Be very careful. I have had the factory tell
me that the stirrup rings are not meant to carry the burden of girthing, and
that they should not be switched,
My horse also has a very straight back, no dip at
all. I use a Bob Marshall treeless endurance sport saddle with an
extra-thick Skito pad (the thick pad keeps my back off of his spine) and Dixie
Midnight pad. My Arab cross has no soreness, stands perfectly still
while I mount and I've ridden him up to 9 hours in one day. I had
to switch my rigging to "center-fire rigging" (switch out my stirrups with the
girth rigging) in order to get my stirrups in a comfortable position. I
love this set-up and have no discomfort. Maybe you can try different
saddle pad/rigging/stirrup options with your current treeless saddle and see
if this works for you. Just a thought.
I just completed my 3rd CTR with this
saddle. I was not able to complete with my treed saddle, all treed
horse saddles seem to have a dip down the center of each side of tree and my
horse has a straight back with well-sprung ribs. These saddles rock on
her back. I found her sore right along the edge of the spine, not in
the muscles on the sides. It does have the rider directly on the
horse's spine. Great saddle for limited mileage rides unless one plans
to spend a great deal of time "in the stirrups". It will work
for me temporarily until I find the right treed or paneled saddle which I
prefer for CTR.
It did NOT work to put the Supracor Pad
underneath the Torsion because when cinched down tightly, it pulled the pad
onto her withers and gave her white spots. One needs a thin pad
underneath that can be cleaned that is cut back over the
withers.
