Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Title: Re: [RC]   low cost English saddle?//Consider Treeless, Style-Less

Karen – I agree w/ previous callers who suggested that a cheap, used saddle is the best thing for a simple solution.  I would be somewhat concerned about causing discomfort, and possibly injury, to my horse.

 A few years ago I bought a used Stubben from a tack store. It got to be such a pain signing out, trying, & returning saddles—and I can’t imagine doing it over the Internet!--that I settled for the Stubben. I ended up trading it for my trainer’s Thoroughbred? .
 
Now here are some thots for you: I’ve been taking almost 4 years of English lessons + some Western, trail, and “cowboy dressage/California Vaquero” lessons & clinics.  I still consider myself a novice rider and no expert (see recent  Bucked Off! thread  >:-}  ). But I’m convinced that an eclectic style-less style is the best training. 
    Last week I rode my 23 yo Arab, Dream, in our 1st lesson in my treeless Barefoot Cheyenne, which I’ll be using for endurance. Dream has a sl. sway back and rough gaits. The BF I got is kind of a Frankenstein’s monster—English seat, endurance pommel, Western stirrups & fenders. I like the BF because it puts your legs in dressage position, nicely under you.  In the lesson, we did the repertoire of collected and extended gaits, 2-pt, transitions, lateral work, turns on haunches and forehand—everything (except jumping) you do for “English” riding that serves you on the trail.  Dream loves the saddle and I can now sit her like a centaur.
     This past weekend, I did my first long ride in the BF on a friend’s horse (whom I had done a 50 with). I nearly wept at how much better I rode status post the lesson. It was like having my trainer on the trail w/ me. Deuce showed me he totally appreciated the BF too. (He had not been moving well in his Sharon Saare.)

Morals of the story—consider: 1) taking lessons in the configuration you do Rides in and doing all the “English” moves in it;  2) getting a treeless saddle, new or used, esp for a hard-to-fit horse.

Beverley

Happy First Day of Spring and My 17th Wedding Anniversary
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