Treeless Tryout

I took Remy up to the school today, but instead of going through our front field we went by the lane. He's never been this way before and was very good. When we got there we had a short lungeing session and although a little lethargic (they all were this morning) he was very willing.
I ordered a Barefoot Lexington  saddle to try and it came yesterday. Today I took Anky out for a hack to try it out.
My first impression before even putting it on the horse was that it was bulky and like most treeless saddles had an excessively large cantle. The leather feels quite tough and not as soft as I expected, but, no doubt, with a little leather treatment and some working in, it would be ok. It looked quite big when I put in on Anky also, but she's not a very big horse and it definitely wasn't too big for her. When I first got on, it felt quite solid under the seat and harder than I expected, but it was comfortable and quite snug (perhaps a little too snug for my big backside). It came with two pairs of knee blocks but I didn't use them (perhaps tomorrow I'll try it with the small ones) and I'm not sure it'll need them.
Anky was looking at everything today, completely on her toes and at one point she did an enormous spook and spun round,but I didn't move in the saddle. I think that's a good thing under the circumstances, but I don't know if it will allow enough movement and I don't want it to fix me in one position (if you see what I mean). It certainly doesn't feel as wide as the other treeless saddles I've tried, and in fact the more I rode in it, the more I liked it. According to the info it can be placed slightly more forward than a treed saddle as it doesn't impede the shoulders, and after looking at the pics I think I may have placed it a little bit too far back. One thing that I don't like is the fact that it has D rings instead of normal bars for the stirrup leathers so I had to dig out a pair of  ordinary leathers ( I prefer to use the t bar ones).  The D rings are attached by velcro under the seat and can be moved either forwards or backwards depending on the rider.  I've spoken to the agent and she is going to send me a velcro attachment with ordinary stirrup bars so that's not going to be a problem. .Anky felt ok with it and despite being little miss snorty today we did the whole ride and she came back much more chilled than she left.

And - Happy Birthday to Bonbon, she's 3 today.