Ortho-flex saddles & Tevis

[Annette Gordon <agordon@worldofwonder.net>]

Dear Steph 

Sorry for putting this in the wrong place. I'm not very expert at email yet.
So here it is again hopefully in the right place. 

I am on the point of buying yet another saddle for my horse, an anglo-arab
mare who is quite narrow but is currently wearing a medium fit Arabian
Saddle Solstice. I have contemplated an Ortho-Flex endurance cutback for
sometime now but don't know if this could be out of the frying pan and into
the fire. 
I am not a lightweight rider, I suppose I'm medium to heavy, so
I'm worried the ortho-flex might just add to the weight burden my horse has
to carry. We are only do relatively low mileage at the moment 20-30 miles
but I want to go on and do more safe in the knowledge that I'm not hurting
my horses back. At the moment she is sore. The Arabian Saddle does fit ok
and is currently being reflocked to make it fit better but I just feel that
a saddle with a greater weight bearing surface would be better for us both.
Anybody know if Ortho-flex is good for a 15.2 Anglo-Arab now quite fit and
sort of a medium fit with a medium to heavyweight rider? 

What I would really like to get are any experiences from people with the
Ortho-flex endurance cutback. I am about to try one out on my horse this
weekend. The person selling it to me has had all good experiences with it
and his own horses, he's an authorised Ortho-flex dealer. But of course
different saddles fit different horses. Is there a type of horse that fits
the Ortho-flex better than others? 

I'm in the rainy old UK where endurance lives but differently I suspect. I'm
so excited to have discovered ridecamp and the endurance net since no one at
my yard does endurance so I have no one to talk to about it. They all think
I'm mad and are confused by my wierd tack. 

Good luck anyone doing the Tevis Cup I can't wait to hear about it. I shall
think of you all as I do my own measly 20 miles on this side of the Atlantic
on the same day. 

bye
Annette Gordon