I’m looking for a saddle for our short-backed Thoroughbred, and the Pegasus Butterfly Saddle was recommended. Does anyone have experience with this? Thanks for any input and feel free to email me directly.
http://shop.allsaddles.com/page594.html
I get that “run away” feeling.
It looks to be this;
http://www.dt-saddlery.de/en/products/saddles/butterflyr-claudia/
Some horses love them, some don’t. They are super for short backed horses and horses with a bit of a sway in the back. I find them quite comfortable and my leg hangs well while in the saddle.
IT looks like they solved the whithers problem of fit by cutting out the pommel area , weird looking,
I am no engineer so can’t comment on whether the thing works or not. But for $4500 that is a pretty hefty $ possible mistake.
That is a generous saddle budget, and you can get a lightly used, or save up for a new Hennig, or Schleese that are truly adjustable and proven entities and hold resale value. Either can be good for short backed horses depending on model and customization, but many generic models are fine for short back, stay away from gusseted panels of any type saddle for short backed.
The saddle needs to have inherent firmness in its construction to stay off of the withers – not only at the top but also at the sides. It also needs to be able to distribute the rider’s weight evenly over the saddle support area while keeping it off of the horse’s vertebrae.
The Butterfly is actually very similar to a treeless saddle in its pommel area, while being similar to a normally treed saddle towards the cantle (which sits over the 15th-18th thoracic vertebrae). Although the Butterfly tree is actually a wooden spring tree with a steel gullet plate, this gullet plate has a hinged “joint” located at the area of the stirrup bars at the tree point. There is an additional hinged joint along the lengthwise axis of the saddle tree in the first 1/3 of the saddle.
When the saddle is girthed up and the rider sits on the saddle, these joints will bend towards the outside to try and deflect the pressure from the rider’s weight. Using a computerized saddle pad and/or a thermography camera you will actually notice increased pressure in the middle of the saddle, at that point where the segue from ‘treeless’ to firmer ‘treed’ saddle takes place. German publications Cavallo, St. George, and Reiter Revue all inquired for clarification on this seeming paradox by the manufacturer. (all of them actually published articles about ‘shoulder freedom’ and incorporated the Butterfly saddle into their literature in Feb. 2013) In response, a representative from the manufacturer (Design&Technik Saddlery) said, “we know about this; we’re working on a new stirrup bar to counteract this”.
I would venture to say that this will not accomplish anything. Any physicist could explain that the although the pressure is evident under the area of the stirrup bar, this is not the origin of the problem. The difficulty begins where the saddle is being pressed apart – at that point of change from treeless (‘non-supported’) to tree (supported) in the chassis of the saddle. This is simply logic which seems to have been ignored by the manufacturer. The only reason why the Butterfly manages to stay off the withers is simply because the deepest point of this saddle has been placed extremely far back. So far back in fact, that the deepest point lies far behind the balance point of the horse, resulting in the rider sitting behind the 14th floating rib. As a result, the rider’s full weight lies in the center of the horse’s back. (You want to sit as close to the base of the withers as possible to be at that ‘sweet spot’ where there will be the least motion for the rider). There is no other saddlery which makes saddles that place the rider this far back on the horse’s back, except for maybe treeless saddles. It will not allow proper saddle fit nor proper, classical riding. The rider has absolutely no chance for a light seat to alleviate pressure on the horse’s back – either while seated or in a two-point seat. There are many excellent saddles on the market; this is not one of them!
Butterfly saddle for sale
Hello, I had purchased this saddle last fall, for a short backed, TB, and it was the only saddle he worked well in that I could find…however, we found out recently that he has kissing spine and so I’m retiring him. My new horse came with a saddle, so I am selling my 6 mo old, Butterfly, 18". If interested, my email is hollylhagen@yahoo,com $2600. Thanks!
