" seat quite nicely as the stirrups are set so far forward!
 
Dizzle said:
Isnt that going to put pressure on the spine? Why not just put stirrups on a roller??
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Please be careful with this....they can and do break as they're not designed for it. I've used a roller and polypad for my high withered lad bareback to start with till I erm 'toughed up' - but no stirrups. I used to also pop stirrups on a roller which was till one day one broke off mid gallop round a field - luckily on very wide Hairy who I managed to right myself back on and no harm came from it.

For me, if it's bareback...stick to bareback. Can't get any closer than that.
 
I agree, it's a lot of pressure to be putting on one point of the back.

Besides; shiny summer coat + spooky horse + huge trot = ambulance!
 
I've looked at these as a possible solution to horse who just doesn't seem to get on with saddles.

I'm still thinking about it, but several things put me off.

One is the chair seats. I've ridden bareback (on a sheepskin pad) for about the last year and a half on this horse. I work really hard to have as correct as possible a position, and try to make sure most of my weight is distributed across the part of both inside legs that make contact with the horse's sides, and as little as possible on my seatbones. I do rise to bigger trots, even without stirrups, but it's a minimal rise compared to the riders in the video :eek: I would really worry with that system that (a) my weight would be 90% on a small panel across the spine and (b) if I rose to the trot, the horse would have to suffer the impact of my seatbones on a tender part of his back.

The other thing that would concern me is safety? With the bareback pad, there are no stirrups, so I have to stay aware that I need to anticipate and make sure I'm balanced for turns, spooks etc (I am still pretty rubbish on circles!). With the "saddle", I feel you'd forget that you needed to do this and end up in a situation where all your weight went down through one stirrup and the "saddle" slipped around the horse :eek: So I suppose I'm saying that it would give you a false sense of security :)

Still thinking about them - I do need a solution for situations where I'm too wimpy to go bareback (beach rides, LeTREC etc).
 
They all seem to be riding with very short stirrups and some of the cantering is done out of the 'saddle'. I don't know if this is just their style of riding, or if this is the correct way to use the pad. It looks fun - something for occasional use perhaps (on a horse that is well behaved!) but I too would be concerned about pressure on the spine. On the upside, they can't be too expensive (can they?).
 
Sorry if this is wrong but:

won't this put lots of pressure on the horses back due to not having a 'spine'(dont know they corect term brain is drained!) in the saddle??
 
I would be worried about the pressure of the stirrups on the horses spine. My saddler doesn't like treeless saddles long term for this reason. I also think that they put the riders in a bad position and the horses did not look comfortable. But then I don't know how the ladies or horses go in a normal saddle. Might be OK for occasional use.
 
won't this put lots of pressure on the horses back due to not having a 'spine'
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Is "gullet" the word you're looking for? And if so, I agree! They do seem to be trying to get around that using the gelee pad, but I'm still not totally convinced.

I wouldn't make a comparison with treeless, since many of the good treeless saddles now have built in spinal clearance, either via the saddle itself or through using a specific pad with it.
 
Not only is there a lot of spinal pressure the stirrups are fixed - if you got your foot caught for some reason there would be no chance of the leather breaking free.
 
This is a very old version of the Total Contact saddle, in the new version the stirrups are not fixed, they're attatched just like on a normal saddle.
I have one of these, and its my only saddle. I school, hack and compete in it.
My horse has never moved and jumped so well, in any other saddle before, even the ones that were perfectly fitted by master saddlers!
My physio who has known my horse when she was with her last owner, she has said ''I have never seen this horses back be so perfect, muscles are lovely and relaxed, no pressure points, nothing out of place'' Horse hasn't required any treatment since being in this saddle, but I still have physio out every few months just to check.
I'm not going to try and convince anyone that this saddle is amazing etc etc, because everyone will have their own opinions, but it has made my horse happier in her work and i'm a lot more happy too.
BTW, slippery coat, spooky horse and this saddle doesn't mean ambulance, it just means good balance and quick reactions :)
*Touch wood* I have yet to fall off in this :)
ETA. As to the chair seat position, yes if you don't know how to ride in it you will develop one pretty quickly. I put mine slightly further back than the ones on video but again, new version is designed to be placed further back to avoid chair seat position.
 
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What I noticed was that after the jumps each horse looked as if it was about to buck - head down and uncomfortable. Not sure how horse or rider would cope with a combination or full course of jumps.
 
I rode in one for a few days (had to give it back, wah) but it was awesome :) I jumped and galloped in it. The only issue I found was it made my legs tip forwards a bit and that irritated my bad back.
Foxhunter - The stirrups slip on and off very easily.

Over all a good saddle! I would buy one myself, if I had the money!
 
I wouldn't - I fail to see the point really. If I'm going to ride bareback, I'll ride actually bareback. If I want stirrups and to be able to 2-point, I'll use a saddle properly designed for the job. I would have serious reservations about where the pressure is going with one of those (i.e. onto the spine) and about the horrific chair seats all those riders were adopting.

Some of those horses didn't look entirely comfortable, either.
 
I wouldn't ride my girl in one as she would bounce me straight onto the floor as soon as she went into trot :eek:. It's the same reason i won't ride her bareback. She is very bouncy to ride and i wouldn't like to bounce on her back, it would do too much damage. I also wouldn't want to ride a horse that bronced in one for the same reason.
 
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