Countdown to the 2004 Ride and Tie World Championships,

Simcha Ranch, Mendocino County - June 26th, 8 a.m.

The Best Condition Award is the Ride & Tie "Easy Trekker" saddle, donated by Free N' Easy and Moss Rock Endurance. Value total $1,500 !!!

Free 'n' Easy Quotes:

"The Ride and Tie prize saddle is in our new <Trekker> fender model that we will probably call "FNE Endurance Light". The prize saddle is almost entirely (with the exception of the forward part of the gullet cover) made from extra hard wearing (3,000 times more, they say) leather that has a patternprinted polyurethane finish, so waterproof and maintenance free (just wipe off with a wet cloth). I hope you (and the prize winner) will like the strong red/black color combination. Must tell you, though, that this material makes the saddle a definite luxury or special range model - the reason is two-fold: the leather is a lot more expensive than the ordinary leather, and it is very difficult and time consuming to work with.

This saddle, along with the other goodies I'll be sending with it, easily brings the prize package value to $2,400.00. WOW"

Saddle Testimony by Lari Shea, Ricochet Ridge Ranch

Although I am not yet a distributor of Free 'n Easy Saddles, I do own, ride, and heartily recommend them. Since my 60 horses come in many sizes and shapes, and I compete both at international level 50 and 100 mile endurance competitions as well as locally in dressage, I need a saddle that is extremely well balanced and comfortable for my various horses and myself. Also, the saddle must be easy to adjust and durable!

In August and September, 2001, three different horses I rode with my Free 'n Easy Saddle on three 50 mile endurance races all won the prestigious Best Conditioned Horse Award . One was a purebred Arabian, and two were Russian Orlov/Arabian/American Saddlebred crosses, ranging in size from 14.2 hh to 16.1 hh........and I didn't need to adjust the saddle at all for any of them.

The Free 'n Easy saddle was designed in the U.K. by Les Sparks, who rides dressage himself, and whose wife is a winning endurance rider. As such, they saw many horses with sore backs, and the physicist in Les was intrigued with the problem. In the few short years they have offered their solution, horses with their saddle are always well represented in the trophy lists in England, with some being on the British National Team. In the UK, they have nearly 400 saddles in constant use in endurance riding, (which is about 10% of their endurance riding society's membership), and not one horse has ever had pressure damage under the saddle. This includes those who do 50 mile, 100 mile, 150 mile, single and multi-day rides.

The most important function of a saddle is to enhance the rider's balance, which comes from sitting in the middle of the saddle. Many saddles of all designs, "western" to "hunt" to "dressage" to "close contact", actually sit the riders at the back, putting them out of balance, and making it difficult to get their legs underneath them. In demonstrations, Les often alludes to Portuguese bull fighters. These riders use a saddle type which sits them distinctly in the middle. They have total control of the horse using no reins, as they carry darts in their hands; their lives, and those of their horses depend on this total control through balance.

Another very convincing demonstration is to sit a rider in their existing saddle and ask the audience or bystanders to comment on the seat, which often is some variation of a "chair" seat, with ankle joint in front of hip joint, toe in front of knee. Get them to discuss the problems of sitting balanced in this type of saddle and how important it is for rider and horse to be "in balance". Then fit a F'nE saddle on the same horse with the same rider and get people to comment on the difference. They are normally amazed, for, without a lesson in riding, by just changing the saddle, the rider is in a balanced shoulder-hip-heel seat. They may now need lessons to "body learn" the new position, which may feel unfamiliar at first, but they are now with rather than behind the horse's movement.
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On the Free 'n Easy web site is a drawing of the tree used in the saddle, which shows all the important points. The Saddle is adjusted to the horse on the horse for the horse and rider. Depending on the shape of the horse and its way of moving, a fitting can take from 10 minutes to 1hr at the extremes, but typically averages 20 minutes. The design is such that it is not intended to be adjusted from horse to horse on a daily basis but can be readjusted should the horse change shape or the rider change the horse. It is also possible to use the same saddle on other horses provided their back shapes are similar. Personally, I'm able to use my saddle on all of the half dozen or so horses I usually ride, since they all have good withers, no fat deposits on the sides of the withers, and have average to long backs. The seat size for the rider can be either 17" or 18" but Les has found that because the rider sits in a well balanced shoulder-hip-heel position, there is little call for the 18" seat. Fitting the saddle yourself is no problem as there is a full set of instructions; they have now had riders who do this in the US, New Zealand, Australia and France. They will also supply good support via the internet and telephone/fax if necessary.

This saddle really does move with the horses back, each side independently. The fixings of the saddle are similar to a ball and socket joint, this being particularly important for the rear fixing as this self-aligns to the horse's back. When travelling behind a horse with a FnE saddle you can observe it following the back movement, especially at the trot. You will also see in the drawing that there is packing which conforms the saddle panel to the curve of the horse's back. so ensuring that the rider's weight is transferred along its length.

With regard to workmanship, they always choose the best leather available and have over the years raised their quality so that now it is considered it to be among the very best.

Les Sparks recently e-mailed me with some amazing statistics regarding the Free N' Easy saddle. According to Les, "The 1st, 2nd and 3rd place finishers on the first day of the Death Valley Ride this year were all in FnE saddles and the two day winner with BC was Heather Reynolds, also in a FnE. Crockett is getting the National BC award at Reno and puts it down to his FnE saddle! And, in the UK, the greater majority of the UK national awards went to Wales, with many of the riders having FnE saddles."

Please look at their web site under the "buying a saddle" page to see the U.S.$ prices. To ship a saddle to the U.S .cost about $220.00 door to door with import duty not being greater than 2.8% . I don't know how they are going to work out trial periods in the US. In the U.K. they do lease the saddles to prospective customers, with the lease fee deducted off the saddle price if they buy that saddle. The customer also carries the cost of shipping. I think their money back guarantee promise is the best way to go at present.

I've forwarded your inquirey on to Marlene Moss <mossrockendurance@earthlink.net>, who is a distributor on this side of the Atlantic. I'm sure she will contact you.

If you have any other questions, contact Les directly at <www.free-and-easy-saddles-co.uk> "<freeneasy@supanet.com>, as I'm sure he would like to sell you one of his saddles. As one of his U.K. customers said recently "it does exactly what it said on the box!"

Best regards,

Lari

" What unites us all is a love of the out-of-doors, a spirit of adventure, and a passion for horses!"

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