>>> Just out of curiosity, how many times a week and what is the average number of miles per ride, and what is the weekly average total miles he puts in his Sensation? You don't need to be specific, just thow out, on average the number of days a week he puts more than 8 miles in the Sensation.
I'll be happy to answer that - I've talked about it on the list many times - how and when he rides certainly isn't confidential.... BUT, if I do, I'd still like for you to answer the question I asked you first. :) Who is the "they" who said that treeless saddles aren't working? If they are credible and have valid reasons for their conclusions, I certainly want to know - the last thing I'd ever want to do is hurt my horses. Please don't take this personally, but we should be asking these sorts of questions anytime we hear ANY generalization about horses or horsemanship. You should know me well enough by now to know that I don't take vague statements lightly - be that if some Icelander says that Icelandics can be ridden by large men all day, or if some local horse trader tells me that his for-sale horse is perfect and has no vices, or when Tolt News (or was it the Quarterly?) says that Icelandic horses can't be trained by Natural Horsemanship methods, or if people say that Icelandics don't founder or that they need special trainers and special farriers - all of which we've heard "them" say many times. Can you give me some names of specific people who said this and tell me how they arrived at this conclusion? Some questions that immediately come to my mind that maybe you can answer: Did "they" have vested interests in saying what they did - in other words, do "they" sell saddles, or did "they" have a bad experience with one brand that they never worked through, and thus "they" decided the whole genre is bad? Again, I mean nothing personal here, just the normal "just the facts ma'am" questions we should always ask when we are looking out for our horses. I'm especially prone to ask these type questions when I hear generalizations that don't support what I've seen in my own horses or in others. I don't really think Cary's riding schedule/habits/history is going to either validate or defeat the idea of treeless saddles being used for endurance - he's just one rider out of many treeless riders in the USA. But I CAN cite his experience to point out one data point to conflict with your point that treeless saddles will only works for lightweight riders for maybe less than 8 mile trips. Here goes anyway, fwiw: Cary is 235 pounds, 6'2" and 53 years old. He's as far from "lightweight" as they come, and his horse isn't huge. He's not a distance rider... He couldn't be an endurance rider even if he wanted to (he doesn't) because he simply doesn't have a predictable amount of time to condition his horse. Thus, he has a whole 'nuther set of problems to deal with. How can he keep his horse in condition and not risk injuring him via the "weekend warrior" syndrome? For the past 2-3 months, he's barely ridden, maybe 3-4 times in since Christmas - his work schedule has been horrible, the weather less than ideal, and when I was laid up with flu and pneumonia for 3-4 weeks in January-February, he had to take on the responsibility of feeding/caring for all of the horses. There are, however, times in the spring, summer and fall when health, weather and work realities allow him to ride 2-3, MAYBE 4, times a week. That's about the most he can ride, unless we go on a dedicated "riding vacation." There have been times when he can Skjoni have built up to riding as much as 3-4 hours per ride, with maybe 20-25 miles in a weekend. That is not unusual at all in the non-winter months, and he's hit that peak several times over the two years he's been riding Skjoni in a treeless saddle. It's true that what works on short rides may not work on longer rides...BUT, it's also true that what doesn't work on short rides most certainly won't work on longer rides. Unfortunately for us (but hopefully fortunately for the people we've shared our experiences with), we have spent more time observing saddles that don't work on our horses even for shorter rides, even some we had great expectations for when we first got them. Karen Thomas, NC No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.21.3/1306 - Release Date: 3/1/2008 5:41 PM
