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[RC] Treeless Saddles - was Saddles, Pads and weird horses - Carrie - Kitley, Carrie E Civ USAF AFSPC 30 MDSS/SGSLF

I ride in a Bob Marshall treeless which doesn't have a "stirrup plate"
per se.  The stirrup straps are attached under the side panels, almost
at the same level as the cinch rings rather than up higher near the
withers or shoulders.  (you can order them placed wherever you want).
Although there will still be some pressure across the center of the
saddle while posting, it is minimal.  The BMSS's are made a little
stiffer than a lot of the other treeless saddles, thus taking some of
that pressure and distributing it over a larger area.  I use a Skito
with beveled shims and have no white spots, no sensitive or painful
areas after a ride and have been using this saddle for a couple years
now.  So far, so good.  

I was on the proverbial saddle hunt for quite awhile because my own back
was killing me.  Turned out it wasn't my saddle.
I just purchased some shoulder shims from Tom at Skito (for only $16) to
fill in that little dip behind the shoulders (for my own sake) and it
seemed to help quite a bit.  I've never had any slippage problems and I
don't use a crupper, just a breast collar.

I love treeless saddles, but I also love some of the treed saddles as
well.  I think I've demo'd about 10 saddles over the last 3 years and
I'm sticking with my Bob.  :)
~C  


You just brought up the major reason I keep putting off buying a
treeless saddle.  All of them have the same problem -- how to hang the
stirrups.  They all have either a strap or a plate from which the
stirrups hang.   That plate has to be somewhat flexible, too.  Either
way, the total surface area used to distribute pressure from the
stirrups is pretty small. If you spend the majority of your time
trotting, then most of the pressure is going to be on the stirrup plate,
as opposed to other parts of the saddle.



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