Saddles

[Kelli Hjelmeland <kelli@mb.sympatico.ca>]

De-lurking to share my saddle experiences.

I started endurance with a high withered, tall, narrow arab that I used
a cheapo australian stock saddle on with great success. When I bought my
next horse, he was low withered, very round, with a rain gutter
(complete opposite). My husband WRECKED his back doing rides with a
western saddle - refuses to learn how to post. So, I took the horse for
myself (too good a horse for him to ruin). I tried aussie saddle with
many pads - no good. Tried therapeutic pads - no good. Finally
advertised for an Orthoflex. Received a few calls, ended up buying a
used endurance cutback. In the meantime, a friend (non-endurance) wanted
to try OF as well, so passed some of my contacts on to her - she bought
a used traditional. We both tried our saddles for a couple of weeks, and
the next time we got together, complained that they just weren't quite
what we wanted. So we switched, and a week later we were extremely
satisfied. My horses back problem miraculously disappeared under this
model of OF, and my friend found the cutback exactly to her liking. I
must say that every previous saddle I had tried, there was a 2-4 week
adjustment period before it became comfortable for me. With the
traditional, however, as soon as my butt hit the seat, I felt like I had
come home! I have used it with no problems on both my horses and they
are complete opposites. I want to be buried with this saddle!

So, for those of you who have tried OF and haven't had any success
fitting a particular horse, try a different model, you might end up as
happy and "Bay" and I are.

Total Cost: $0.02

Kelli Hjelmeland and Hudson Bay (I'm not built for endurance mom, but
let's have fun anyway!)