The whys of Gene's saddle

I've shown Peanut's new saddle, and now it's time for Gene's. His saddle is a traditionally treed dressage saddle, even though it looks nothing like a dressage saddle thanks to the custom leather. I hated the look when we first got it, but now that it's broken in and showing wear it actually looks pretty damn awesome.

Rick did a lot of research before going saddle shopping, as we had learned that his Wintec dressage saddle was both accentuating his wither atrophy instead of curing it and it was pinching his spine and keeping him from bending properly. The Cair panels probably hindered Gene as well, but he's keeping mum on the subject.

We went to our local tack shop, Dover Saddlery, and spent well over an hour in their dressage saddle section turning every saddle that they had upside down and discussing its pros and cons. Every now and then a sales girl would walk by, stop and stare while we were talking about the undersides of saddles, and kind of wander away with wide eyes. It was amusing, actually. Only one saddle there met all of Rick's specifications: the Henri De Rivel Pro Buffalo Dressage.

I should note that every now and then Rick goes looking under dressage saddles, and sees more and more saddles that are starting to fit his list.

After he decided that it would be good for Gene, he then tried it out himself and thank goodness that he liked it as well.

We originally ordered the normal tree, as Gene is very deceptive fit-wise. Our Master Saddler, who came into the picture post purchase, told us it was far too narrow but he would be able to fix it, which he did. He also complimented us on the choice of saddle, saying that we bought a perfect one for Gene.

In his first ride in this saddle, the muscles on either side of Gene's withers moved with each stride. This NEVER happened with the Wintec. He had freedom to move those muscles again and thus build them back up. His bending also improved as well. Most telling, when at liberty he stopped running when he saw Rick pull out a saddle.

Hopefully these pictures help illustrate why we chose this saddle. The things that the pictures can't show are that the tree is wooden with points that go straight down. Rick found pictures of the trees on the Henri De Rivel site before he purchased it. Also, the panels are flocked with wool. Both of those were important details that Rick was looking for.

Here is the saddle:

These are the billets. We wanted a 3-point billet system to help distribute the pressure from the girth.

This is the underside. The shot isn't directly above, but hopefully it can seen that the spine channel is wide and does not close down towards the back. If anything, it is actually hourglass shaped. It was next to impossible to find a saddle that didn't close down at the back, and this seems to be the thing that has changed the most when Rick looks at saddles now. Also, the panels are wide, another feature that Rick was looking for.

This is another shot of the spine channel, from the rear. No chance of pinching here!

Here is the front of the saddle. The important thing here is that there is a smooth transition to the panels at the top. The Wintec came in pretty severely, which helped restrict those muscles. With this saddle, they are free to work.