Patty has been reasonably happy with this saddle for use in the ring.
When she found that Frosty wanted a new career, i.e. endurance, she
needed to find a way to make the saddle more comfortable for her. She
felt that the seat was "too hard" - a common complaint about Wintecs,
BTW. She carefully pulled the stitching out in two places and removed
quite a bit of the stuffing. You can use a screwdriver but the material
could tear. A better tool would be a long-handled wooden crochet hook.
She reworked the stuffing to effectively widen the tree. Then she added
some thin foam to the twist area and widened that. You can use one of those
rubber mallets from Sears to pound the stuffing into place, using small
amounts at a time. You can resew the saddle using heavy duty carpet
thread and a circular needle.
This is a process that has been done over some months, tweeking here and
there. But Frosty has never had a back problem using her new system.
And the saddle has become immensely more comfortable.
She says the saddle is now "functional". If you have a synthetic that
hasn't quite made the grade, but you don't want to sell it for the big
loss of money involved, try doing a little experimenting yourself.
Resale value of synthetics is extremely low ($75-100 in our used tack
stores).
However, if you are a MW or HW rider, the synthetic probably will not
work well unless the fit at the withers is absolutely perfect. The
polymer trees are forgiving to a point, but too much weight causes them
to either pinch or to spread and cause spinal pressure all along the back.
Other observations about synthetics:
1) panels are too narrow, especially the State Line models
2) seat sizes run to the small side--go larger
3) wide trees are equivalent to medium trees in leather saddles
4) positioning of the stirrup bars is often better than an equivalent
leather saddle
5) kneerolls generally inadequate--security comes from the degree of
"grabbiness" of the material
6) lifetime very limited (1-2 years)--excessive fabric wear, spreading trees
7) very low resale value (only about 30% of purchase price)
These observations are neither a recommendation nor a condemnation of a
particular product. I will continue to report and summarize what has
worked, or not worked, for the endurance community.
Synthetics often solve problems for a particular horse, at a particular
time, for a particular rider. What I continue to hope to do is provide
enough information so that riders can make more informed choices.
It's a jungle out there....
Diane @ Safe Haven