Re: Ortho-Flex system III

["Linda B. Merims" <lbm@ici.net>]

Michelle Rowe said:

>Is anyone using the system III OF panels?  Do you notice
>an improvement??  Anyone had problems with system III model
>saddles?

I am also interested in the System III panels.  They were
evidently designed to remedy one of the known shortcomings
with OF's:  the panels are not flexible enough to yield
to truly bulky-shouldered horses such as the Morgan and
the warmbloods.  Instead of the scapula passing comfortably
under the flexing panel, it is pinched by the panel, even
when the saddle is properly situated well forward with the
front of the panel already over the shoulder. 

I sent away to OF and got some literature on System III.
To me it looks like, to make the panel more flexible, they
have simply cut one layer of the solid front panel into fingers.
Less material would presumably be more flexible.

I have asked OF whether anybody in this area (Massachusetts)
has a System III.  Nobody has.  I asked my local dealer (The
Mane Place in Uxbridge, MA) whether she's ever even seen a
System III.  She hasn't.  I eagerly visited the Orthoflex booth
at November's Equine Affair here in Massachusetts, and Orthoflex
did not bring any System III's (nor did they bring any the
previous year).

My inference is that there's something about System III that just
isn't ready for prime time yet.

But if anybody knows more...

Linda B. Merims
lbm@ici.net
Massachusetts, USA