Road Testing The Barefoot-Horse and People Magazin

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Horse and People Magazin 01'05

Road Testing the "Barefoot" Treeless Saddle

Horses & People was contacted recently by Natalie Eggenberger of Horse Connections who handles the Australian distribution for a German made innovation, a treeless saddle. Deciding that this was a different concept with a huge potential given the current concerns and hype relating to fitting saddles to horses, it was decided that a 'road test' was a good way of telling people about the saddle from an unbiased perspective.

Natalie herself is a dressage rider and although an english style Barefoot saddle is still very much at the drawing board stage she is hoping that the look of the saddle won't deter people from trying it, just to experience the difference. The saddle is not only extremely comfortable for riders but allows the horse to lift through the back and work freely without the pressure of a tree (in combination with a riders weight) driving into their back. With the barefoot saddle, the riders weight is more evenly distributed over the horses back and the points of the buttock are cushioned by layers which include high density foam and padded leather.

On first sight the saddle, while certainly different, is not so radical that you are put off by the sight of it. It looks something like a cross between a 'half breed' saddle and one of those used by the Spanish Riding School, made by KN in Austria. Our test saddle had swinging fenders, but english leathers and stirrups are also available. Without mounts the saddle weighs an impressively light 3kg - it would feel like a feather to a horse in comparison to some saddles.

The saddle has fibreglass inserts across the front and back which are moulded and removable. The front one is wide enough to fit over the scapula or shoulder of the horse, stabilising the saddle but not interfering with movement. The rear insert has a channel for the spine. We tried this saddle on 5 different horses including a 20 something year old thoroughbred with a high wither and the beginnings of a sinking back, and it fitted well with no wither interference. In the event of an especially high withered horse it would be possible to remove the insert and stuff the space with wool. There is a wider moulded 'pommel' also available, but so far the only horse which Natalie has been required to supply this for was a Percheron stallion. One of our test horses was a QH Arabian cross with a very broad back and shoulder with some wither, and the front was snug on him but didn't look or feel as though it would rub or cause pressure. Another test horse was a broad-backed campdraft mare which requires a half breed saddle built on a full QH tree in order to prevent pressure spots. The Barefoot fitted her very nicely and in fast work and turns did not give the rider any concerns about stability, in fact the close contact feel enabled better communication; the mare responded to applied pressure coming from the whole leg just as well as from the more usual lower leg, and the rider felt that having no tree to interfere with the contact between horse and rider gave a positive indication of the next move of the horse.

We found that the Barefoot looked good with a rider in it, placing the rider in a good position with their leg beneath their point of balance. Some riders might at first find this feel a little radical from what they are used to, but after a few rides would find the same thing about their previous position if they went back to it. It might be argued that having your leg under you would not be ideal in a campdraft saddle, but our campdraft rider had no concerns that the leg couldn't be braced as required for that kind of fast work.

One of our tests was to take the saddle out for a good long ride. About 2 hours into this ride when the horse was well and truly sweated up we removed the saddle to see whether any pressure point were happening. None at all, although the way the saddle looks we weren't expecting any either. The main difference noticed by the rider was that the widest part of the saddle, instead of being where the tree usually is, was about midway down the thigh, where the widest part of the horses ribs are. The test rider was riding fit so experienced no muscle soreness but a non fit rider might have done so and in different places than usual. Any rider who grips with the knees or thighs would also feel the rim of the padding which extends down to about mid-thigh on the saddle and over the widest part of the horse. This pressure area for the rider might cause soreness initially, just as would be experienced by an unfit rider in any saddle.

We asked Classical Dressage trainer Peter Acton to try the saddle and to give us his immediate response on first sitting in it, which was that he liked where his leg and seat position were. This surprised him given the look of the saddle which is far from an English look. A further first response observation was that not having a steep and long pommel as is the case with most English saddles gave him more room in front which as a man he felt was a definite bonus! Time did not permit Peter to have more than one ride in the saddle, but he liked the close contact feel and how this enabled a better communication between horse and rider. He was impressed with how comfortable the saddle felt and that it offered no danger of tilting the rider either forward or backwards because of an incorrect tree or gullet fit.

Another of our test riders is an experienced show horse rider with a very wide backed horse which she is still trying to find a saddle for which fits without leaving pressure points. She was stepping off a Klimke saddle as we arrived and was enthusiastic about it and felt that it fitted her horse better than anything she'd tried to date. Her initial reaction to the Barefoot saddle was surprise that it put her leg in the same position as the Klimke without it being jammed into that position. Our Barefoot was fitted with swinging fenders which was a feel she was not familiar or comfortable with, but we felt changing this to english leathers would have removed this feel. Because the widest past of the saddle was over the rib area and this was a strange feel for her, we removed the saddle pad which comes with the saddle to assess the difference. This specially designed pad is recommended for use with the saddle at all times and we very quickly saw why as removing it brought the rider even closer to the back of the horse and of course increased the wide feel at mid-thigh. The pad, beautifully made, lined beneath with sheepskin and containing removable high density foam inserts, is an integral part of the whole system and helps protect the horses back from the points of the riders buttocks. Our assessment was that further riding would familiarise the rider with this new mid-thigh feel and it would no longer be an issue.

Our show rider gave the saddle a 15 minute or so workout in the arena at walk, trot and canter and apart from the initial strangeness found it very comfortable. It was also obvious that the horse began to lift through the back and use himself better through the quarters and the shoulders. Regarding the look of the saddle, this was a little too strange for her taste and of course it would raise many an enquiring eyebrow in the show ring. She is interested to see what an english style Barefoot would look like, but apart from initial strangeness the Barefoot still got a thumbs up for horse fit and rider comfort.

The girth is also especially made for use with the Barefoot saddle. The points are long and the girth designed to buckle up below the saddle. It is cutaway behind the elbow to allow for freedom of movement and to avoid contact in this area. The girth is also elasticated which allows the ribs to expand as they should for hard as well as normal breathing.

We had no preconceptions of the saddle beyond being very interested in the concept. We believe we gave it a fair trial and found that there were very few negatives. Dressage and show horse riders' primary concern was the style while rider position got a positive response from every rider. One rider, a very experienced professional horse-breaker, felt that he would have no problems breaking in a horse with the saddle and actually felt that the ability to feel the horse through the seat as opposed to feeling the tree was a definite plus in being ready for what a young horse might deliver unexpectedly. Also, the fact that the saddle would fit a wide variety of horses was a big plus from his perspective. For those riders who are concerned about style but also unable to find a saddle which fits their horse, perhaps the Barefoot saddle could be viewed as a training medium with a 'normal' saddle used only on competition days. We feel sure that once the Barefoot is used on a regular basis, both rider and horse would far prefer to use it than a tree'ed saddle, regardless of what style of riding they do.

The Barefoot saddle currently comes in two styles, the Cheyenne which was the one we road-tested (see picture) and the western Nevada.

A Google search will find a lot of other independent articles written about the Barefoot saddle, which seem to be very positive.

written by: Annie Minton, January 2005