I purchased my Little Joe saddle in a last ditch effort to make my Arab/ASB mare stop being so tense. I was sure at least part of her horrid attitude was saddle fit, but it didn’t change no matter what size tree I tried with her. I rode her bareback for months, just to stay alive. My very first ride with her in the Little Joe, I could feel a huge difference. It was like she said to me, “Finally you got it right!’
This is my Country Pleasure Champion Arab mare, Matselleste, in the Little Joe
Originally intended for use only with her, just for fun I tried the saddle on some of my other horses. In the first week that I had it, I put it on eight horses, ranging from my rolly polly dressage mare, a bony TB jumper, my Saddleseat horses, and my hot hot hot ASB jumper. In each and every ride, I felt closer to my horses and I felt like they were giving me more than ever before. I also felt, once I figured out how to adjust my stirrups correctly, that I was riding ten times better. I could not believe how secure I felt, how much interaction I had with the horses, and the instant augmentation of movement in horses that I hadn’t felt, to this point, had saddle fitting problems.
It has been four months now and I have only ridden in a treed saddle on three occasions! If I have my way, I will never sit these seat bones on a tree again! My dressage instructor got all the way through my lesson, commenting on how nicely my leg stayed put (my problem area!) before I gleefully pointed out that I wasn’t in a “real” saddle! In a race with some of my students, my Arab mare got very excited and decided that every good race needs a hearty buck – and I never moved. I have jumped courses to 3′, galloped uneven terrain, and put on a Saddleseat demonstration in this saddle. I intend to ride all of next years Hunter Paces in this saddle. I have sat six of my students in this saddle, and three of them have asked for one for Christmas!
The universal statement of my barn, horses and humans alike, is this: while the saddle is at first harder to ride well in, because it doesn’t set you into place, if you are interested in being a better rider, this saddle guarantees you that with a little work and determination, you will be by far a better rider than you ever could be in any kind of treed saddle!
Victoria Adkins and the horses and riders at Serendipity Stables, NC
