Barefoot London Saddle- anyone have this prob?

J

jillibug

New Member
Nov 12, 2007
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Hi all,
I am a new user and I am having an issue with my barefoot london saddle. It is comfy and I like it however I am a bit dissapointed and may end up selling it if I can't solve this issue.:confused:
I have had a few issues with slippage but checking my girth freqeuntly seems to be the answer.My main problem is that I hit the pommel while posting? I have varied my stirrup length and taken out the fiberglass pommel and used stuufing instead which helped a bit. I don't think it is a position issue as I have always been praised by instructors for having and excellent leg/seat position. ( infact my coach thinks this saddle makes my leg position worse)
Any ideas why this is happening or any other barefoot owners have similar issues? Please help :)
 
I had the same with my Freeform at first. Found if I was careful not to lean forwards and didn't over-do rising trot, as in let horse push me up rather than make a lot of effort, it was much better. There's no twist to that type of treeless so if you have a very wide horse you can end up sitting more like when you're riding bareback. Or on narrower horses the stirrup bars being further back can cause you to have your leg too far back until you get used to it.
 
I had this problem in the london. I didn't find the seat very comfy, found it pushed me into a horrible chair position and I constantly whacked myself on the pommel in trot.
It was a size 1 which seemed a little bit small for me (im a size 10/12), but I have a size 2 arizona which is huge for me.
I also didn't like that the knee rolls were so far down, I ended up selling it.

Ive gone through a few saddles now, and except for my startrekk western saddle, I really like the exmoor and dartmoor treefree saddles, they are lovely.
 
hmmmm... not to encouraging I think I may end up selling. It is a size two and I do find it comfy (once I got used to the total lack of twist) Well thanks for the help.
 
i had a london and found it terrible to ride in. it does put you in a very odd position and the knee rolls are pointless because they are so far down and as for slippage, well don't get me started:eek: i unfortunately ended up in a&e with concussion as a result of a slipping london saddle so needless to say i sold it on and have gone back to riding in a treed saddle for the time being. i am actually a bit peed off about the whole thing because i sold my trekker to fund the london as i thought it would be a much better saddle and i wish i hadn't, especially as you can't find a secondhand original model trekker talent for love nor money, oh well:rolleyes:
 
I would second the recommendation for the Treefree Dartmoor/Exmoor saddles - they are ultra comfy and Ive never had the issue you talk of and mine is on both a 14.2 Haflinger (table top) and a 17hh Irish Draught x TB. :)

I managed to get my Treefree second hand on eBay so there is hope!:D

good luck - itll be worth it when you find the one that suits
 
I ended up having an accident too my second ride, not too badly hurt but i did require a trip to my chiropractor to realign my pelvis.. not encouraging. I think I will be selling and which is too bad I actually liked the saddle. Did you have a hard time to sell I kinda feel bad passing it on to someone else but somepeople seem to love them.
 
jillibug said:
I ended up having an accident too my second ride, not too badly hurt but i did require a trip to my chiropractor to realign my pelvis.. not encouraging. I think I will be selling and which is too bad I actually liked the saddle. Did you have a hard time to sell I kinda feel bad passing it on to someone else but somepeople seem to love them.
Click to expand...

hi again, no i had no trouble selling at all and i almost got my money back - ebay is a truly wonderful thing:D for the selling description i just copied basically what it says on the barefoot website, that way i didn't feel like i was saying anything misleading and i put reason for sale was to fund a new saddle (which was technically true!). also found that you get a better price if you split up the items and sell the saddle pad / girth / stirrups etc separate from the actual saddle. good luck and don't get hurt in the mean time:)

the dartmoor saddles do look lovely, i will have to save a few more pennies for one of those i think
 
I find the London super comfy. I love it. I haven't felt that secure in a saddle in a long time. When you say it slips do you mean from side to side or backwards and forwards.

My saddle slips back and I was told that a breastplate would help this.
 
Well for me it was lateral slippage. But I do think this was my fault as I wasn't diligent about rechecking the girth like they suggest. I really do like the saddle but the posting thing dosn't seem to be fixable, so I may just use it for trail riding but not schooling. Or I may sell it on ebay that is where i got it in the first place. I glad you like yours.
 
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