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Welcome to Holistic Saddle Solutions, where we prioritise the well-being of both you and your horses. Our innovative saddle designs are crafted to enhance comfort and performance, ensuring a harmonious connection horse and rider. Explore our range of solutions tailored to meet your unique needs, and experience the difference in your riding journey. create a better riding experience together!

 

Hi! I'm Di Pascoe, and this is one of my websites, WELCOME :D At Holistic Equine Saddlery & Tack, you won’t find any rigid tree saddles. My experience as an equine sports therapist (ACATT 2004), has shown me that the horse will always be more comfortable and able to perform at his peak, when the saddle is flexible enough to accommodate the movement of his back in motion.

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An often used analogy is shoes: for human's not horses. If you are going to partake in some form of physical activity, be it going for a jog or taking a leisurely stroll in the park, 9 times out of 10 you would choose to put on your runners. And if you didn't, half way through your physical endeavor, you'd be wishing you had! You would most likely decide to leave your wooden clogs (rigid tree) back at home as you know that you will not be able to perform your athletic endeavors comfortably in those.

 

You only have to watch a horse playing and running around his pasture, to see how much oscillation and flexion there is in his back. It just makes sense that the saddle should allow for this movement to continue when we are on their backs. 

 

Did you know that wooden trees were initially invented for military saddles? Soldiers needed to tie heavy packs to their saddles so needed a rigid frame to attach very heavy items to. Take a look back through history, saddles were pretty much treeless for millennia before horses were used in battle. Even big name saddle makers are starting to realise the benefits of a flexible tree, many now incorporating flexible materials into their designs.

 

But what about weight distribution? As many modern sport horses are bred with a very short back, flexible and treeless saddles designs are an absolute savor and are often the only solution, due to NOT distributing rider weight the full length of the saddle. Yes you read that right. We dont want the riders weight distributed the full length of the saddle when the horses saddle support area is shorter than the saddle. It's a very common saddle fitters nightmare: trying to fit an 18" rider into a 16" saddle because that's all the saddle support area of the horses back will allow. With treeless and flex tree saddles, this is no longer an issue. The rider can comfortably ride in the right sized saddle for them without compromising their horses comfort by placing their weight beyond their horses last rib. The saddle can go past the last rib, so long as it is not bearing any of the riders weight beyond the last rib. Because the saddle is soft/flexible, the riders weight is not spread to the front and rear of the saddle. Make sense?

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