Re: Treeless/displaced edema/girth groove Q

[Abigail Aiyagari <abby1@itsa.ucsf.edu>]

I have also had the "displaced edema" problem with many saddles I've
tried, including the Ansur Safari.  It seems that the sudden drop-off of
panel edges causes a problem, usually in the sweat-free spine area, but
I've also seen it around the outside edges of the panels.  Painless,
squishy lumps that go away about an hour after the saddle is removed--even
though the lumps seem painless, these saddles all invariably resulted in a
sore back after a week or so of use.

I did like the Safari for me, except for the fact that the stirrups were
so far back I would whack Cola in the stifles with my heels when we
galloped up a steep hill--but I'm sure that was more a problem with me
than the saddle, and it was already improving by the end of the week trial
period when I sent the saddle back.

So I still have no saddle.  I tried a couple of Arab-tree endurance
saddles this weekend, and though the trees seemed to fit him well, the
rigging was all wrong!  These saddles both had two choices of front girth
placement, and one had self-adjusting center fire rigging and the other
had in-skirt rear cinch slots.  I found in both saddles that even if I had
the girth in the very front position (probably 7/8), it was so far behind
my horse's girth groove that either the saddle pulled the cinch back or
the cinch pulled the saddle forward.  The only way to solve this problem
was to slap the saddle right over Cola's shoulder blades, in which case I
was actually sitting in the right place on his back, but the saddle was
really interfering with him.  If I used the center-fire option, the cinch
was pulled back to the middle of his barrel.  If I really tightened it up,
it just pulled the saddle forwrad.  I have had this problem to a lesser
extent with English saddles, and I haven't tried many off-the-rack Western
saddles (too narrow, too long).  He does OK in a Dave Genadek (Black
Rhino) saddle, but the darned thing weighs 40 pounds and there's an
8-month wait to get one.  I think the reason it's better is that there is
enough flare in the front of the tree that the saddle can be set farther
forward without interfering with his shoulders.

Has anyone else had this problem?  My horse can't be THAT abnormal (he
looks fine, until you try to put a saddle on him, then it's "what
the...??").  I'm currently building slowly onto my Supracor bareback pad,
and no problems with a sore back (rides up to 10 miles, so far).  Maybe
I'll start my own treeless saddle company and charge $2000 a pop.  Now
that I have stirrups and some saddlebags on my Supracor, most people think
it's a saddle anyway.  It did cost more than some saddles, after all...

Abby (urk)
R.C. Cola (don't put that thing on me...oww!!)
& Ranjit (it didn't fit?  Does that mean I can buy an MP3 player now?)