I've recently purchased two
FreeForm saddles from Chris. The first was a direct result of my THIRD saddle (a
custom made to fit my high withered horse) FAILURE! I have spent more than
my mortgage for 4 months on saddles prior to buying this one. Here's my
story - after traveling 6.5 hours to Twenty Mule team, doing a short 10 mile
easy pre-ride and my horse (with his custom made saddle) a little bit 'touchy'
in his back (and thus we didn't even start the ride), I was pissed. I
talked to Michelle Rouch who was riding in a FreeForm and ended up buying my
first one (1/3 the price of my custom made saddle). It works great for all
our horses. They fit my high withered angular (skinny, hard keeper - 15.3
h, 900 lb boy), our "porker" who finished her first 50 at Diablo's Pistalero's
this weekend (she's 1100 pounds, 15.1 h) as well as the short coupled one (14.2
h and about 800 lbs.). The thing about it is, it's not just a piece of
leather sitting on the horses back. It's injected molded foam (very firm)
that sits above the center of the horses back (not on it). I use an
equipedic pad that DOES NOT MOVE under the saddle and my normal sheepskin on top
for comfort and PERFECT sweat marks (completely dry center channel). I'll
do Tevis in it this year. Only negative I can say is don't buy the girth
(sorry Chris) because it's galled the two different horses I tried using it on.
I use my Wintec shaped girth and everything is great. By the way, my
'break in' of the saddle was taking it on a 50 mile ride the first time I rode
in it (didn't have any other choice if I wanted to do Cuyama). We finished
all three days (155 miles). . .
Just my 2 cents worth.
Good Luck, Sandy
From: Patsy Davis
<patsy_davis99@xxxxxxxxx> Subject: [RC] Treeless
saddles
Is there any problem caused by the treeless saddle sitting right
down on = the spine of the horse? With a tree, the pressure is raised
off the = spine, right? So why is it not a problem (heat, pressure,
etc) when you = are sitting directly on the spine?
Just trying
to understand before I jump off and buy something that I = don't understand.
They must work or there wouldn't be such a demand for
="">them.
Thanks, Patsy
Thanks, Sandy ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sandy Holder ? Director Business
Development PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP ? Ten Almaden Boulevard ? Suite 1600 ? San
Jose, CA 95113 sandy.l.holder@xxxxxxxxxx ? direct
(408) 817-7917 ? cell (408) 218-5028 ? rightfax (813) 375-4286
