> I would ask what specific problem you see with the saddles in the > photos of the British riders, seeing as 2 were using floating panel > Trapezius saddles and one was in a treeless? (not sure about the > others).
My point was not specifically about British riders. Point being that it's hard to pick out "good" pictures when there's so many things going on such as the tight saddles, nosebands, bits, shoes, boots, whips, contact, rider's seat, etc. Say there's a picture such as loose rein tolt. It's great that the horse is tolting without the contact. But we have to remember that he may still be negatively affected by the tight saddle; he still has shoes and boots on, and the rider's still carrying a whip, and maybe sitting on the cantle of the saddle, all of which the horse will be conscious of in doing his 30-second run. There are just so many things that go into producing the show tolt, that we can't see what's natural for the horse. It's not a question, at this point, that what is being shown is mechanically induced; otherwise why would there still be discussions about it. If not mechanical, it would have been very easy for riders to stand up and show their horses barefoot, bootless, treeless, nosebandless, bitless, whipless, casual rein. Judy http://icehorses.net http://clickryder.com
