Treeless Saddles? Good Or Bad
photo credit: Harpersbizarre
The treeless saddle is a fairly new innovation and as such things generally go there are heated voices in praise of them and just as vociferous condemnations.
The tree of a saddle is the wooden former which carries the saddle and defines its shape.
The tree spreads the load of rider and saddle alng the sides of the animals spine thus keeping any pressure off of the back bone.
Advocates of the treed saddles say that without a tree to even out the load the horse will suffer discomfort and possibly injury to the spine and that a tree is needed for the stability of the rider.
On the other side of the argument treeless fans claim that far from hurting the horse a treeless saddle actually helps it by allowing a freer movement of the shoulders and with the pressure pad design any load is kept away from the spine.
One thing is certain, a treeless saddle does let you have a closer contact with your horse and this may be the most important feature giving the rider greater control and sensitivity to and over the horse.
Experienced riders like the flexible nature of the treeless saddle but perhaps they are not so good for a beginner as the required skill of using your legs to control the horse movement may not be there yet.
A last point is the claim that a treeless saddle will fit any horse even the notoriously difficult Arabian. It is claimed that with one treeless saddle you can ride nearly any horse but conversely opponents say that the saddle will fit nearly any horse but once it has been ‘worn in’ on that horse it will not be any good for another.
