treeless saddles

[salina]

Does anyone know of a good shop/online shop to buy treeless saddles? Either based here or in the UK or even further as long as P&P is reasonable. Hoping to find a saddle for less than €350 if possible. Thanks!

[intouch]

www.horseandharmony.co.uk are selling a Barefoot Trailrider on clearance at around £350 - I have bought from them, they are reliable. I wouldn't go much lower than that in price, there are some dodgy treeless saddles around!!
There's also the Cashel saddle pad around £200 (or sometimes less on ebay, its just what it says tho - comfortable but doesn't givethe sort of support a saddle does.

[Elaine]

I don't know much about treeless, but saw a GORGEOUS equistation treeless saddle (chestnut brown and looked like a normal saddle) and thought 'wow'..

Anyway was chatting to a friend so the overall view I got of treeless is they are much more likely to fit as they mould to the horses body to due to having any fixed bits (no tree) but the downside is that the riders weight is only distributed over area you are sititng on and are only really suitable for light work, ie an hour or so not for longer. A treed saddle due to the tree has the riders weight distributed on a wider area do are more suited to longer rides etc.

But then its pretty common to have a treed saddle which doesn't fit correctly so you can often get the back of the saddle not even touching the horses back, too tight at the front of the saddle, or bridging, where the front and back of saddle are on horses back but the middle of the saddle doesn't touch horses back.

So!!! I have a grand treed saddle from limerick which fits and my horse likes, so while I'd LOVE one of these treeless dressage saddles I saw (its the magpie in me) I dont want something I can only ride in for an hour without starting to worry aboutmy horse back. Have talked to a few fairly high up trainers and they dont have a great view of them either, but then they tend to ride all day so I can see they wouldnt really suit.......Any thoughts?!

[intouch]

I have heard this argument before and although I'm not particularly an advocate of treeless saddles, I don't think it holds up. I mean, if you were riding bareback, there would be a problem with pressure points - only if you were digging your bum into the horses back! I think it's much the same with treeless, maybe the people who have a problem with them are over using their seat bones.
I use www.enlightenedequitation.com a lot, here is a link to Heather Moffett's saddles FAQ (I hope), they are soft treed saddles so not quite treeless, but maybe answers some questions.
Probably quality has a lot to do with it too - my daughter rode in an ansur all the time when she was in NZ, like for hours at a time, and there didn't seem to be a problem.

www.fhoenix-saddles.com/faq.php#

[verity]

Surely it is the pressure being caused by the weight in the stirrups that is the main problem. This is very different from bareback riding where weight is not being put onto a single point.

[Elaine]

I dont know a lot about this but with bareback I think the issue is that you're two seat bones concentrate the weight into two pretty small areas. With saddle yes I guess weight going to saddle bars and how that is distributed is a big factor...... anyone saddle fitters / makers on here?

[intouch]

OK, wouldn't be considered a saddle fitter by the elite, but I have done a course in saddle fitting with Heather and the Saddle Company's trainer.
My take on this is - if you are sitting on your seatbones, or putting a lot of weight in your stirrups, yes, you will cause pressure points.
But surely your seat is more than these points. If you are taking your weight over the full areas of your thighs and bottom, and using your stirrups to help maintain your balance, the only time the stirrups should create a pressure problem is when you land over a jump, and even then you should be more into your knees.
I used to see seatbone pressure points with ye olde cavalry style riders, but surely we are all better riders than that now!!!