La Selle Sattelmanufaktur

Dear Irena, dear Mrs. Müller,

Here is the promised feedback: on the first ride = ride out, my horse Orlano clearly tensed up in the seat without the padding and was clearly in the "attention" position. Otherwise he never is. So during the first test ride in the forest I unsaddled and pushed the padding into the seat. The issue was dealt with promptly, and the horse ran as relaxed as possible. I was able to feel significantly more than with the tree saddle. However, my pommel variant was not optimally chosen. I sat a bit too wide and my personal problem was felt in my abdomen. After this first ride, I tried out other variations at home on the saddle stand. The really ingeniously successful thing about your saddle is that you can reach every part of the seat with your own padding material and even attach your own provisional solutions in such a way that they reliably remain in place, including the trot and canter! After a morning of tinkering, I had a testable variant: your thin pommel insert lined with 2 layers of your own foam/heating pipe insulation (sounds more adventurous than it looks). With this I was able to build a very steep and very narrow pommel. With this attitude I rode 3 more times: small riding arena, riding hall, longer ride. Orlano was lucky. I was able to sit him out and he walked easily on the given reins. I galloped off-road in a group, the knee rolls give support and a feeling of security without being in the way. Even the trot passages in the country with a light seat were no problem for Orlano, he walked easily with a deep nose without tensing up.

So I think you've really succeeded in squaring the circle:

- a flexible saddle that can be placed on different horses and adjusted if necessary with the inserts in the saddle pads.

- a saddle that allows the horse's movements to be felt more easily/clearly

- a treeless saddle that provides a narrow feel and allows for your own arbitrary and reliably positioned individual adjustments

- a treeless saddle in which the stirrup attachment is so cleverly placed that it exerts so little pressure even when loaded that my fairly sensitive horse (see above, on the subject of insert pads) refrains from pointing it out.

I'm looking forward to having "my own felt saddle" on my horse after 3 years of tinkering and trying out different treeless/felt saddles! :-)

Thank you very much for the ingenious implementation of my "requirements in individual settings"!

Best regards, Mary Goehler