In our ongoing quest for the shoulder
freedom in the horse friendly saddle, we visited the Gaston Mercier factory in
Southern France. Manuel Mercier, Gaston's son, connected us with a
friend, who organized a four day inn to inn ride on the Grand Massif
plateau, using both Mercier saddles and others. It was an incredibly
beautiful place, as we rode along the edge of the Gorge de Tarn, which is 1500
ft deep, cut thru the limestone. Our first day we rode up into a castle
that was on a pinnacle in the middle of a large bowl. It was created and
fed by an artesian well - really cool! (Highly recommended for
anyone looking for a riding vacation.) I must say, however, we were under
whelmed by the saddles. They are an improvement over a Western saddle, but
they have 3/4 foam over a hard tree The foam could be customized somewhat,
but there was really no way to allow for the horse to move freely under the
saddle, and there was no way to allow for the shoulder blade to move comfortably
under the front of the saddle when the horse strides out. I tried to
discuss this w/ Manuel, but did not get much response. They tried to avoid
scrubbing in back by having a high amount of rocker, which caused a lot of
the horses that they were used on to have white marks in the middle of their
backs.
Quentin
[eznet]
-----Original
Message----- From: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of
DarkHorseGoddess@xxxxxxx Sent: Sunday, February 15, 2004 7:15
PM To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [RC] Gaston Mercier
Saddle?
