Tad Coffin's TheraTree and SmartRide RX saddles - any thoughts?

[arabiansrock]

Since my boy was diagnosed with Kissing Spine, of course I have started googling best saddles, treatment options etc, and Tad’s page came up. His most recent evolution of saddle tree apparently was showing tremendous changes to the horses in very short periods of time, so he started looking into why and it sounds like the materials being used in the tree are combining to cause a small but steady electromagnetic field. Sounds a little woo woo but not totally impossible for materials when combined in a specific way to create an EMF. So he then decided to essentially take the tree and make it a standalone therapy device that he can rent to owners who want to give their horse the “therapy”.

IF he really has accidentally stumbled onto something that really does help the horses back as much as he claims on his website, renting the theratree is much more feasible than buying one of his saddles, which are so expensive there are no prices on his website, lol.

Has anyone here heard of his new TheraTree and actually tried it or his saddle with the SmartRide RX tree? If so did you see the miraculous results he is claiming?

This guy is after all a bonafide horseman, not a shyster, but his webpage is full of grand language and a little short on details. To be fair to him tho, he does state clearly and upfront that he does not know exactly what is going on in the tree, but this is his theory. He also states up front that to date there has been no FORMAL scientific study, but that a vet is going to be setting one up. He has a herd of 25 horses with histories of back pain that he uses as test subjects but that is def not an unbiased report.

Any and all thoughts and experiences are very welcome! Thank you. I am very willing to do just about anything for my boy, but do not need to waster money on snake oil.

[ghst13]

Honestly, to me it’s a lot of woo woo. I attended a demo with Tad a few years ago which included his Thera-Tree and honestly I found it pretty tough to swallow. He made everyone turn on the blue light filter on their cell phones because even when the phone wasn’t actively being used it interfered with the horse’s E/M field or something? Which doesn’t even make sense if the screen isn’t on. And there was a lot of grounding everything with copper - like put your girth on a copper cloth before using it.

His demo was pretty staged too, he’d put a Thera-Tree on a horse in the cross-ties saying it would help them relax. If they didn’t after 10-15 minutes he would just say they needed longer with it on. It seemed to me that eventually the horses just became bored/fell asleep after 30+ minutes standing there, not that the Thera-Tree magically calmed them. Said all of his test herd always reacted unanimously to any tweak he made in his saddles when experimenting (all would love it or all would hate it), which again, just seems highly unlikely. The claims about KS horses that were sent to him improving in his saddles, well, I’d expect some improvement if they are being sent to a trainer who is rehabbing/working them correctly to help their KS symptoms. He consistently refuses to admit that his saddles might not work for a particular horse - it’s always they need a different version of his pad, or have him do some other magic change to the saddle. So yes, I’m a pretty big skeptic of some of his claims.

A few people at the barn went in together on renting a Thera-Tree to save cost. I think they kept it for 2-3 months before sending it back because honestly they saw no difference. These people did end up ordering saddles from him and like the saddles (those were received months after the Thera-Tree was returned). The best thing I did for my KS horse was to invest in the bone shave operation. He’s so much better physically and mentally now. I think he makes good saddles and you’ll find plenty of people who swear by them and love them, but I personally don’t find them comfortable for me. The tree in the saddles can work well for some horses but I don’t think the saddle or Thera-Tree is a magic cure for KS or anything else.

[cbg]

I rented a Thera Tree to try on my KS horse. It made no difference whatsoever, and when I called to let them know I was going to return it, Tad asked to speak to me. He explained that (and I’m paraphrasing because I don’t remember the exact wording, but this is pretty close) “the molecules might have gotten disturbed during mailing and he’d like to send me another one to try”. I was like sure, whatever, knock yourself out .

The replacement also made no difference and I let them know I’d be returning it at the end of the month, and then went ahead and did the bone shave surgery on my guy. The one thing the Thera Tree was useful for was I started putting it on my horse within a couple days of his surgery so he could get used to wearing a “saddle” again and see that there was no pain. I wouldn’t have wanted to leave him standing in the stall unattended with my nice jumping saddle on, but I did use the Thera Tree for that until the rental was up at the end of the month.

[arabiansrock]

oh my, “the molecules might have gotten disturbed”??? Well at least he does not claim to be a scientist. I will give him credit for really believing in his discovery, and he truly seems to want to help horses be more comfortable in work. But that statement, just, oh my.

I would love to try his saddle though and see it that makes a difference, not because of some EMF but rather to see if he has indeed been able to create a better biomechanical interface with the horses back that does not interfere with the horses natural movement and is more comfortable for them, Many people seem to rave about how much their horses like his saddles. As a dressage rider of a certain mature age though, I really do not want to go back to pancake flat dressage saddles. I rather like my deeper seat and bigger blocks.

Thank you for sharing your experience!

[beowulf]

For you and @ghst13 – you both did the bone shave surgery, yeah? How many processes were affected when you did the shave, and what severity did the vet describe either KS?

[ghst13]

Based on x-rays, my horse had two impinging spaces and one close space, which from x-rays alone would be mild/moderate. However, there was significant back sensitivity as well as reactivity in the neck and SI. Behaviorally, escalating tension and spookiness under saddle and deteriorating performance (stopping at fences, spinning, etc). We started with injections in the back and neck plus rehab which showed improvement but didn’t last. We also blocked the back prior to deciding on surgery.

During surgery they ended up doing 5 processes because they saw areas of potential additional concern and decide to err on the side of addressing it at that time instead of taking the chance of it causing problems later. Standard recovery and rehab following surgery and back at the previous competition level at about 6-8 months, moved up to higher competition levels just over a year after surgery. The SI has never been an issue post-surgery although we do regular acupuncture on the neck. I went with surgery, because in the long run it was cheaper considering the frequency with which we would have to do injections to keep the horse comfortable. Plus, with injections I had nagging worries in the back of my head any time my horse misbehaved that there was still pain and we were about to start a downward spiral.

[beowulf]

Thank you. Wow, 5 processes. That must have been quite the surprise.

I have a horse with KS that I am managing with therapeutic modalities per the vet, but I’m starting to wonder if I shouldn’t just do the surgery. He has remodeling but no impingement, so my vet didn’t feel he was a surgery candidate and specifically recommended against it as he doesn’t feel it has been out long enough. I’m on the fence - I see a lot of success stories, and I see a lot of failures too.

We found the KS incidentally when we were x-raying the spine to make sure no fractures after a big paddock wipe out. My vet feels he is totally asymptomatic but I disagree. I think the therapies are working for now, but the horse is only going to get older.

[ghst13]

Yes, I think a lot depends on whether there are other issues going on with your horse. It seems like a lot of the failures are in horses that have multiple different issues contributing. My surgeon won’t do the lig snip any longer because he felt the success rate wasn’t as good because as the ligments reconnect the issues can reappear (he used much more official vet language, that’s my translation). Since the bone shave can now be done as a standing surgery it seems like a better option since it permanently creates space between the processes.

It might be worth getting a second opinion from a vet that has a lot of experience with KS or who is a very good sports medicine vet depending on the symptoms you are seeing. There are certainly some vets out there that just aren’t proponents of the surgery and prefer other routes.

[Pico_Banana]

@arabiansrock

I would love to try his saddle though and see it that makes a difference, not because of some EMF but rather to see if he has indeed been able to create a better biomechanical interface with the horses back that does not interfere with the horses natural movement and is more comfortable for them, Many people seem to rave about how much their horses like his saddles. As a dressage rider of a certain mature age though, I really do not want to go back to pancake flat dressage saddles. I rather like my deeper seat and bigger blocks.

I tried the Tad Coffin saddle with my princess-and-the-pea horse. Not the TheraTree-whatever the previous model was. Looking at it from a saddle fitting perspective, the tree was a little too narrow for her. But she went super well in it – better than my Hennig, which of course had been adjusted for her and was the right width. So I do think he’s on to something even if it’s not molecular/magnetic/magic/whatever.

I tried the dressage saddle and she liked that, too, but I have to say it didn’t do anything for me and so I ended up not getting it.

[cbg]

My guy had grade 1-2 impingement of T15 through T17 and moderate remodeling at T18 through L3.

He was never reactive to palpation or showed any signs of back pain for the vet or chiro, but like @ghst13 he became unusually spooky and panicky feeling, and began stopping, especially at combinations. It took us quite a while to figure out what the problem was because he never showed any signs of back pain and so we explored a whole lot of other avenues first. And because I jump very little at home, I could only tell how he was feeling when I’d get to a horse show and find out whether he wanted to jump or not. The KS was discovered when we did scintigraphy. His back was injected with predef and steroids which helped but didn’t last.

I think my vet ended up doing 4 processes. I have the radiographs that were taken during and after surgery if anyone would like to see them. The surgery was very straightforward - and a lot less expensive than all the money I’d thrown at things that didn’t turn out to be the problem. Starting the day after surgery my horse was able to go out and handgraze. He did that for two weeks, then handwalked for another two weeks, then a couple weeks of turnout in ever larger paddocks, then a couple weeks (maybe a month) of lunging in the Pessoa, then back to riding.

I think because of the amount of time it took to figure out and address the actual problem, he ended up with a little bit of PTSD around showing. He stopped stopping but he never got back to enjoying horse showing like he used to, especially big away shows where we’d be gone for weeks at a time. He’d get a little colicky every time we traveled - I think it was stressful for him and he didn’t enjoy having his turnout routine interrupted. So I decided it wasn’t fair to keep dragging him around the countryside and I gave him to a friend who loves and insanely dotes on him. She shows him regularly but only at one-day ship in and out shows, and while he is a move up horse for her, I don’t think she has any inclination to ever show him anywhere close to his previous height. So his job is far easier and his schedule is most definitely more to his liking. A win all around I think .