Comfortable Trail Saddles

I was thinking about that ride that I took with my wife and her daughter, Allyson. Allyson has ridden horses for years, but more as a competing hunter/jumper. Trail riding in a western saddle has been a rarer experience for her. She used my wife's Circle Y Flex Lite Trail Saddle and loved it. I told her she should share her experience with other people and that she could use my blog to do it.

Hey, Everyone! It's Allyson. I just wanted to tell you about this last trail ride and especially the saddle because it was so comfortable for me. I am currently in the market for a western trail saddle and thought I would share my experience in case any of you are going through the same thing.

As Russ said my background with horses is mostly as a hunter/jumper, but since moving to Montana and mostly riding trail, I have been riding western saddles. I have not bought my own yet, but instead ride whatever is on the horse I am riding. Well, since my mom got a new Tucker Equitation Endurance Saddle (that she absolutely will not share, by the way), I was allowed to ride her Circle Y Flex Lite. What a super comfortable saddle. I think it was so comfortable for me, not so much because of the padded seat, which was great, but because I could sit in a more upright position, more similar to an English position than other western saddles have allowed me. And I wasn't stuck there, either. As the day progressed and I got tired, I was able to sit back more on my pockets (as my western riding friends would say) and was still as comfortable as before.

The seat in the Flex Lite isn't really wide either. That has been another complaint of mine with other saddles. Sometimes they are just so wide and flat that they "get me" right on the inside of my upper thigh. But this one was great. Still wider than my English saddle, but really comfortable and so much more secure.

And I could saddle the horse myself. I am not a wimp or anything, but sometimes the western saddles that people have had for me to use have just been so heavy that is was miserable to saddle the horse. But this one is light enough that I could get the saddle up on Rusty (Russ' old trail horse) without any trouble. So this Circle Y Flex Lite is now the front runner in my quest for a western saddle.

Now, if I could just get that Tucker away from my mom to try....!