I recently had a conversation with the man who owns Orthoflex saddles. He is very nice! He admitted to me that the original System 2 panels do not work for many gaited horses, and that is the reason they came out with the newer system 6 and 8 which are more flexible, plus they have sys 6 and 8 short panel versions for short back horses.
I called him because my orthoflex stitchdown is the best sitting saddle there is, to me. When I am in it it causes me to sit correctly, feels like I am part of the horse, and I can sit almost any spook on stonewall, my whirly fast horse. A woman wanted to buy it but wanted me to discount it because she would have to have the sys 2 panels replaced with short sys 8 panels for her gaited horse which she uses for fox hunting. Since I have gaited horses and use them for activities similar to that I was curious as to why those panels would be better. Its relatively cheap to have panels replaced, and a new stitchdown cost around 3-4000 bucks. He said the newer saddles they make have a system where you can adjust the girth billets so that the saddle can be placed correctly on different horses according to withers, shoulders etc, and that where the sys 2 older panels flex the new sys 6 and 8 panels flex in several directions so there is more shoulder movement and for gaited horses with withers, no withers, etc, the adjustable girth allows it to be moved in different positions easily. He says the difference between sys 6 and sys 8 is that sys 8, if ridden by someone heavier than around 230, loses flexibility. He said a certain large icelandic farm I shall not mention cause that wouldnt be fair maybe, tried demo saddles on all their icelandics and out of 19 horses the sys 6 and 8 panels fit 18. But of those horses it did fit "further adjustments were made". The "further adjustments" were that he says if you use the sys 6 or 8 short panels, he can take the back of the actual saddle tree, which in a flex panel saddle is not a tree like a regular saddle tree but more of a support cage I think? Anyway, he says he can take some of the back off and still keep the same size seat and with the sys 6 and 8 panels it can work for very short backed icelandics. I told him I wasnt thinking of using the saddle for my icelandic since my icelandic is a horse that no tree on earth is wide enough for and besides, he doesn't need a shorter saddle cause he is an icelandic with a back long enough for a normal saddle. I was mainly thinking of getting the panels replaced for stonewall, my whirly horse who doesnt need a wide tree. Anyway. He is sending me a demo with short sys 8 panels and he wants me to try it on every horse I have and take pictures and measurements etc and said he would really like to see how it works on every horse. He said for me to even sit it on Nasi and take a pic even tho he isnt ridden. Anyway. This is interesting. I will report back on how this goes. if I put it on Tivar and he flattens his ears I will take a pic of it for the man haha. Janice -- yipie tie yie yo
