>>> I have a super-wide Welsh Cob who has totally flat withers - you could sit a cup of tea on them! The flexible aluminium plate in the seats of the Freeform's accommodate his width very comfortably and still leave a nice clearance over his withers and spine to the point that I can actually get the flat of my hand in under the pommel.
Not to be cynical (who, me?) but I think there's some marketing in that statement. I have pictures of the way the Freeform sat on Kari's withers - remember him, that gorgeous and HUGE gray we had for a while? Kari never showed any obvious discomfort, and while the saddle would flex to accommodate his width, it maintained its "V" shape, where Kari himself was definitely a "U"-shape. Cary was just starting to get Kari in shape when he got the chance to buy Skjoni back, so I was never convinced the saddle would be ok on longer rides. Maybe, but I wasn't certain of that. It wouldn't work at all on Skjoni's back. At the time we tried that Freeform, the dealers told me to take the seat off, and reshape the gullet to more of a "U" shape. I think they say now that you shouldn't stress the gullet too much, lest it break. I would have been pretty upset if ours had broken after they told me to do that. >>>Big seats and short saddles do not and should not go together. To make a short back model to suit anything bigger than a 17" seat is nigh on impossible because when all is said and done, the weight bearing area nearest the horse needs to be bigger than the rider in the same way as the pad/numnah used beneath the saddle needs to be bigger than that; otherwise you will have totally ineffective weight distribution. Therefore, the saddle base needs to be bigger than the seat and if a bigger seat is needed,then a bigger base is too. I think there is SOME truth in what she's saying...but if it were literally true, virtually none of us would have saddles that would work with an Icelandic's back! The "standard" base on the Freeform was 22" - and that was too long for almost ALL of our Icelandics. Supposedly, it's ok for some saddles to slightly overlap the horse's shoulders, but the aluminum plate seemed to want to slip behind the shoulder - and I was never convinced it had enough give to sit over them. It worked ok on Kari, but that's about it. I think the bases of the Sensations are about 19-20 inches, plus the saddles aren't as rigid as the Freeforms. I can still ride in a 17" English-measurement seat, but I started life as a tiny person. All in all, we've tested and found the Sensations to work better than any other treeless saddle on a variety of Icelandic horse shapes. We found the FreeForm Standard to work on exactly one horse - and we didn't really test that one too stringently. It might have been ok, but I wouldn't swear to it. The FreeForm DID give a nice weight-bearing impression in the Port Lewis pad on Kari, so I'm sure it's worth trying for some Icelandic owners, but I don't quite swallow all the marketing for that saddle! Contrast that to the Sensation dealers who tend to UNDERSELL the Sensations - it's nice to deal with people who don't seem to be selling, selling, selling, at any cost to the horse. Karen Karen Thomas -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.446 / Virus Database: 268.18.4/702 - Release Date: 2/25/2007 3:16 PM
