BEST LIGHTWEIGHT WESTERN SADDLE

A lightweight saddle can enhance your saddling experience and your horse’s performance. But you want to be sure that, even though the saddle is light, it is durable, has high-quality components, and fits both horse and rider.

If you’ve ever tacked up a horse with an old-time roping saddle, you know that western saddles can weigh up to 60 pounds. It is still common to see western saddles weighing 30 to 45 pounds, while extremely lightweight high-tech endurance saddles can get down to 4 or 5 pounds. Western saddles are notoriously heavy and bulky. Our Easy Fit Saddles are lightweight and finish out at about 22 pounds.

Western saddles can be overbuilt with multiple layers of heavy leather. Years ago, that’s all the 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 more 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 as a lightweight saddle.

Our saddles are lightweight.

lightweight All-Around trial saddles finish out at about 22 pounds — All Around—The use of modern materials has improved the performance of many sports, so why not saddles?

When fully rigged, Easy Fit Saddles weigh approximately 22 pounds. In order to accomplish this, we use modern materials in the construction of our saddles and incorporate innovative design features.

The use of modern materials has improved the performance of many sports, so why not saddles? Our trees are made of a glass-infused polymer, which allows us to embed coated aircraft cable rigging directly within the tree. By eliminating all plates, rings, and leather associated with conventional rigging systems, bulk and weight are reduced and strength is increased. No matter how unusual the shape, we can create it using glass-infused polymers. The fork and horn are reinforced with a tubular steel frame that is attached to the cable that carries on down to the cinch. The tree bars, ground seat, cantle, and forks are incorporated into a single piece and covered with aircraft military specification S-glass and epoxy during the vacuum bagging process. They are the ultimate in lightweight strength.

Our stirrup straps are suspended with a single nylon seat belt webbing reinforced with latigo leather. This decreases weight and bulk under your leg while increasing strength, eliminating stirrup strap stretch. You can achieve a balanced riding position by adjusting the stirrups forward and backward. A balanced riding position allows all of your back curves, as well as your hips, knees, and ankles, to absorb riding movement. This helps to relieve muscle tension and aches and pains caused by riding.
A balanced rider makes for an easier load for our horses to carry and allows them to move and respond more freely. Because the foot is the foundation of our riding posture, our stirrups can be padded and angled to absorb shock while also providing a level foundation for your foot.

In order to reduce weight, the quality of leather has not been compromised. The best quality North American tanned bridle leather is used. Felt pads are made from 100% wool felt for superior cooling and moisture-wicking. Conchos, buckles, and D-rings are stainless steel or German silver. Trees are durable and will not warp or change shape over time, guaranteed for 5 years. The seat is adjustable with pads to your preference, and the bars can be shimmed to fine-tune the fit to your horse. Innovative design has allowed us to maintain high quality and minimal weight in our saddles.

Easy-Fit Lightweight Saddle Features:

Saddle Leather

Our bridle leather is fully finished with a waxy feel and a beautiful sheen. After the vegetable tanning process, the leather is hot stuffed with oils and tallows that penetrate through the hides, giving the leather a smooth, rich cut. The bridle leather is weather-resistant due to these oils and waxes. After the tanning process is complete, the leather is drum-dyed for uniform colouring. — HOT STUFFED AND DRUM DYED BRIDLE LEATHER

We pay close attention to leather thickness; it’s heavy where we need it, thin where we don’t, and one layer of leather will usually suffice. Our light saddles for horses use high-quality North American tanned bridle leather, available in a variety of different colours, to keep them light. English bridle leather is stuffed with oil and tallow to keep the leather soft and water resistant.

Saddle Tree

The tree is made of a lightweight glass-infused polymer with steel reinforcement. Military-grade fibreglass covers all the tree parts, unifying them into a much stronger single unit. Wooden trees are prone to leaking moisture and warping, causing fitting issues. Our trees are stronger, more durable, can be shaped to fit your horse’s measurements or back type, and reduce weight.

Saddle Seat

A wooden tree has a built-up ground seat made of layers of heavy leather skived or 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.

Saddle Skirts

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 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 Rigging

We use a stainless-steel cable to replace the traditional western saddle rigging systems. The cable rigging system gives us closer contact and a narrower seat. It’s stronger, can adjust to cinch position, sheds many pounds, and also helps in forming the light saddles for horses!

Stirrup Leathers

By selectively replacing heavy and bulky components with lighter, stronger, modern materials that are available to us now, the western saddle can be reimagined as lightweight saddles. — Lightweight trail saddles

The single-strap stirrup system replaces the traditional leather straps and fenders with nylon seat belt webbing and light floating fenders. It provides closer contact, can be adjusted forward and back, offset side to side to help balance the rider, and reduces weight. All in all, this results in the fabrication of lightweight saddles for your next horse ride!

Stirrups

Traditionally, stirrups are twisted by turning the stirrup leather around and wrapping it with leather lacing. Our lightweight stirrup twister replaces the thru-bolt spacer, pre-twists the fenders, offsets the angle of the stirrups, and slims the total weight.

By rethinking every aspect of their design, Easy Fit Saddles (EFS) are high-end, innovative saddles that weigh on average 10 kg (22 pounds) and are made with modern materials. Any rider can easily lift the manageable weight of the saddles onto their horse, and they have a variety of adjustable features. Even though we produce light saddles for horses, we have kept the traditional appearance while giving horse and rider superior fitting capabilities for the best performance and comfort. You can choose from a variety of western saddle designs that we have to suit your preferences.

It’s time to bring the lightweight western saddle into the 21st century!

LIGHTWEIGHT WESTERN SADDLE VIDEO

Lightweight western saddles FAQ

Who has ever heard this? “I’m tired of needing my husband to lift my beast-of-a-saddle onto my horse!” Lightweight is important for ease of saddling.
Lightweight means less impact and less effort for the horse, especially when a 100th of a second counts.

EFS Remedy: Easy Fit Saddles are lightweight, and we have gone to great lengths to build them that way.
Our saddles weigh an average of 22 pounds (10 kg).
How we make them lightweight:
-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 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 and 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, and 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 reinforcement. 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 lighter in 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.

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 from 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 better focus 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 a light-floating fender. It provides closer contact, can be adjusted forward and back, and offset from side to side to help balance the rider and reduce 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 backward, 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, and 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.

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 more 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; it’s heavy where we need it, and 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, to keep them light.

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) are high-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 given the horse and rider superior fitting capabilities for optimum performance and comfort.

Best Lightweight Western Saddle