treeless saddles

["guest@endurance.net" <guest@endurance.net>]

Chelle Sherman cms@fluent.com
Hi - I've been watching the thread on the treeless saddles and I just want to comment from my experience on this. I have tried many saddles over the past few years, both treeless and with trees, including the sports saddle. I found the sports saddle to be OK, but long and awkward to fit properly on my horses' short backs. I wasn't wild about the fit for me - had to do lots of padding and tweaking to get it comfortable and the stirrups were set too far forward. The point I wanted to make, though, is that the sports saddle is not the only treeless saddle out there. I currently ride in an Ansur Safari, and in my opinion, the design of this treeless saddle addresses some of the drawbacks of the sports saddle design. It is short, just like an English saddle. The stirrups are set far back, like a dressage saddle, so your legs hang comfortably. It has a gullet and air channel, and a nicely formed seat for your pelvis to balance in. The girth rigging is like a y-rigged dressage saddle, so it is low-bulk, and very secure. I have NEVER had it slip forward or back in steep terrain and it does not slide any more than a treed saddle when mounting. Best of all, the panels under the saddle seem to provide excellent weight distribution - the overall assembly is much stiffer than the sports saddle, yet it still flexes to fit. I use it on two horses - one is super wide and one is sort of your average Arab width (kind of medium). It fits them both beautifully and comes off absolutely clean, with no pressure points or friction anywhere. It is a nice ride for me, though I strongly prefer a dressage saddle with a narrow twist, and this is a tad wider than I'd choose in a perfect world - it was easy to adapt to, and is super comfy with a full sheepskin cover and Wintec webbers to reduce the stirrup leather bulk. I'd encourage anybody considering treeless to look at the Ansur as another option - yup, its expensive, but is less than many "high end" endurance saddles. I have nothing against treed saddles - I also ride in a Wintec Isabel d
addle which I love, but it doesn't fit both of my horses, and the Ansur does - It appears to be very well made as well, and is made in the USA. I am a lightweight rider (about 140), but this saddle comes in several sizes, and my tendency is to think that the weight distribution is much better than the sports saddle (a lot more layering between horse and rider, and a semi-rigid gullet), so it should be fine. One more thing, about the Boz, I've studied the literature, and it really looks like a neat design, but I will never buy one because the creator seems to be stubbornly determined to set the stirrups so far forward on the saddle (almost arrogant about it) - posting is so much more work with that type of configuration - I think he's shooting himself in the foot, unless he wants to sell only to gaited horse riders. 

Chelle Sherman