[QUOTE=DownYonder;8816048]
I am in with the crowd that has had a very good Schleese experience. I bought a demo Infinity II off the truck 4 years ago for my horse who was just coming back into work after 2-3 years of not doing much at all. It was a Godsend compared to his previous saddle - the very wide channel and swept-back tree points were just what he needed, and he got so much freer in the shoulder and more swingy in his topline. Nor has he been as acutely backsore all the time like he was previously. My fitter is a certified saddle ergonomist who was personally trained by Jochen, and she has a good eye. She and my trainer work together as a team to get my saddle just right, so things have gone well in our fittings. She has also been super on the customer service end. She only lives one state away and comes to this area regularly, so it has been pretty easy to get her here when needed.
The downside is that the saddle does need to be refitted every 4-6 months. At first, it was mostly because my horse was changing shape so much - he has gone from out of shape and barely able to do a First Level test, to being on the threshold of doing his PSG debut. But we (trainer and I) have come to realize that the same AdapTree that makes the Schleese so easy to adjust, tends to lose its ability to hold adjustments as the saddle ages. My horse isn’t changing shape now as drastically as he was before, yet I still have to have the saddle refitted pretty often (lately, about every 3-4 months).
My trainer now rides in a WOW for her own horses, and after trying it a few times on my horse, I elected to order one because the quarterly Schleese fittings were starting to get a bit expensive - it was costing about $100/month to keep his saddle adjusted. There are things about the WOW I like better than the Schleese, but there are also things about the Schleese I like better. I am still waiting for the WOW - should arrive in the next few weeks - so I will see if I end up keeping it or the Schleese.[/QUOTE]
That’s interesting. I had wondered about the AdapTree. They have what’s essentially a plastic tree, that goes in a press to adjust the width of the gullet. I can imagine that after a few times in that press, the gullet plate is going to be losing strength. I’m assuming the gullet plate is metal, as on a wooden tree. I actually can’t find a photo of the tree on the Schleese website, which I find odd.
They also say something about the tree moving with the horse:
“The first tree which adapts to the horse’s bio-mechanical movements, through the calculation and implication of the rider’s weight. Controlled and changeable at any time.”
I don’t actually know what this means . . .
I would hesitate to put any saddle in a press to change the gullet (I believe this is something Passier also offers) because it seems like a lot of stress on the saddle tree. Metal can only take so much pressure before it fails.
I’ve also read from saddle fitters that if a fitter does use a press, it should be in a workshop, and carefully levelled so that the adjustments are perfect. It is not optimal to travel with a press in the back of a truck, and adjust the saddle out in the parking lot in the dark.
Like one of the other posters just said, if the fitter traces your horse’s back and the back has changed a lot, then a tweak to the saddle is necessary. But if the horse’s back hasn’t changed, but the saddle has, that’s not so great. Though when I had my saddle re-flocked, the saddle fitter did need to add a bit more after six months and after a year, as the flocking packed down.
I would say if you need to have the saddle put in the press every couple of months, the saddle is not holding its shape, and could be getting weaker in the tree with every adjustment. If that was happening, though, I expect that what you would see would be a saddle getting wider in the gullet over a couple of months, and then needing to be narrowed.
If the saddle is getting too narrow in front over time, then I’d say your horse is just packing on muscle in all the right places!
