Divided seat saddles

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

All this re the jewels points out the fact that very few saddles have 
a divided seat a la McClellan or the New York and Philadelphia police 
saddles.There is no good reason for this center area NOT to be open.This 
center area,called generally,the "ground seat",forces all of us,male and 
female,onto a "rooftop" area and onto parts of the body that we otherwise 
almost never put pressure on.The prostate is the most potentially 
problematic area here-bigtime.I know of one leading Field Trial pro that 
was forced off the horses and into retirement by this.And it's all 
unneccessary.A heavily padded seat can be made to function 
somewhat similarly to a divided seat by heavily stitching through the 
center ,lengthwise.If I ever build my dream design saddle(and sell 'em 
too,maybe),there'll nothing to contact anything from the rider's crotch 
to the tip of the spine.But there will be a nice high and vertical 
cantle!Dreams only at this point!