>>> Some x-ray techs on the treeless saddle list are x-raying saddles and >>> finding some >>> interesting things.
>> What are they finding? The only one that I've read that anyone has x-rayed is the Trekker Dressage Master. Isn't that the only one that was x-rayed? It was originally (a year or two ago) promoted as "treeless" but that claim has since been removed from their website. Now they claim that it has some sort of leather/flex tree. A woman from Australia took hers to be x-rayed, and apparantly the x-ray tech thought it has something much more rigid than leather in much of its length. I've only seen one Trekker treeless saddle, and it was a totally different model from several years ago. Janice had one when she rode in the first Liz clinic that I sponsored in 2006. That particular one Janice had was almost identical to the Barefoot Cheyenne of the same era - I had a Cheyenne at the time, and I compared them. (Neither were on my list of favorite saddles...) Apparently this dressage model is very different. The one Janice had was not only treeless, but very "floppy", with nothing at all rigid about it. The x-rayed saddle was supposedly very rigid and also warped - no way a treeless saddle should warp. Honestly, I'm not sure I can tell that it was warped from the x-ray pictures the person provided. For what it's worth, the technician thought some of the parts that were supposed to be leather were probably plastic or fiberglass - not flexible at all. The woman in Australia took hers to the airport to be x-rayed. I most certainly hope people don't start doing that here in the USA. As concerned as I am about saddle fit, I don't want my tax dollars that are marked for homeland security going to do "consumer reports" in non-threatening situations. My gosh, the delays at airports are long enough these days, thanks to the lines at security checks. Since there has been only one report (that I saw) of an x-rayed saddle, and we don't know the technician who did it, and saddles aren't his (her?) specialty, I really don't think the report was very informative - vaguely interesting, yes, but probably a lot of speculation with not much substance. It's generated a lot of chatter, but not much useful that I see. I used to like that list, but it isn't what it used to be... Karen Thomas, NC
