I’m more than happy to post pics of myself in a mild chair seat (but enough to make me feel like I’m fighting my saddle). I just don’t know how. I usually upload to Imgur and post a link
Interesting discussion! If you look at older photos of people riding cross country (and even riding dressage, to some degree) it seems like the majority of them, even the best of the best, are in some degree of a “chair seat.” They aren’t flopped back onto their pockets like a poorly-balanced beginner in a “chair seat,” but their lower legs are frequently well ahead of their center of gravity. It does make for a secure seat, especially in the minimalist saddles people rode in a few decades ago, even if it’s harder to stay in proper balance. I’m not sure if anyone ever considered it correct equitation, and it’s a bit harder to stay off the horse’s back, but it was at least very much accepted to ride that way. And none of the riders were in monoflaps back then!
Sometime in the intervening period between then and now, though, the “chair seat” went from something commonly seen from the best of riders to being a cardinal sin. Of course, we ride in very different saddles than people did back in 1990, and these days there is way more emphasis on saddle fitting than there was back then (I’m almost afraid to say this out loud, but I think sometimes we sometimes even go a bit overboard with the micromanaging of saddle fit these days, but that’s a whole other can of worms).
Anyway … to me it seems like maybe there are different “varieties” of chair seat, such as a seat where your leg is ahead of your body but still effective like say, Lucinda Green, versus a situation (such as what might happen with a badly-balanced monoflap) where big blocks keep the leg in an ineffective position and you cannot bring the leg under you or put it on the horse properly.
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Not a chair seat at all IMO
The difference is center of gravity. If the rider’s leg is in front of the center of gravity, then they have to resist falling back. That’s a chair seat. If the rider’s leg is under the rider’s center of gravity then it really isn’t a chair seat regardless of the broken hip/heel. Think of a wall sit with no wall vs balanced squat in the gym.
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A comment about Stackhouse saddles for anyone who might dig up this thread: Every saddle is custom to a specific rider and horse–there is no “standard” as in “a good saddle for a long legged rider” because it is made to the leg length of the person who commissioned it in the first place had!
I have more than one of them and I love them. David and Lesley are great to work with. When I get a different horse they are more than happy to work with me digitally to see which saddle I have might fit best. They are also great about letting me know when they might be within a couple hundred miles of my farm to check and see if I need an in person check.
If you are looking at a used Stackhouse I would recommend getting the numbers off of it and to give them a call. They can look up the rider and horse it was made for and compare it to you and your horse to give you an idea if it might work.
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I also have a Stackhouse and echo everything you’ve written, @subk ! I always joke that I’ll have to be buried with my Stackhouse.
Edit: my reply didn’t seem to work?
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Count me in the Stackhouse fan club. I have several and I love them. They came out this spring to double check fit and make sure everything was ok. We’re grateful they are close to us, especially as they are such kind and wonderful people. Saddle will fit you and the horse perfectly, they’re durable and beautiful, what else could you want?
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I lucked out with the second saddle I tried in my search, it’s a great fit for me and my new lease, and I ADORE riding in it. It’s a CWD monoflap. I don’t feel like I’m fighting it, and I while I can’t pinpoint what all about it feels better than the others I’ve ridden in, something about it just feels “right” for me. Granted, I’m not sure how much of that comes from the monoflap aspect versus just being a better general fit for me than others, but count me in on the monoflap fan club!
Again, I didn’t go after it specifically because it was a monoflap, it just happened to be one that popped up in my size and we had had luck with other CWDs, but it ended up working out really well.
