Kudos for the Excel

The Ultimate Dressage Ride

See, touch, feel, sit-on,

test ride the Ansür Excel

Booth 732-733

Better Living Building

2009 Equine Affaire

Springfield, MA

November 12-15

"I love the Excel... and so do my horses. i have tried it on my three, which are a national show horse with a broad back, a lipizzan, and a holsteiner... the holsteiner is very particular and he was just wonderful in it. (he is the one who so far has only liked your Classic model)....

I love that you have given it just enough structure to feel like a dressage saddle to the rider (in the good way) but it still seems to feel flexible to the horse. I do miss the absolute closeness the the classic gives it, but i think as a discipline-specific saddle you have really made a breakthrough! "   ~Karen Rohlf, FL

Gale Wolfe, NY, rides her Friesians in the Excel and she said:  "it's the BEST SADDLE THAT I'VE EVER RIDDEN IN!"

"The Ansur Excel is PERFECT for the Friesians. Four Friesians at my barn attest to it. I'll make one more comment.... the photos on the Ansur website do NOT do the saddle justice.

It really looks JUST like a regular dressage saddle. I show it to people and they can not believe that it is treeless. It's a GREAT saddle.

And... it fits ALL my horses, and needs no ADJUSTMENTS. I use no special pads and just plop it on any of my horses and GO!

Gale is featured as the October "Rider of the Month" on Ansur's home page.

I love my Excel! I brought my Amigo with me up to Canada to test-ride Pepper, my Rheinlander-cross Gelding, and he’s been wearing an Ansür every since. But when the brand-new Excel arrived for a test-ride, Pepper made it clear that we needed one immediately – the additional support for the rider provided me with increased confidence and a longer leg, and Pepper moves more forward with more freedom and fluidity – making us a more confident and fluid pair overall.
Thank you.      ~Vicki K. and Pepper, VA

Trainer Marcy Armstrong, Alberta Canada
"I fould the new EXCEL at Ansur. I didn't get to try it: I asked some good questions and sounded like it had what I needed. A Twist, feel like a real dressage saddle (not a bareback pad) Fits every horse, flexible, not rigid, looks good... so I got it that day.

17 H happy horse- or 1500# monster! At one clinic ( I knew I needed help!) he refused to go, he backed into walls, and he broke a $400 mirror. This was in his custom made, custom fitted saddles. This horse had historically overbent, curled behind the contact like he gave up on me. And therefore not forward. I know many times he was stuck between a rock and a hard place- me urging him to get more "in front of me" and him restricted by the wood and spring-steel parts of solid saddles. The horse feels like One Piece- not several that you manage to tape all together. Fix this, fix that, oh this again. I think the treeless lets it all flow freely!  ~Marcy Armstrong, Canada

Supplemental padding--do I need it?

First, evaluate the conformation and muscle development of your horse's back from all angles, looking for differences in his size and shape from side to side.

When you evaluate you horse from the rear (depending on how tall both of you are, you may need to stand on a stool or a bucket – (just be careful and don’t scare the bejeebers out of the horse and get yourself kicked into the next county) and look for any differences in the shape of his body. Some horses are more developed on one side than the other or have muscle atrophy from a previous saddle. If that's the case, then you may just need shims to fill in the gaps until the muscle grows back.

Now, ask yourself the questions below.

• Does he slope from the croup downwards towards the withers? Then you need to use a front wedge or riser pad to make the saddle sit level and keep the rider from tipping forward or struggling to sit up correctly in balance.


• Does he slope upwards from croup to withers? Does the rider struggle to not fall backwards in the saddle? The solution for this problem is a rear wedge or riser pad which will level the saddle and enable the rider to sit in balance.
  
• Is the horse a swayback? Then padding needs to be in the middle to fill in some of the sway and enable the rider to sit level. If he is table-top level...a regular saddle pad or even a thick bath towel will suffice.

Every horse is not the same shape or size all the time, so take a good look at your horse regularly to determine his/her needs.

We have found that the newer models of Ansür Saddles with the gullet ususally do not need additional padding. These pads are used mostly for Classics and older models of the Carlton and Konklusion.

Choosing a Saddle Pad for your Ansur Saddle

Saddle pads were not intended to protect the horse from the saddle. They were originally developed keep the horse’s sweat away from the leather. The sweat will change the properties of the leather, especially if not cleaned properly after each use, and weaken it over time.

And didn’t the travelers use their personal bedding, from skins to wool blankets, under the saddle? Well, yes, it’s a handy place to store them while traveling on horseback as well as the first benefit of protecting the saddle from the horse! That left more room to hang other necessary gear and food on the saddle…one less thing banging on the horse’s back. And better yet, if that bedding was extended beyond the saddle, it could cushion the horse’s back from the load of iron cooking pots and food supplies. Think about the evolution of the utilitarian sleeping skin stored under the saddle and becoming a “saddle pad” to the modern day vast array of pads to protect horses from the saddle.

Wouldn’t it make more sense to not to need to protect the horse from the saddle? To just protect the saddle from the horse’s sweat?

So how should one choose a saddle pad in modern times?

Do your homework and feel/squeeze/grope a lot of pads before spending big bucks on a pad that may have worked for another horse

No matter the brand...check the seams and binding, front, back and middle...if they feel hard, rough-edged and unforgiving, forget it, it will rub.

The squeeze test is: if your fingers are touching through the material...forget it, it's useless, it won’t soak up sweat. Remember the purpose of the pad is to protect the saddle leather from the horse’s sweat!