More saddle fanaticism

["Raymond O'Donohue" <rayo@cfw.com>]

Another,perhaps most important adjustment,which historically has 
almost never been offered,is fore and aft stirrup adjustment. I'm glad to 
see you E-folks were able to get responsefrom Sport Saddle folks there. 
It's an easy modification to do to any saddle-mainly you just get in 
there and rig as neccesary,making sure your results are not unsafe.Why 
all saddles are not built with adjustability there is beyond me.Maybe I'm 
just too dumb to understand that I'm not developing the proper "seat" in 
my riding style or some-such nonsense.  This business of stirrup fore&aft 
adjustability raises the issue of so- called seat length.The inability of 
saddle manufacturer's to make sense of this concept to to themselves or 
the rider makes it quite obvious that they are pretty damn dense.THE ONLY 
DIMENSION WHICH CAN CORRECTLY BE TERMED "SEAT LENGTH" IS THE DISTANCE 
FROM THE CENTER-LINE OF THE STIRRUP LEATHERS TO SOME VAGUE SPOT MIDWAY UP 
THE UPWARD RISE INTO THE CANTLE.As vague as that dimension neccesarily 
is,it tells us clearly the "front to back" seat length dimensions,which 
fail to take stirrup hanger position into account,and which do include 
such irrelavant elements as the forward "reach" of the fork,are 
simply gibberish.Thus we must"buy 'em & try 'em",and not be afraid to 
modify 'em here and there.We're Americans,after all,and look at the 
motersports people-every machine is modified,usually before being put 
into service.