Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Linda said:

> Ortho-Flex's were always a love-em or hate-em saddle,
for both horse and owner.  They worked great on some horses,
and were hopeless on others.  I *hated* mine.  In general, they
seemed to have the most trouble when the horses were either
very short-backed, or the horse had a very wide shoulder with
a slight hollowing behind the wither (panel wouldn't ride on
top of the shoulder, would pinch the shoulder as it came
back, or just plain jab it).  No amount of shimming would
fix this.

> If I were to try a flexible panel saddle again, I'd try a Reactor
Panel precisely because they can change the location of
the "mounting points" where the saddle/panel/horse's back
connect.

Chiming in a bit late - we own an OrthoFlex system III, and it worked well
on one of our horses, but never seemed to work very well on any other horse
we tried it on. If someone tries to tell you some saddle or another will
work on any horse, flexible or NOT, they're mistaken, or trying to sell you
something. I have friends who ride in OrthoFlex saddles just about
exclusively, and love them. It's like anything else - works for some people
and some horses, not for others. Some people do well with treeless, but even
there it can work for one horse but not another.

Personally, I like to do business with people who will let me try before I
buy - especially something that costs around $2000 or more.

I've ridden in a ReactorPanel since 2001, and the thing I like best about it
is that if something changes, I can change it to fix the problem. Made a
tweak to it earlier this year, and it works much better than it was late
last year. It's comfortable. One of the best things about them is that the
people you deal with give fantastic customer service.

The thing I like least is that they can be hard to get adjusted just right,
more so if the fitting expert is on the phone instead of in person.

Something else to think about - back problems in a horse is a very
complicated issue. It depends on how they carry themselves, how you ride,
how much you weigh, whether your knee or ankle is bugging you, steep or flat
ride. It can depend on how fit you are, and how fit the horse is. The best
thing I've ever done for my horse's back is get on a treadmill and literally
work my ass off.

Some good tools - the equimeasure kit helps to get a mold of the horse. You
can then turn the saddle over, put it in place, and check with your hands to
see how it might work or not. Second good tool is the Port Lewis impression
pad. This really helps when trying to get the ReactorPanel adjusted right,
but also helps a lot when seeing just how any saddle works on a given horse.

BTW, our OrthoFlex is for sale if anyone is interested - I'm about to put it
on eBay. Please contact me off-list if interested, and I can send you
pictures. It's lightly used and well cared for.




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