The budget won't allow an expensive purchase so I've been looking at mid-range, well made brands with a good name.
I know nothing about treeless saddles and after a little investigation I've looked at several including the Heather Moffet, Barefoot, Trekker and Torsion saddles. I really would like to trial the HM Vogue Fhoenix but as I say the budget won't allow,and trying to get a treeless agent in the sticks in France may be difficult. I've been keeping an eye on treeless saddles on ebay and came across a like new Trekker with all accessories, numnah, leathers, stirrups and two very nice neoprene girths. The bidding was very low, so I put in a bid and 2 days later, voila! it was mine. Hmmmm, I didn't really think I'd get it and was in the process of ordering a Barefoot. Never mind, I paid for it and it arrived yesterday.
Its a rather ugly saddle but the quality looks ok. It has nice soft leather flaps and a nubuck leather seat. It has memory foam panels on the underside which give spine clearance. I'm not so sure about that, the panels dont look very deep, but we'll see, the blurb on their website assures me it can be used without a special numnah. The numnah that came with it has an insert for panels, but unfortunately not the panels themselves. I do have a gel pad which I could use though.
So, this morning Anky was the guinea pig. She came in looking ok, ate her brekky and set to eating the hay, so I thought I'd test the saddle on our hack.
The saddle is very light and the stirrup leathers attach with traditional bars and not rings. It came with a set of bates t-bar leathers which I have on my other saddle and really like.
It looked a bit strange on her, bigger than a treed saddle. It felt secure when I got on and the first thing I noticed was that it felt wide. The rather large, ugly pommel at the front seemed to be forcing my legs apart. As we progressed on our ride and i settled into it, placed my seat more central between the pommel and cantle it became rather comfortable.
It's true that you can feel far more of your horse moving underneath you, Anky really was moving my seat more today. She seemed unconcerned by the saddle, walking out purposefully, relaxed and soft to my hand. So, we'll see how we go with it, but my first impressions are positive. If I intend to use it on Remy I am going to have to get used to it and feel confident riding in it. As my first foray into treeless I feel that it was rather sucessful:-)
Work on the lunge again with Remy, this time at the bottom of the garden. He was fine, if a bit sluggish. Walk on both reins out on the circle. A short session.
3 comments:
they're a good make, so you should be ok. but i hope remy has changed shape again - you may need a suberpad underneath (NOT a suberpanel, that's a different beast that used to be made for HM) if he hasn't....or at least, still has clear withers!
Haha Claire, no he's not changed that much. I've got my eye on a couple of suberpads, also recommended by a girl in our horse group. They look like they would do the job!!
I'm watching closely Di, like you I wish we had an agent who could bring some to try; although Wendy (Marengo on EOL) lives south of us and is a HM agent.
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