LIGHTWEIGHT FAQ
- Our saddles weigh an average of 22 pounds (10 kg), a manageable weight to lift onto your horse!
- The tree is made of lightweight, modern materials. It incorporates the ground seat which strengthens the tree and eliminates multiple layers of heavy leather as found in a traditional western saddle.
- The cable rigging replaces all the leather and steel plates used in a traditional rigging, providing you with less bulky, stronger, lighter and adjustable rigging.
- The single strap stirrup system utilizes modern, lightweight, high strength materials to give you closer contact, adjustable, strain-free riding while eliminating pounds.
- We have paid close attention to leather thickness, heavy where we need it, thin where we don’t, never skimping on the quality we use.
- Short saddle skirts mean less material used and therefore less weight.
The tree is made of a lightweight glass-infused polymer with steel reinforcing. Military-grade fibreglass covers all the tree parts unifying them into a much stronger single unit. Our trees are stronger, more durable, can be shaped to fit your horse’s measurements or back type and reduced weight.
We measure your horse using our 3D back profiling system, which provides us with measurements in 10 places along your horse’s back. From these measurements, we custom build a tree to fit its back type.
Our bars are wider and flatter than most and we have filled in the stirrup slots. These features along with a good fit allow the tree bars to better distribute the weight on your horse’s back and lower the pounds per square inch.
We manufacture in-house our own unique tree utilizing high-tech, lightweight materials. They will stand up to extreme cold, will not warp, and are durable and lightweight.
The equalizer cable girthing system is embedded into the front and back of the tree so it pulls evenly front to back on the saddle and eliminates the need for a rear cinch. It will self-adjust so that the cinch will sit in the right position for your horse. An adjusting strap can be added to adjust the cable to change the rigging position and can be used on one side only to help keep the saddle straight on asymmetrical shoulders.
We use a stainless steel cable to replace the traditional western saddle rigging systems. The cable rigging system gives us a closer contact, narrower seat, it’s stronger, can adjust cinch position and sheds many pounds.
The equalizer cable girthing system is embedded into the front and back of the tree so it pulls evenly front to back on the saddle and eliminates the need for a rear cinch. It will self-adjust so that the cinch will sit in the right position for your horse. An adjusting strap can be added to adjust the cable to change the rigging position and can be used on one side only to help keep the saddle straight on asymmetrical shoulders.
In general, horses’ backs have gotten shorter while saddle skirts remain long. Skirts that are too long can interfere with the horse’s range of motion, drive the saddle forward and can cause soft tissue damage. We offer short skirts for all of our saddle styles and only use one layer of leather to improve comfort and cut weight.
Saddle skirts are kept to a minimum allowing your horse freedom of movement and keeping him cooler.
A horse that is not distracted by an uncomfortable saddle will allow him to focus better on the task at hand – another step toward ultimate performance.
The single-strap stirrup system replaces the traditional leather straps and fenders with nylon seat belt webbing and light floating fender. It provides closer contact, can be adjusted forward and back, offset side to side to help balance the rider and reduces weight.
Thin, high strength, lightweight materials in our single strap stirrup system eliminate the traditional bulky layers of heavy leather under your thighs and down the length of your leg. This gives you a close contact, strain-free ride. The ability to adjust stirrups forward or back, in conjunction with the seat shims, allows you to align your body to reduce stress on all of your joints and spine. Free swing fenders are mounted high up in the saddle to closely match your hip movement. Quick change, T-buckle, length adjusters are down low, flat, thin and smooth against your leg.
Removable pads under the tree bars have shim pockets that allow you to change the rock and/or angles to keep the saddle fitting as your horse changes shape throughout conditioning and age cycles. Simply moving the bar pads down on the tree bars can also make significant changes to the fit. We can help you set up bar pads for all of your horses (within a range) and you can change them out to get a good fit on a wide variety of horses and back types.
A wooden tree has a built-up ground seat made of layers of heavy leather skived/shaved to fit the rider. The EFS ground seat is incorporated into the tree and has a foam insert to further shape the seat as required by the rider. It’s adjustable, shock-absorbing and sheds more pounds from our saddles.
Western saddles can be overbuilt with multiple layers of heavy leather. Years ago, that’s all saddle makers had to work with, it was expected and tradition keeps the practice alive. Interestingly, I don’t see any western riders driving the old solid steel pickups from the pre-50S. They have all switched to newer, lighter, more comfortable and powerful models. I see a similar trend with the Olympics; modern, lightweight, stronger materials allow athletes to break records year after year. By selectively replacing heavy and bulky components with lighter, stronger, modern materials that are available to us now, the western saddle can be reimagined.
We pay close attention to leather thickness, heavy where we need it, thin where we don’t, and one layer of leather will usually suffice. Our saddles use high-quality North American tanned leather available in a variety of different colours and keep it light.
Wider panels that are perfectly symmetrical: weight-bearing surface area increased by 30% compared to the previous generation of panels.
More flexible panels: uniform flexibility across the entire surface of the panels. Unrivalled quality.
A wider passage between the panels: the rider’s weight is borne by the muscle mass rather than the spinal column.
Freer movement of the shoulder blades thanks to the adjusted form
The spread of pressure from the girthing and the rider’s weight is optimized.
Traditionally, stirrups are twisted by turning the stirrup leather and wrapping it with leather lacing. Our lightweight stirrups twister replaces the thru-bolt spacer, pre-twists the fenders, offsets the angle of the stirrups and slims the total weight.
Easy Fit Saddles (EFS) design quality, innovative saddles using modern materials that average 10 kg / 22 pounds, by rethinking every component of their construction. The saddles are a manageable weight for any rider to lift onto their horse and offer many adjustable features. We have maintained a traditional look but give horse and rider superior fitting capabilities for optimum performance and comfort.