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glenatronToday our friend Karen came over to visit, she's now an agent for Heather Moffett's Fhoenix saddles and she came over to give us a practice fitting and let us try the saddles out.
She brought two with her, the basic Fhoenix Standard and a Vogue Dressage. We tried both on both horses, to see what we ( and they ) thought.
Both saddles are deeply gulletted and fairly soft, being largely made of memory foam. They have a lot more structure than other treeless saddles I've seen ( I think legally they can't call themselves treeless, but they are ) and to look at you wouldn't know they aren't regular dressage saddles.
As with a lot of modern saddles, they work on the principle of having a set of shim pads that can be used to lift or lower parts of the saddle to fit the horse's back better and both of our boys needed a wither pad to pick up the front slightly. The idea is that these can be changed as necessary when the horse's back changes shape, to keep the saddle comfortable and in balance for everyone.
I started out riding the dressage saddle and although it was comfortable to sit on and Zorro had no complaints I felt there was a lot of saddle between me and the horse and also the deep-seat with the relatively high pommel left me feeling as though I was getting some of the structural downsides of a western saddle without the advantage of having all that structure to hang onto in an emergency. With the wither pads in I felt as though it wasn't very stable on Zorro's back as well, tending to want to rotate a little as we moved. This was partly a function of the girth we were using, though ( my leather one ) because when we switched saddles we changed to a neoprene girth on an elastic back and that held position nicely without needing to be as tight.
Next up we swapped and Zorro and I got to use the regular saddle. I much preferred this, it was comfortable and I could feel what was going on with our feet more easily. Interestingly Karen said this is quite common for people who are used to treeless saddles, while people who are used to regular saddles prefer the greater twist and structure of the dressage saddle.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sleepsy_mouse and Small certainly got on better with the dressage one, with him offering some lovely wide, calm trot in it very cheerfully.
Zorro and I with the Fhoenix regular saddle. As you can more-or-less make out, it doesn't look particularly treeless at all.
Both were comfortable, fitted the horses well and insulated me more from Zorro's twisty trot than my current saddle does. These are the new generation of treeless saddles, more versatile and more conventional looking than the original torsion-style designs that most people are familliar with from Barefoot and others and I can see them suiting a lot of people very well who may have been put off by the look or unconventional feel of the older style saddles.
I took a few more pictures on the walk home, mostly of the first part of the walk, which leads through a wooded valley.
At this time of year it's just so green, but you can still see the sky- once the beeches come into leaf the valley becomes more like a corridor. It's ancient woodland and today in the drizzle it felt like a little corner of Ryhope Wood here in Surrey. There are numerous fallen trees across the stream and today I watched a fox using one as a bridge a hundred yards away upstream.
These gnarled mossy beech roots are right out of the Wild Wood from the Wind In The Willows.
Guess who I met a little further up... The herd were wandering down each side of the path as I was walking up. Mr Mane ( on the left here ) who approached me most closely yesterday, was pawing at the birch sapling by his feet, I think with the intention of triggering the stings on the nettle at the bottom of it, so he could eat it without getting stung.
A little further up I startled three Roe Deer who went bounding off down the ( very steep ) side of the valley, white tails flagged, a minute later a fourth doe who had been watching me for a while, decided I had got close enough and bounced off as well, although somewhat more sedately.
She brought two with her, the basic Fhoenix Standard and a Vogue Dressage. We tried both on both horses, to see what we ( and they ) thought.
Both saddles are deeply gulletted and fairly soft, being largely made of memory foam. They have a lot more structure than other treeless saddles I've seen ( I think legally they can't call themselves treeless, but they are ) and to look at you wouldn't know they aren't regular dressage saddles.
As with a lot of modern saddles, they work on the principle of having a set of shim pads that can be used to lift or lower parts of the saddle to fit the horse's back better and both of our boys needed a wither pad to pick up the front slightly. The idea is that these can be changed as necessary when the horse's back changes shape, to keep the saddle comfortable and in balance for everyone.
I started out riding the dressage saddle and although it was comfortable to sit on and Zorro had no complaints I felt there was a lot of saddle between me and the horse and also the deep-seat with the relatively high pommel left me feeling as though I was getting some of the structural downsides of a western saddle without the advantage of having all that structure to hang onto in an emergency. With the wither pads in I felt as though it wasn't very stable on Zorro's back as well, tending to want to rotate a little as we moved. This was partly a function of the girth we were using, though ( my leather one ) because when we switched saddles we changed to a neoprene girth on an elastic back and that held position nicely without needing to be as tight.
Next up we swapped and Zorro and I got to use the regular saddle. I much preferred this, it was comfortable and I could feel what was going on with our feet more easily. Interestingly Karen said this is quite common for people who are used to treeless saddles, while people who are used to regular saddles prefer the greater twist and structure of the dressage saddle.
sleepsy_mouse and Small certainly got on better with the dressage one, with him offering some lovely wide, calm trot in it very cheerfully. Zorro and I with the Fhoenix regular saddle. As you can more-or-less make out, it doesn't look particularly treeless at all.
Both were comfortable, fitted the horses well and insulated me more from Zorro's twisty trot than my current saddle does. These are the new generation of treeless saddles, more versatile and more conventional looking than the original torsion-style designs that most people are familliar with from Barefoot and others and I can see them suiting a lot of people very well who may have been put off by the look or unconventional feel of the older style saddles.
I took a few more pictures on the walk home, mostly of the first part of the walk, which leads through a wooded valley.
At this time of year it's just so green, but you can still see the sky- once the beeches come into leaf the valley becomes more like a corridor. It's ancient woodland and today in the drizzle it felt like a little corner of Ryhope Wood here in Surrey. There are numerous fallen trees across the stream and today I watched a fox using one as a bridge a hundred yards away upstream.
These gnarled mossy beech roots are right out of the Wild Wood from the Wind In The Willows.
Guess who I met a little further up... The herd were wandering down each side of the path as I was walking up. Mr Mane ( on the left here ) who approached me most closely yesterday, was pawing at the birch sapling by his feet, I think with the intention of triggering the stings on the nettle at the bottom of it, so he could eat it without getting stung.
A little further up I startled three Roe Deer who went bounding off down the ( very steep ) side of the valley, white tails flagged, a minute later a fourth doe who had been watching me for a while, decided I had got close enough and bounced off as well, although somewhat more sedately.