Why treeless at Equihof?
After years of experience with saddle fitting, we at Equihof have drawn the following conclusions:
The Trouble with Tree saddles:
· English tree saddles are made for English Thoroughbreds and slim warm bloods. Most warm bloods are all but slim nowadays, but rather broad and full. In general, the European warmblood seems to need at last a saddle chamber with size 32. Most English Treesaddles however have a chambersize from 29 to 31, with most common size 30! These will not fit any other breed then the slim Thoroughbred or warm blood.
· Because of the way English saddles are build, 17,5 inch and 18 inch seat size makes a much to long saddle for most breeds, who have a much shorter back then the average warm blood. As there is no carriage (as far as one can speak from carriage of the back at all) behind the 18de vertebrae, where the floating ribs begin, most English saddles with standard seat sizes are to long. The problem is, that with Englis type saddles, especially the deep seat dressage once, most adults simply at least need 17,5. So either your seat is to small, or your saddle is to long for your horse. If a saddle goes beyond the 18the vertebrae it will caus the horse damage. Also, he will not be able to lift his back nor use it correctly, which explains a lot of dressage problems.
· When saddles with tree seem to fit perfectly, this is only temporarily. A horse simply changed shape a lot throughout his life, due to training, illness and lets not forget a horse is only an adult from 8 to 9 years. Thus, there will come a moment when your tree saddle will just not fit as perfect anymore. Is the saddle to big, numnahs from wool or foam can help. Is the saddle to small, everything you put underneath will make the saddle even smaller. Do not use a saddle that is to small, for you will damage your horses back.
· Horses have a natural crookedness. If this is not carefully straightened thru training right from the start of the gymnastisation, and horses are just ridden like that or even force framed, the horse will get more crooked each ride and get damaged in the long run. The top that, the panels in your tree saddle will develop crooked as well. The srult will be a crooked horse, with a crooked saddle and a crooked rider, who does not notice anything. Now you can not straighten your horse out any which way without buying a new and straight saddle. Refilling, in practische just does not work, once crooked panels, always crooked panels.
Advantages of the treeless saddle:
· When a treeless saddle fits, it will always fit because it keeps adjusting every ride due to its total flexibility.
· Concerning the crookedness of the horse, not only does it not matter to the shape if the treeless saddle, the rider feels instantly when his horse is crooked. The rider will feel like his is pushed to one side of the horse. Now, this is seen as a disadvantahe often, but it is not. It is a huge advantage! It is valuable information about the state of wellbeing of your horse. As soon as you notice the crookedness, you can act upon it, and the saddle will not cover up whether your action is straightening your horse or not.
· A treeless saddle does not offer a lot of support to a rider. This too is often seen as a disadvantage. But again, this is an error, because a rider needs to keep his own balance instead of clinging on to the saddle. The treeless saddle will force the rider to learn to keep balance and therefore be with the movement of the horse. This will increase the correctness of your horses movement dramatically. As long as a rider clings to his saddle, he will always be behind the movement of the horse. In this case, the horse will never have good quality gaits under saddle, no matter how long one trains.
· One has much more feel with a treeless saddle. You feel the back drop or arch, you feel when tension builds in your horse so you can calm him and intervene with the upcoming spook etc. Your horse feels more of you too. This means you can give much lighter and more subtle seat aids.
· A treeless saddle is usually much ligher then a tree saddle. It seems to be a common thought that the weight of rider and saddle does not matter to an average 500 kg horse. Alas is this a huge mistake. Horses are not made to be ridden and they do not pocess the natural selfcarriage to carry weight on their backs. This is why careful dressage gymnastisation was forged, so horses could learn to carry their weight and that of their rider with their abdominal muscles and their haunches. (The same way a weightlifter lifts a heavy barbell). Every kilo less is therefore of huge importance.
More tips:
· We advise a special pad with foam inlays which help raise the saddle from the vertebrae.
As is written above, the riders and saddle weight is an important issue. It is a common thought that treeless saddles do not evenly distribute the weight if the rider. But ill fitting tree saddles do not do that either! It has to be mentioned that each rider should take a critical look at his weight in relationship to his horse and his saddle, especially if one rides longer than half an hour. Since horse history began, it was a rule that for the light cavalry, no one above 70 kg could enlist, no matter how good a rider. Every one above 70 kg, should therefore use a heavy or more draught type of horse. Balance and a good seat (meaning not to interfere with the horses balance and movement) is of the utmost importance for your horse to carry his rider without getting harmed in the long run, even if you are below 70kg. A backpocket, unevenly stacked can become heavy as led, even if it is only 5 kg.
Testing our saddles:
· There is no such thing as the perfect saddle for all riders and horses. Therefore Equihof grants you the opportunity to test Equihofs range of saddles for a week. When doing so, really pay attention to your horses behaviour. Having said that, bare in mind that past bad experiences with saddles will never really leave the horses mind.
· Follow your own guts. They are often the best advisors to follow.
· If you are not used to riding without tree and it causing you some trouble, then take baby steps at first. Carefully start trotting and go back to walk as soon as you loose balance. Most horses will go back to walk themselves in that case. This is the best way of learning how to follow your horses movement anyway. If one learns how to dance, one goes very slowly at first and after enough practice, one can dance quick and effortless without thinking. Als je niet gewend bent aan boomloos rijden, en je hebt er in het begin wat moeite mee, neem dan kleine stapjes. Following a horses movement is a lot like dancing in many ways.
· If you ride well without saddle, a treeless saddle will present no troubles at all..
· Trying something is the only way to find out if something suits you and your horse. At Equihof you have that change, why not use it?
© Equihof
Josepha Guillaume
Teacher saddle fitting at the Dutch Horse Academy www.paardenacademie.nl
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