Heather (la conceptrice des selles sans arçon) rapporte l'expérience suivante (je traduirai + tard, si quelqu'un a la motiv' pour le faire d'ici là, qu'il ne se prive pas) :
As a classical dressage trainer and remedial riding trainer first and foremost, I was especially interested in how the way in which the rider sat, and interacted with the movement of the horse, also affected the pressure and therefore, the efficacy of the saddle. I experimented with a number of different riders and horses, at varying levels of riding, and my findings were as I suspected. I could easily see how the rider was sitting, and especially the way in which they absorbed the movement of the horse, by the moving pressure patterns on the computer screen, without even having to look at the caption.
I have always taught the rider to sit deeply, but lightly, synchronising their own movement with that of the horse, producing a quiet, elegant classical seat, ideally placed to give effective but invisible aids.
The pressure patterns in both well fitting treed and treeless saddles were similar, when the rider absorbed the movement in this way, with the rider being very light ( light pressure showing up as dark blue through to slight pressure, light blue) in the saddle and an even pressure pattern. When the rider started to ‘drive’ with the seat, so often seen in the dressage arena, and the cause of the flailing lower legs and nodding heads to be seen as well!- the pressure patterns altered radically, with ripples of red, showing considerable pressure, moving from the back of the saddle to the front in both sitting trot and canter. In rising trot, when the rider came behind the movement- far more obvious in treed saddles as the stirrup bars were further forward than on the treeless saddles- the pressure on the cantle region was immense, and stopped the horse moving forwards. This was also evident when the rider tried to remain too upright in rising trot, and had to thrust the pelvis back and forth to catch up with the movement. Any asymmetry in the rider, showed up very marked ‘hot’ spots on the back of the horse.
Treed saddles with the stirrup bars recessed to avoid them sticking into the legs of the rider, showed far more pressure under the bars, than any of the treeless makes we tested, all of which came out very favourably in the tests we carried out, when used with the recommended pads and accessories.
Infuriatingly, the moving pressure patterns of the Pliance system, were unable to be stored once the months software licence ran out, with only the static patterns being left. The equipment broke down at the end of the second week of testing and had to be sent back to Germany for repair, so did not help our programme either. However, I would love to be able to afford to buy the equipment, as I think that it is invaluable to be able to prove to a rider how their bad riding affects the performance of both saddle and horse!
Interestingly, I was asked to take part in a gait analysis day for a student’s thesis. We worked with twelve competition horses belonging to elite students at the college, testing them first in their own saddles, all fitted by qualified saddler fitters, and with the same German dressage rider on board each horse. We then changed each horse to one of my Fhoenix saddles. Whilst the stride length did not alter with each horse, what was especially noticeable was the overall shape and carriage of the horses, and the significantly greater expression in the strides of the horses we tested.
Out of the twelve saddles at that testing day, I found only one that was actually straight. Varying from two twisted trees, one stirrup bar lower down on one side than the other, another with a bar further forward than the other, two with girth billets that were further forward on one side than the other, and several others with panels totally squint, seats stitched over to one side more than the other. The students were astonished as I pointed out the faults to them, and which they could clearly see for themselves once made aware of them. Two of the saddles were less than a fortnight old. This is by no means unusual. Frequently, I find that the reason a rider cannot sit straight on the saddle is due to one or more of the above faults.