Balance soft option saddle

[jet]

Anyone know anything about this saddle or tried it out. Seen one on Ebay and don't know if it's suitable for our type of pony! Would be really interested in your opinions.

[The Moo]

I was interested in one of these quite a few years ago but the nearest balance fitter was miles away and the charge for fitting was quite expensive then she said the horse often changes shape so there would be more fitting (and charges). Apart from wider, I am not sure how much a Hairy can change shape. In all I could see the ££££'s sign roll up too much amd there was nothing around 2nd hand.

Also an 'anti' gave me a lecture on how bad half tree saddles were though I wasn't going to take her argument too much on board as she was from a racing background and dealt with TB and the little racing saddles. A bit different to our sort of pony.

[alisonduke]

I used to have one of these. They just have a tree in the front half so most of your weight where you sit has no support. You have to buy a prolite pad to fit under it which at the time cost me nearly £100 and also use a numnah under that too. You need safety stirrups as the stirrup bars won't release the leathers, they are very tight.
They are very wide to sit on, I imagine like the modern treeless saddles are.
I sold mine because it was really unstable with all the padding under it and with Duke being so round I ended up on the floor once trying to launch into the saddle before it slipped!!!
I also found that when I had a problem with it that I had to pay a lot of money to get someone to come and look at the fit of it and I had already spent up buying the saddle in the first place.

It's up to you though at the end of the day!!lol

Edited to add - they also don't have a proper gullet in the middle, just square cut foam material, so it's very difficult to keep pressure off the spine if not completely impossible.

[jet]

Think I'll pass on that one then Alison! ;D