From: hannah@pomponio.ai.sri.com (Marsha Jo Hannah)
Newsgroups: rec.equestrian
Subject: Re: more on endurance saddles
Date: 15 Apr 92 17:47:59 GMT
Organization: SRI International, Menlo Park, CA
In-reply-to: GC.SUL@forsythe.stanford.edu's message of 14 Apr 92 20:15:55 GMT

In article <1992Apr14.201555.20008@morrow.stanford.edu> GC.SUL@forsythe.stanford.edu (Sullivan) writes:

   Skito Enterprises near Sacramento
   ... reccomended a saddle-maker named Skyhorse who is located north
   of Eureka ....  All of their endurance saddles ... have western
   style rockers that can be individually fit to the horses back, and
   then have a cover of Skito enterprises high density foam than can be
   removed and cleaned or replaced.  She also said that the tree was
   hinged and so DID flex.

   In her opinion (Skyhorse), the Ortho-Flex saddles are something of a
   misnomer, as their TREE in rigid, only the panels flex.  Anyone
   want to comment on this?

A saddle needs to have many different properties.  From the horse's
point of view, the most important ones are

1) The ability to keep anything hard from pressing on the horse's 
   backbone.

2) The ability to spread the rider's weight smoothly over the largest
   possible area of the horse's back muscles, specifically avoiding
   the creation of any spots (such as corners of the saddle tree) 
   where weight, hence pressure, might be concentrated.

Traditionally, 1) is accomplished by putting a relatively rigid tree
in the saddle (constructed with a particular horse's back conformation
in mind) so there is no chance of the tree flexing enough to bring any
part of the saddle into contact with the bones of the horse's spine
(including withers).  I would look very carefully at any saddle that
claimed to have a flexible or hinged tree---is there any way that it
can flatten out or pinch the horse when the rider moves around in the
saddle (say, to duck a branch), or when the saddle moves around (for
instance, when a less-than-graceful person like me mounts), or when
your girth loosens up (after the horse exhales, excretes, and sweats
for a few miles).

We have 2 Ortho-Flex saddles, a Traditional, and an Express; they are
hybrid saddles built on a rigid western-style tree, which is carefully
selected for the particular horse---angle of tree, length of bars,
etc.  These trees are more rounded on the ends than most western
saddle trees, to do away with any possibility of a "corner" poking the
horse in the shoulder or loin.  The saddles are then fitted with 2
stiff nylon panels (calibrated to the weight of the rider), one on the
underside of each side of the tree---sort of like the skirts on a
really old-timey western saddle.  These provide the "flex" that
spreads out the rider's weight over a larger area of the horse's back,
particularly as the horse moves, i.e. the horse's shoulders aren't
"running into" a rigid tree on each stride.

Ortho-Flex used to put out a great $3 brochure explaining how their
saddles works.  More recently, they seem to be pushing a 4-hour
"Saddle Fitting" video, which I haven't seen.  You might call them
(they advertize in most major horse publications, and endurance rider
Becky Hart, in Los Gatos, is one of their distributors) and see if
their old brochure is still available.

Ortho-Flex saddles cost a little more than most other brands.
However, after having a runaway/wreck that was caused at least in part
by an ill-fitting saddle pinching the (admittedly green) horse's
shoulders on downgrades, I find the difference in price to be worth
it.  Our problem horse made great improvements after we got his
Ortho-Flex saddle custom made for him, and my new horse seems quite
happy with his Ortho-Flex.  I've heard that some horses who've
experienced an Ortho-Flex on trial get really grumpy when their bad
old saddle is put on them the next time!

Marsha Jo Hannah		Murphy must have been a horseman--
La Honda, CA			anything that can go wrong, will!