This is essentially a McClellan Cavalry saddle to my eye. Which must’ve functioned pretty well or it wouldn’t have been around for so long. It’s the shock absorbing discs here that I’m not sure about. Healthy, functional structures – from the joints of the body to the Golden Gate Bridge – require a balance of strength/stability & flexibility/mobility. Seems like the discs could potentially allow for too much mobility?
Balance in one direction actually requires micromovements of kinetic energy in the opposite (and all directions). Our skeletons are mostly symmetrical, our soft tissues decidedly asymmetrical due to our long-term movement patterns. We all have one sitz bone that sits lower/higher, further back/further forward, one leg that is felt by the horse more strongly than the other, and so on. Imo, the mixed messages the horse receives as a result of rider asymmetry are the root cause of many training issues and perhaps even a good portion of chronic pain & injuries we see in horses. A large part of what makes pros and other high level riders good is that they generally possess self-carriage of such a strength that they can move in concert with the horse yet balance almost independently of it. Michael Blake or Nick Skelton riding the bareback puissance are examples extreme enough where this phenomenon can be easily seen.
Most of us aren’t as strong as those guys. And even riders that are that strong tire & can’t maintain for 100% of any given ride. The congruence provided by a well-fitted traditional saddle functions to protect the horse (and ourselves) against some of the lopsided weirdness of the pressure exerted by our asymmetrical muscles & less than perfect balance. That’s potentially missing with this saddle. For example, the rider on the Fresian-looking horse on EQ’s website is leaning off to the side. Her sitz bones may be evenly weighted in the saddle, but she’s maintained it by shifting her weight out of balance & her hips & shoulders are no longer mirroring the horse’s. At least to my eye. Granted, that’s a split second of a much longer ride & we all know how that can go.
While I have a fairly extensive education and layperson credentials in sports biomechanics and anatomy, I am still just that – a layperson – with no PhD or MD behind my name. I acknowledge that all opinions expressed here are based on my personal anecdotal experience & not full scientific or medical inquiry. I don’t have the credentials necessary to answer my own questions. I think it is an interesting idea, and could be helpful to some horse/rider pairs. I’d just like to see more of the details of the research that informs the design. The doctor involved asserts that removing the flaps allows for the rider’s sitz bones to rest evenly in the saddle. It could. But why? And is that the only factor involved?
