I was a beginning adult rider in the mid 90’s and started out my riding life using my childhood saddle. \u00a0My childhood saddle fit my large pony and a narrow Saddlebred horse back in the sixties.<\/p>\n
After some months of daily riding, horrid silver dollar size white spots developed on Sage’s withers. \u00a0My saddle was too tight and cut the circulation off at those two spots. \u00a0After no blood flow for a while, the horse’s hair grows white. \u00a0It was a blow as it meant young Sage had experienced pain while I was riding her.<\/p>\n
Thus began saddle hell.<\/p>\n
We had the Internet then so I was able to look at saddles on the Internet. \u00a0I found the Sharon Saare Saddle site. \u00a0Sharon was an early endurance rider. \u00a0She rode the famed Tevis Endurance ride with a 50 lb western saddle. \u00a0Light weight saddles, other than English saddles, were not yet invented. \u00a0Sharon invented a light weight Western Saddle. \u00a0She then learned that all horses did not fit under one tree. \u00a0By the time I found her, she had developed 9 trees. \u00a0Clearly, this was the saddle for me. \u00a0I ordered a saddle with a tree for a wide mutton withered horse. \u00a0Saddle fit at that time was determined by sweat pattern. \u00a0I rode the saddle and the sweat pattern was better, but still unacceptable. \u00a0I still had too much pressure on her withers. \u00a0She did not sweat where the saddle was too tight. \u00a0Here is an up to date explanation of all the Sharon Saddles<\/a> by Barb Peck. \u00a0There is not much information detailing the eleven trees now offered by the current owner of the Sharon Saare<\/a> saddles<\/p>\n I tried different pads. \u00a0I tried expensive pads. \u00a0I knew that if I spent enough money on magic pads and magic saddles, the problem would be solved. \u00a0Sadly, this is a false statement. \u00a0Money does not matter in saddle fit. \u00a0Knowledge matters. \u00a0So far my knowledge had failed.<\/p>\n I went to Equine fairs that had saddle makers. \u00a0Some of them gave speeches about saddle fit. \u00a0Dave Genadek was the new hero of saddle fit and I got to hear him talk and see his trees and saddles. \u00a0Plus he had saddle fitters in my area! \u00a0Oh excitement. \u00a0A Dave “saddle fitter” came to our barn. \u00a0Several of us were interested and different trees were put on the horses to find a fit. \u00a0A tree was put on Sage and declared “the right tree”. \u00a0I took a picture and had the film developed. \u00a0I was leary of Dave’s saddles. \u00a0He had only three trees available and I had failed with a saddle company that had 9 trees. \u00a0Why would this tree fit Sage when the other didn’t? \u00a0It was only when I got the picture of Sage with the tree on her back developed that I understood the problem. \u00a0Sage was a “downhill” horse. \u00a0Here is Dave’s web site now<\/a>.<\/p>\n Pictures are two dimensional. \u00a0Real life is three dimensional. \u00a0I did look at Sage to see if she was a downhill horse early on. \u00a0I remember measuring her rear end and her front end. \u00a0She did not look downhill. \u00a0The wither and the rear measurement were very nearly equal. \u00a0I determined early on that she wasn’t a downhill horse. \u00a0But now I had a picture of Sage with a wooden tree on her back. \u00a0The tree pointed down on her withers. All my weight shifts to the front of the saddle in two silver dollar size pain spots. \u00a0Oh my! \u00a0This saddle would have been just like the Sharon Saare saddle or even worse.<\/p>\n Shims had not yet come into the saddle fitting vocabulary or perhaps I gave a try to shims and it was just too unknown of a concept for me to grasp.<\/p>\n Questing around for saddle maker experts, I found an Australian saddle maker who claimed he could fit any horse.. \u00a0I called him. \u00a0He told me that he could build shims in the saddle. \u00a0He would build in the shims and make the saddle fit. \u00a0Oh my! \u00a0My excitement level was high. \u00a0He had directions on taking pictures and measuring Sage’s back. \u00a0I got all this together and picked out my Australian saddle. \u00a0It did have a horn. \u00a0It also had those knee pads or poley. \u00a0With my theory that money makes a difference, I ordered the most expensive saddle he had. \u00a0Expensive saddles have lots of leather. Plus I am a large sized person who needs a bigger saddle. \u00a0Bigger saddles have more leather and weigh more. Expensive large saddles contain lots of very good leather. When you put these concepts together with a wooden tree and the built-in shims, it makes for heavy. \u00a0I now owned a very well made Australian saddle that fit Sage. \u00a0Oh I was so happy as I drug that saddle up on Sage. \u00a0It might have been the Down Under “The Legend with Horn”.<\/a> I did love the knee pad\/poley. \u00a0When I changed back to a Western saddle, I really missed the support of the poley.<\/p>\n I took Sage and Velvet to the Missouri Fox Trotter World Show. \u00a0I read the rulebook and the rulebook said they didn’t allow Austratlian saddles in performance classes. \u00a0What! \u00a0Now I am on fire to find another saddle that I can show in which is a lighter weight.<\/p>\n It is about this time that Brenda Imus came along with her claim to know all things about gaited horses. \u00a0Plus, she had a saddle that had a special Supracor\u00ae\u00a0liner that would make her saddle fit all gaited horse. \u00a0 I sold the Australian behemoth and got my Imus saddle made by Amish saddle makers. \u00a0The saddle did OK while I was riding my older horses and the younger horse, JR. \u00a0But I had a two year old horse starting out. \u00a0After his start, I rode him and always ended up with my saddle on his neck. \u00a0And this little upstart colt decided to buck me off one afternoon, breaking my collar bone. \u00a0Good Lordy.<\/p>\n There was a strap broken on the saddle and I took it to a local saddle repair guy. \u00a0He took one look at the three point saddle girthing rigging system and told me it would likely work its way forward on a horse’s back. \u00a0I felt betrayed. \u00a0This saddle tried to kill me. \u00a0I sold it to a fan of Brenda Imus.<\/p>\n By this time the Tucker saddle had gained a lot of fame. \u00a0I ordered a Tucker saddle. \u00a0It fit Sage like a glove. \u00a0It fit Velvet. \u00a0It was a dream saddle. \u00a0But wait. \u00a0After riding my dream saddle for about an hour, I became a rider in serious pelvic pain. \u00a0I would get off barely able to walk. \u00a0Surely this was a one-time glitch. \u00a0I rode the saddle again and right about at an hour, the pain started. \u00a0Now I had a great saddle that fit the horse. \u00a0The saddle was comfortable for me for an hour. \u00a0I can’t go through life riding for a limited time of an hour.<\/p>\n Here’s how the Tucker tree was explained to me by the foremost saddle dealer in my world at the time, Freddy Fender. \u00a0 The Tucker human seat is like a basket. \u00a0The ride sits on a a comfortable “basket” above the tree. \u00a0The “basket” has to be wider than the tree to fit. \u00a0Thus a rider’s pelvic bones have to be wider to fit the saddle. \u00a0I am a size large large in fat, but my bones are not of a wide enough width to fit the Tucker Saddle. \u00a0Oh cry…the best fitting saddle and it makes me moan with intense pain. \u00a0I looked for tree information on the Tucker saddle to see what the saddle tree is like now: Tucker Saddle Rider Fi<\/a>t. I would hate to pick out a Tucker saddle now after reading all this information.<\/p>\n Usually, a woman has a wider pelvis than a man and it makes it tougher for a woman to ride a saddle built for a man. \u00a0Long ago, this point was made a saddle makers started coming out with women’s saddles. \u00a0Who knows if this is being done now!<\/p>\n Next up is the Orthoflex saddle. The Orthoflex saddle was big news at the time. \u00a0The inventor, Len Brown, has sold the company and now sells Corrector Pads. \u00a0Here is the current \u00a0explanation of saddle fit<\/a> from Len Brown I went to Freddy Fender and explained the situation and how I now wanted the new Orthoflex saddle. \u00a0He told me the Orthoflex saddle is built much like the Tucker saddle with the “basket” above the tree. \u00a0But he had one particular Orthoflex saddle in mind that was made more narrow in the seat that most of them. \u00a0I bought that saddle. \u00a0It must have weighed 45 lbs. \u00a0I could just barely manage to throw the saddle up on the horse. \u00a0When I rode at my original boarding stable, I carried the saddle to the large mounting block. \u00a0I got the saddle up on the mounting block. \u00a0I got myself up on the mounting block. \u00a0I was much better able to put the saddle on the horse with a three foot high head start! \u00a0The saddle worked really well. \u00a0It fit me and it fit the horse. \u00a0I might have had it for about six months when the unthinkable happened. \u00a0I carried the saddle out to my trailer, put Sage in and took off to a clinic or trail ride. \u00a0I stopped in Harrisonville at the Farm and Home Store. \u00a0When I got out of my truck, my back went out. \u00a0I was barely able to climb back into the truck cab. \u00a0I managed to drive back to the boarding stable. \u00a0I had someone get Sage out of the trailer and put her away. \u00a0I drove off to the hospital. \u00a0It took them a few heating pads and pain medication to get me to where I could make it home into the house. \u00a0It was that heavy saddle! \u00a0My back just couldn’t take tossing my saddle up on my horse anymore. \u00a0Orthoflex saddle had to go!<\/p>\n At this time of the century, more people started getting into saddle fit. \u00a0Linda Parelli started studying saddle fit and the instructors were all given a course in saddle fit. \u00a0A couple years went by and Linda had an English saddle made for her. \u00a0More time had gone by and the Parelli world produced saddles. \u00a0I ordered one of the original Natural Performer saddles. \u00a0This was a Western saddle. \u00a0In my horse life, I was now riding Sue. \u00a0Sue was a horse that had been ruined by people and she was slowly starting to return to saneness. \u00a0I got my new saddle and rode Sue. \u00a0Oh wow! \u00a0The Natural Performer was really an English saddle in disguise as a Western saddle. \u00a0I felt like is was high and dry on Sue’s back. \u00a0It was a very uncomfortable experience. \u00a0I don’t really understand how something that looks like a Western saddle rides like an English saddle. \u00a0I tried hard with that saddle. \u00a0I rode it and was nearly always just slightly nervous in it. \u00a0A Western saddle is supposed to be like sitting inside the horse’s back and cuddle you against all sideways motion. \u00a0This saddle felt like I was high above my horse and had no support from the seat or fenders to keep from slipping sideways out of the saddle.<\/p>\n I crawled back to Freddy Fender in Harrionsville and met Rhonda Martin. \u00a0She had recently moved to Harrisonville and was highly versed in saddle fit. \u00a0It was Rhonda that started me out on the Circle Y Flex Lite saddle. \u00a0Oh I loved that saddle. \u00a0It was light weight. \u00a0It fit me. \u00a0It acted like a Western saddle. \u00a0I came back a few years later and bought a used Circle Y Flex Lite that had a suede seat. \u00a0I rode the heck out of that saddle. \u00a0Some years later a person at the boarding stable was getting out of horses and he had a pecan colored Cirle Y Flex Lite saddle. \u00a0I bought that saddle from him. \u00a0I continued to ride in the suede seat saddle. \u00a0And that is when my earlier story of the broken tree<\/a> occurred.<\/p>\n I have no saddle answers. \u00a0I wrote this article to describe how difficult saddles can be and some things to think about. \u00a0Saddle pads have come a long way. \u00a0I have a CSI saddle pad <\/a>and you get what you pay for…protection for the horse. \u00a0I have shims now which need to be used if a horse’s back needs support. \u00a0I rely on Rhonda Martin, expert saddle fitter. \u00a0When it comes time for me to really think about getting another saddle, I’ll ask Rhonda for advice. \u00a0I don’t trust saddle makers. \u00a0They go on and on about saddle twist and rock, but there are few companies in existence that make the trees. Saddle makers don’t talk about a downhill horse. \u00a0They talk about twist, rock and width of the tree.<\/p>\n I could easily make a Sharon Saare saddle work now with my CSI pad and shims. \u00a0Oh the journey to saddle knowledge is huge. \u00a0Parelli has now spent years and years of testing saddles and developed many more styles. Checkout Parelli Saddles<\/a>. They now have a barrel saddle that really makes the rider secure. \u00a0Pat Parelli rides in a saddle invented by Craig Johnson<\/a>. \u00a0It has a tree made out of some kind of thick movable rubber life material. <\/p>\n