Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Just gotta' put in a plug for my Freeform saddle (bought it from Candace Kahn) since the topic was aired:  I've used it on a number of different horses, most of them round and wide though ranging tremendously in overall size.  I no longer believed there was such a thing as a good sweat pattern--honest.  I'd begun to believe such a thing was some sort of joke being pulled on newbies to give us something to stew about--until I pulled this saddle of several different backs:  there it was, the perfect, smooth, even wet back, with a wide dry channel down the middle.  Wow.  What a lovely sight--and completely novel though I've had horses for over 30 years.... 

The concept is much like that of a Spanish saddle--didn't someone say that's what the WEC 1st place rider used?  The Spanish saddles use layers of leather to create a soft, giving seat that has a strong but flexible shape--no rigid tree.  That's what the Freeform is like.  It's neither treeless nor treed.... It just wraps around your horse with lots of contact all over, yet manages to protect her spine. 

It rides very much like my XW County Competitor dressage saddle:  unusually close contact--like riding bareback in a disciplined fashion.  I find my leg can settle around the upper back so completely that the rest of my leg can hang free if I want to let it.  

Couple of pointers:  it takes a couple of rides to figure out the sweet spot to sit in this saddle.  I had to hitch myself up and back the first few days to avoid hitting the front of the saddle uncomfortably.  Now the seat seems obvious.  I don't know--maybe it had to be broken in??  Anyway, it's like sitting on a very soft but firm pillow.  On that note, I highly recommend it to my female friends.  Another pointer:  it takes a few minutes for the Equipedic pad and the saddle itself to settle (warm up?) each ride.  I always find I can cinch an additional four or even five holes after a few minutes of riding.  However, I still find I can ride with a very loose cinch on a low-withered horse that is a talented spooker, and, no, I do not have any trouble with the saddle slipping when I climb aboard.  Oh--another thing--buy a REALLY short dressage girth.  Mine is 18 inches on a wide horse!    

The only horse I worried about was a very high withered, thin bodied mare I was thinking about buying.  I wondered later if one could alter one's equipedic pad to make it into a cut-back?  The saddle itself doesn't cause any problem--the pad kept slipping down and across her wither however.  

Having said that, I think the equipedic pad is probably at least 1/3rd of what I like about the saddle set-up.  It's truly worth the $$$.  The only suggestion I have there is that they come up with "disposable" sheets of some sort to go between the pad and the horse's back so that one could keep the pad clean, longer.  But that's just a lazy horse-keeper talking....  It's great because it just melts onto the horse--nothing slips after the first few minutes--kinda' like it's glued on in a gentle, comfy way.  

In case anyone is shopping the details:  I bought a navy blue suede and black saddle, the short version, with regular cinching.  At first I though I wished I'd gotten the forward girthing, but now I've learned to set the saddle back properly (about two inches farther back than I first thought) and it's all working beautifully.  Mine has the wool bottom--it doesn't ever touch the horse but I liked Candy's notion that I should go for natural fibers since that I seemed drawn that way and there's not a huge reason to pick one thing over the other.  Besides--it's that much more softness between my bones and my poor horse's back!  

So, the only downside is that I can't take my saddle to real rides yet because it makes me and my horse look really cool and experienced--which we're not.  However, when Joanne and I and Nikki and Michael all ride Tevis in 2009, I'll be flaunting my blue suede saddle!  

Mary K