A Couple Of Questions..

[Emily]

Hello! I have been lurking around on here quite a lot these days but am rarely brave enough to post  :blush:    So no laughing at me for my silly question!

A lot of people talk about Twist when talking about their saddles and I was just wondering what this is?  :blush:  It seems that everyone else knows except me  :blush:  :blush:

Also..does anyone have a Mondial saddle? I have been looking at them on Better Saddles website and they look lovely, but there is very little information on there, so was wondering if anyone had any experience or information on them?

Thanks!

[mummy24]

If i was you id contact Jill Shephard here on the group as she knows all about the Mondial saddle. Id not touch one with a barge pole. Ive spoken to Jill about these saddles and if it wasnt for her i could have made a very costly mistake.  Im super happy with my Fhoenix saddles. They are the best value for money you can find and they feel divine.
Jill by the way is an agent here and part of the customer care team.

[Hanchen]

Having spoken to some poeple who have the mondial.. some love it and their horses loved it.. others found it caused problems. Thats the same with any treeless/part treed saddle though as they wont suit every horse and rider.
 I think they look really great but i dont think they would suit my coblet (or my bank balance!)
 
Twist is the narrowness/width of the middle of the seat or something like that (applaud my technical terms :P )

[mummy24]

Having spoken to some poeple who have the mondial.. some love it and their horses loved it.. others found it caused problems. Thats the same with any treeless/part treed saddle though as they wont suit every horse and rider.
 I think they look really great but i dont think they would suit my coblet (or my bank balance!)
 
Twist is the narrowness/width of the middle of the seat or something like that (applaud my technical terms :P )

I was going to say the Twist is where the crouch should sit :lol: , but then i thought better of it, but to hell with being polite,lol.

[Heather]

The Mondial came very shortly after its maker refused to make any more of my Flexion Supreme saddles. 'Nuff said    :ouch:

Heather

[sarah-b]

My friend has two Mondials and she (and her horse) loves them. Adam Goodfellow (Monty Roberts RA) also sings their praises and uses them for all his horses. The saddles look exactly like a treed saddle - even more so then the Fheonix.

Kay Humphries is one of the only saddlers I trust - I have one of her Holistic (treed) saddles and it is fabulous.

I have heard rumblings about problems with the treeless but no-one has spilt the beans so far on what the problems are - it's almost like an "urban myth".

Have you trialled a Fheonix? I'm virtually the only person here on EE who didn't like it (and I really wanted to!!) but everyone loves them so much maybe you should give one a try before spending the £2000 odd a Mondial would set you back.

[JILLSHEP]

Hi Sarah

I really dont want to start a saddle battle here, but the reason they look like a treed saddle is because they are, you really cant get a saddle to look like that without one, its called a floating tree, the pommel has to be fitted to a horse because there is a tree in it, the cantle looks the same as a normal saddle because there isa tree in it.

I worked for Kay for some time, and the one thing that she insisted people ask for, is when you have a saddler out to sell you a saddle ask them to drop the panel out so you can take a look at whats inside, now I have been told by a friend that when they asked the panel to be taken off the mondial they were told no. Now if anyone has a Mondial sitting around I have a very sharp knife and as the Fhoenix agents now I am pretty nifty with a knife, Kay taught me that as well

There is also another side to this saddle story, maybe one day.

 

[Emily]

hmm, doesnt sound like thats what I'm after then....thats gone out the window! along with hundreds ofother saddles  :lol:  

[Heather]

There is also another side to this saddle story, maybe one day.

Yes Jill, there certainly is        

Heather

[mummy24]

Im glad Jill put the truth up about this treeless saddle. That is one of the reasons i wouldnt touch it with a barge pole. Id steer well clear of her saddles. Least you know what you get with Heathers saddles. No Bull S@*t but a saddle to be proud of  

[winterknight]

Following on from this - I just wondered how the HM Flexion Supreme could look so much like a treed saddle as it does?  (the one that Barry Swain stopped making).  I thought that had a flexible arch in the front, is it in fact a tree?

 

[Heather]

Hi Karen,

The Flexion Supreme came out before the Mondial, and had a solid front arch and cantle, but no floating bars inbetween.

So the Flexion Supreme was part treed yes- although at that time, because it was fully flexible longitudinally, it was more or less considered treeless. I never felt it was, but Barrie wouldnt make the Flexion SBS at the time, which was already in existence, and wouldnt listen to me. I took the front arch out of my Flexion Supreme and it worked better still without it! But no,  he wouldnt hear of doing this.

So when he downed tools and said he didnt want to make any more, ( he had obviously had other plans ) I cracked on with getting the SBS on the market, whcih I had already been playing around with for some years, and I felt was still the more versatile saddle- and it is.

Heather

[winterknight]

Hi Heather

Just wondering then were there differing sizes of front arch in the Flexion Supreme, ie narrow/med/wide?  If not how does it adjust to different horses :blink: ?

 

[Melia]

Just to add, someone at my yard works for Kay at Norton and Newby.  She borrowed a demo model (old one) of the mondial for her youngster.  It was on sort of permanent loan.  Rode him in it for a while, had a lesson with Tina Sederhom (sp?) and the first thing she said (I was there) was, 'Are you happy with that saddle and where it's sitting?'  There followed a discussion I didn't hear, but the day after the lesson I was very interested to hear that said employee of Norton and Newby was borrowing a treed saddle from a friend of hers, that fitted, and wasn't using the mondial any more.

I have no more details than that, but found it v interesting!!!  

[Emily]

Well I emailed someone from Better saddles about it for more information, with info about my pony, and she got back to me saying that she didn't think the mondial would be suited to me and my pony. So at least she was honest, it was the most expensive saddle that they sell and she could have tried to flog me one but she didn't! She has suggested I go for a fhoenix, sensation, freeform or barefoot, and (being very vain!) I don't like the look of the other three, so fhoenix it shall be!