>>> That said, I am tall (5'9") and have rather large feet (women's 11) and I >>> often don't >>> have the alignment problem with some of the Icelandic saddles that a more >>> petite woman >>> does.
I alluded to that point in an earlier e-mail, and I'm glad you pointed it out too. The worst I've ever felt thrown into a chair seat was when I first started riding. I was still quite slender then (believe it or not), probably 100 pounds, and I'm 5' tall and small frame. I wear size 6 shoes. What made me feel most chair-sittish, was when I'd try to ride in a western "hump-seat" saddle. Invariably, the smallest western saddle available would be a 15", and I needed about a 13.5 or 14"western then. That hump in the front of the typical off-the-shelf western saddle might not have been so noticable to a larger person, who needed to be at the back of the seat, but I needed to be more forward on the seat. I pretty much ruled out western saddles for me from the beginning because I couldn't get over the feeling that I was falling backwards. Karen Thomas, NC
