Heather Moffett's FHOENIX & VOGUE FLEXIBLE CONCEPT SADDLE

Riding in the saddle

The seat has been designed to allow the rider’s thighs to drop easily into a more vertical knee position, the saddle having a definite ‘waist’, which does not leave the rider feeling straddled as if bareback. The Fhoenix & Vogue offer the same level of support as a conventional treed saddle, yet is the nearest thing to sitting on a cushion on a horse!!

Nearly all conventional saddles have the stirrup bars set too far to the front, resulting in the rider’s seat being pushed to the back of the saddle, and the thighs pulled forwards. This is why so many riders find it nigh on impossible to maintain the ear/shoulder/hip/heel line - the very tool that is supposed to be assisting the rider, i.e. the saddle, is actually preventing him or her from maintaining this ideal position of balance! This is especially so in rising trot – see section on Tips for Better riding.

The rider who is accustomed to sitting in a ‘chair’ seat as a result of riding in most GP saddles, will feel more stretched as stretch is placed on the hip and thigh joints as the leg is brought back into line. The hip joints have to open and the thighs stretch, the saddle will feel wide!! This is often attributed to the fact that the saddle is treeless, but in fact is mostly to do with the placement of the stirrup bars.

The stirrup bars are set back, as in all of the Heather Moffett designed saddles, to enable an instant ‘ear/shoulder/hip/heel’ line to be easily achieved. The bars have been designed to permit the use of normal stirrups, allowing the leather to come away and prevent the rider being dragged in the event of a fall. They are attached to strong webbing, which is in turn, attached to wider bands of webbing strained front to back, to ensure that the weight is evenly distributed, and which also carries the girth straps.

The Fhoenix, when brand new, will look a little odd when first placed on the back of the horse. The panels and flaps may appear to point a little backwards. This is because when the rider’s weight causes the saddle to sink in the middle, this pushes the flaps forward. The saddle may appear not to touch all along the back, and may protrude at the rear, on either side of the back, but after riding in it a few times, it will very quickly mould and adjust to the shape of the horse.

The saddle may even look asymmetric when taken out of the box! This is because it is fully flexible, excepting the cantle, and will sometimes assume the shape of the box. This will quickly correct itself once used on the horse.

Under cold conditions, the viscose-elastic foam used in the seat will feel hard. It is advisable to warm the saddle before use, either keeping it in a warm place, or allowing it to sit for ten minutes or so on the horse’s back before riding, preferably with a rug over the saddle and horse’s back to retain heat it necessary.

Dressage stirrup leathers- i.e. those with adjustment at the stirrup end, MUST be used, as the stirrup bars cannot be recessed as with treed saddles. Or, alternatively, use normal stirrup leathers, with the buckle at the stirrup end, and put the loose end of the leather into one of the neoprene sleeve you can buy for the purpose from Robinson’s catalogue and many saddlers. Using the stirrup leathers in this way is commonplace on the Continent, even with treed saddles to avoid having buckles under the leg. If hiring a trial saddle, even use a couple of strong rubber bands to secure the end of your normal leathers, to prevent them flapping.

We strongly advocate the Professional’s Choice dressage girth-this girth is extremely well made, elasticated at both ends (one end means that the saddle is pulled unequally to one side) and has a wide neoprene strip against the horse, which is velcroed and can be removed for easy washing.

Ensure that the girth is done up equally on both sides, and make sure that even with a dressage girth, it is long enough! If the girth is too short, it will result in the horse’s elbows hitting the buckles as the shoulder swings back and forth. This is very painful, and can cause injuries to the elbow, and has even been severe enough for it to be known to bring a horse down. Therefore, the girth should be long enough to come about two inches below the bottom of the saddle flap, once the girth is sufficiently tightened.

The Fhoenix has a soft front arch, which expands and contracts automatically to accommodate all but very high withered horses.

The Fhoenix has a gullet, which is more for lateral stability than spinal clearance. The saddle being soft with no hard tree in either the front arch or down the gullet area does not need spinal clearance, but the presence of a gullet does make the saddle remarkable laterally stable, even permitting mounting from the ground without difficulty. Although we strongly do not advise this on a normal basis, as it is damaging to the horse’s back, it may be unavoidable out hacking occasionally, if the rider, for instance, drops his or her whip!

Underside

Flap to permit additional shimming

The gullet has a velcroed flap along both sides , allowing a small amount of extra padding to be inserted into either side of the front arch, between the panel pad and the main body of the saddle, to give extra clearance to very high withered or atrophied horses, eliminating the need for a variety of extra pads under the saddle. We can supply Prolite or similar neoprene-based shims for this purpose.

Pressure points?

Questions often arise regarding whether there are pressure points caused by the rider’s seatbones, as there is no tree to support them, but the saddle is as thick as conventional saddles and made of layers of shock absorbing/pressure dissipating material. We have experienced no soreness in all of the test horses, ‘cold backed’ horses have shown no resistance at all to the Fhoenix, and those who have suffered sore backs through conventional saddles being incorrectly fitted, accept the Fhoenix willingly. The Fhoenix has come out very well in pressure testing and sweat patterns- results have proven to be extremely even, with very little dry area except under the gullet, where it would be expected if not contact with the horse.

If using a numnah rather than a saddle cloth, make sure that it is large enough to fit so that the numnah has around an inch at least showing all round the saddle, without any binding seams coming directly underneath the saddle. This could encourage the saddle, with a less than balanced rider. to slip and rub, especially across the back under the cantle region. The Fhoenix should be always used with a so-called ‘high wither’ cut saddle cloth, such as the excellent Mattes range, see left. All saddle cloths and numnahs should be designed in this way, conforming to the shape of the saddle arch, thereby not pulling across the wither, and creating a pressure point. The high cut also assists with lateral stability, being cut to fit up into the front arch, rather than straight across.

With wide flat backed horses, overweight ones such as the horse, left, and those with mature, correctly muscled backs, no padding is necessary. Use only a high wither saddle cloth.

For those with a small amount of atrophy, just needing an extra padding boost, our Backsaver pad, made from the same visco elastic foam as the Fhoenix seat, is ideal, used on top of the Mattes cloth between cloth and saddle.

Fhoenix & Vogue Smartpanel Saddle

The Fhoenix & Vogue Smartpanel saddle (or variants of) has been in use for several years on Heather's own horses as well as numerous others. The British army has using a similar pad extensively under treed saddles, also using thermal imaging to test the efficiency in pressure and weight distribution, giving exceptional results.

A similar pad was first brought to Heather's attention by one of her agents, who had been using it for three years under another brand of treeless saddle, on her event horse with high withers. The saddle had previously been unusable on this horse, but with the similar pad, the horse had never been more comfortable.

The original pad was tested under the Flexion SBS, and found pressure readings to be better than anything else we had tried. So the ‘Suberpanel’ came into being, based on the idea of the side saddle Wykeham pad. Sidesaddles used to be made to fit the lady, rather than just the horse, and as ladies tended to ride more than one hunter, the Wykeham pad became popular. This meant that the saddle was made fairly wide, with no panel, just leather covering the bottom, and the Wykeham pad, made from different thicknesses of wool felt, could then be attached by small straps to the ‘d’s, in order to fit different widths of horse, and in this case, pockets into which the points of the tree were inserted. The Fhoenix & Vogue of course has no points, but the panel is attached in much the same way otherwise, and fits a very considerable variety of horses, with no adjustment (see a little further on for the only exception).

I was immediately impressed with the great freedom possible for the horse’s shoulders, being able to slip my hand easily under the panel at the front, even in rising trot. But what is astonishing, is the sheer stability, which the panel affords the saddle, laterally, and forward and back. We have found that if the saddle is accidentally put on slightly over to one side, the rider has to get off to move it, it is so firmly in place. Even mounting from the ground, the saddle does not slip, on the widest, flattest horse imaginable, but gives great cushioning to a high withered, and even severely atrophied horse, allowing muscle regeneration faster than any other saddle in our experience.

The Smartpanel saddle does not feature the gullet which is on the normal Prolite panelled Fhoenix & Vogue, and it is there for lateral stability rather than spinal clearance. The channelled centre of the Smartpanel increases the lateral stability still further and is only present for this purpose. The panel attaches by neat velcro straps, through the ‘D’ rings under the skirts, and to the additional ‘D’ at the back of the saddle. Do the straps up as tightly as they will go. The saddle needs no adjustment when switching from one horse to another.

In use, using it damp, even straight out of the washing machine, further enhances the efficiency of the Smartpanel. This swells the cork, making it even more malleable, and further increases the adhesion. It is perfectly possible to use the panel dry, but it is recommended to be used damp. In temperate climates, the panel will stay damp for approximately a week, in hot climates, it will need to be wetted more frequently. Use a cool, short wash cycle and only use detergent if the panel has been used directly onto the horse’s back and is greasy. Using the panel directly onto the horse’s back is no problem, but we do advise using a saddle cloth underneath against the horse’s back - the Mattes ones are also the best we have found for use with the Smartpanel, purely because it keeps the saddle clean!

The first time that you ride on the Smartpanel, you may feel a little ‘perched’, but this feeling soon disappears as the cork starts to mould. The Smartpanel gives an even better feeling of a narrower ‘twist’ in a very wide horse, which is a considerable benefit with a treeless or part treed saddle. However, the panel gives an excellent bearing surface, and also conforms to the shape of the horse with a narrower and more ‘V’ shaped back.

It has been queried as to whether the lack of a gullet as such will damage the spine. The rider’s seatbones to not sit on top of the spinal process, being several inches to either side, and the main reason apart from lateral stability, that the gullet is present in a treed saddle, is that the hard tree would be in contact with the back otherwise. This is not the case in a treeless or even part treed saddle, the part tree being merely the cantle itself and a cantle support, with no hard part being able to come into contact with the back.

The panel should be pulled up sufficiently into the front arch so that no pressure is going onto the withers, just as with a saddle cloth or numnah. Forget the usual ‘three fingers’ under the front arch! This again, is only needed with a treed saddle where a wood or hard plastic tree would otherwise be in direct contact. With the Fhoenix & Vogue, as long as you can just slip a single fingertip under the Smartpanel at the wither, this is sufficient not to create a pressure point.

Smartpanel

Underside of panel

Smartpanel, front attachment

Smartpanel front

CARE OF THE FHOENIX & VOGUE SADDLES

The saddle is by it’s nature and construction, very different, and the life expectancy will is unlikely to be as long as that of a treed saddle, which can be twenty years or more with proper care. The saddle has been manufactured using the finest quality materials, but these are softer than those used in treed saddles, in order to give the saddle flexibility, and the grip needed when no tree is present.

The saddle should be either oiled regularly with a product such as Hydrophane leather dressing, or can be waterproofed with Nikwax G wax leather dressing, which will also keep the leather supple. The saddle should also be regularly cleaned with saddle soap, such as a glycerine based product - the spray glycerine soaps are excellent - or a cream such as Stubben Hamanol. The saddle does not need reflocking, and maintenance is minimal

Stitching should be regularly checked, as with all saddles, and if repair is needed, should be attended to immediately - please contact your supplier.

NB: Some riders have asked why both GP and dressage models have long girth straps, and not the conventional three short billets associated with GP saddles. This is because we found the saddles to be less laterally stable with the longer girth, and also with the soft flaps, the rider is likely to feel the buckles under the thigh, causing discomfort.

TIPS FOR BETTER RIDING

RISING TROT

In rising trot, the rider is often told that the body should remain upright. I cannot understand the logic behind this. At all other times, except of course when in the forward seat for cross-country or jumping, the upper body should be as still and upright as possible. The British army developed the rising or ‘posting trot’ several centuries ago, being less tiring to horse and rider over long distances, and to free the horse’s back and allow it to work as unfettered as possible under us. Rising trot, after all, is mostly used when warming up, allowing the horse a stretching/rest period in the middle of a schooling session, cooling down, hacking out, and especially, when riding a young horse.

If the rider inadvertently is impeding the horse from moving, by the way in which they are rising to the trot, the action of rising becomes meaningless. When the rider is told to keep the body upright in rising trot, either this means having to thrust the pelvis furiously forwards and back in order to catch/keep up with the movement of the horse, which is not only tiring for the rider, and looks ugly and hard work, it also causes the horse too rush and flatten, and yet I see plenty of dressage trainers advocating rising like this, as it is said to ‘create impulsion’! It certainly creates speed if you rise in this manner, but impulsion? I disagree!

Why work twice as hard as you need to, and also make the horse have to adjust to your extra movements! The other cause of the upper body coming too upright is the stirrup bar position. If the thigh is being pulled forward, the lower leg will go with it, and the rider then has to pull his or herself up against the movement. I have seen so many riders failing exams for being ‘behind the movement’ in rising trot, and no allowance is made for the fact that they are fighting the saddle- the very tool that is supposed to be assisting them! Some riders find it almost impossible to balance in rising trot in a saddle that is very forward cut with very forward placed bars. Unless riding with stirrups very short and upper body well forward, he or she will not be able to find the point of balance, falling back onto the rear of the saddle heavily at each stride.

Using the Equisimulator, a machine which simulates the movement of the horse, and which is essential to my teaching, I am able to demonstrate very clearly to students, what the horse actually feels. I ask the ‘guinea-pig – some might term it ‘victim’!’ - to place the hand under the cantle region of the saddle, between the panel and the simulator. I then ride the machine in rising trot, body upright, furiously swinging the pelvis forwards and back to keep up with the movement. I also ride it with legs pulled forward by stirrup bar position, and have to heave myself up, down, up, down in the process, as you will see so many beginners doing, usually with a double bounce as well (mind you, I get plenty of riders coming for remedial work who are still rising like this, perhaps only without the double bounce, after years of riding!). In both cases, the student will feel the hand being well and truly squashed!

Then, I ride the machine in correct balance, upper body inclined slightly forward, allowing the pelvis to swing lightly forward and back always landing with the pelvis slightly in advance of the vertical. The student will hardly feel me touch down in the saddle.

By allowing the pelvis to land slightly tipped forwards, the angle means that the buttocks merely touch down and are propelled forwards again by the movement of the horse, not by effort on the part of the rider. In this way, the movement is light and effortless, the rider merely touching down so lightly on the back of the horse, that the horses, like the vet students, can hardly feel the weight in the saddle- I wish more endurance riders would take note, it would save themselves and their horses a lot of effort!. If the buttocks come into full contact with the saddle in the sit phase, the seat will be heavy and limiting for the horse.

The bigger the horse’s movement, the more the rider’s pelvis will be propelled forwards over the pommel, so that the upper body will be upright in the rise phase of the stride, but still should return to the saddle with the pelvis slightly forward of the vertical. On a horse with a smaller trot, the pelvis will not be thrown forwards as far by the horse, and so the seat will not leave the saddle very much at all.

It is still essential however, to allow the pelvis to some sufficiently out of the saddle so that the rider doesn’t end up in front of the movement – i.e., the seat is back in the saddle before the stride is completed. This is usually caused by the rider trying to roll the pelvis forwards and back without coming off the saddle at all. This, whilst probably not causing the horse as much discomfort as coming behind the movement and landing heavily, still shortens the stride and doesn’t allow the horse to work in his own rhythm. The rider’s front line, i.e. between ribcage and hips, should remain extended and not collapsed, especially during the sit phase of the rising trot. With riders who have a tendency to do this, I place a back support, with a hard Plastozote pad , on the rider’s front!! This makes it impossible to collapse, but still allows free movement of the lower back. WE have never used the back support for its intended purpose!

When doing lecture demonstrations, I seldom take my own horses, preferring to ride horses that I have never sat on before. The audience is always amazed at the horse’s reactions, when I demonstrate different things that I have to correct on a daily basis, which actually impede the horse from functioning. Rising trot incorrectly is probably one of the most common faults. I demonstrate the correct way first, and invariably, the horse goes forward with ease, and I have to make little effort to maintain the impulsion. I then ride the horse so that my pelvis is landing upright in the saddle. The horse will invariably slow down, and actually grind to a halt within a couple more.

Some sensitive horses will stop within two strides of me doing this!! I would then have to kick or smack the horse to get it going again (I hit my boot and make a noise so as not to hit the horse and punish it for something I am doing deliberately). I then resume the correct rising trot and the horse goes happily forwards again. Just think of all of those poor horses who are being ridden in this way, by riders unknowingly impeding them, and the horse getting a wallop for being lazy when he is plainly telling his rider- ‘I can’t go forwards, you are stopping me!’. Quite a few riders have exclaimed that rising trot is so much easier without a tree, in the Fhoenix, but I have to own up that it is not the saddle, but the placement of the bars that enables this!!

LEARNING FEEL, AND THROUGH THIS, TIMING OF THE LEG AIDS

I am often told by riders that they cannot feel the movement of the horse. This is largely because they are making movements which not only block the horse, but also block their own feel. Another prime cause is that they have simply not been told what or how to feel. The Fhoenix not only allows the horse’s back to move with great freedom, it also enables the rider to feel much more clearly what the back is doing underneath them.

You will probably have heard it said that a rider has ‘an electric behind’, because all horses seem to speed up with this type of rider on board. On the other hand, some riders seem to make even fast horses slow down.

In the case of the lazy, lethargic horse, very often this type may have had a tendency to economy of movement, but with correct schooling, it is possible to wake them up and become an enjoyable and far more active ride. However, if the rider is doing something to impede the movement, then it is nigh on impossible for the horse to work unhindered. The most common thing that impedes movement is the rider pushing with the seat. You will often see riders on ‘lazy’ horses, trying to urge the horse forwards by pushing their pelvis forward strongly, rather like a child operating a swing. This actually has the opposite effect on nearly every horse – stopping the movement from being able to happen. The horse’s back works in two halves, and so should the rider’s seat..

By pushing both seatbones forward and back together, the rider depresses one side of the horse’s back as it rises and blocks the travel forward of the hindleg on that side. This causes the horse to get slower and slower, and in the case of sensitive trained horses, will stop them dead in their tracks. The usual response from the rider is to think that the horse is being lazy and therefore give them a kick and a wallop or two with the whip to get going again, whereas in fact the poor horse is trying to tell them ‘I can’t move, you are stopping me’! – and the horse gets another kick as his reward.

Instead, when you allow your seatbones to rise and fall unilaterally, you will free your legs to move with the swing of the horse’s belly. For instance, the left leg closes lightly as the belly swings to the right, and releases as the belly swings to the left again, and vice versa to the right. In this way, you are using your leg at the optimum time, as the hindleg is off the ground and travelling under. I have heard one trainer at a clinic, actually advocating using the leg when the belly is swinging towards you, therefore the hindleg is on the ground and pushing off. His logic was that the impulsion could only be increased when the hindleg is pushing off. I could not understand this, as if you use your leg when the belly is swinging towards it, you will stop the full trajectory of the swing of the ribcage, and therefore also block the stride, shortening, rather than increasing it

Using the leg when the belly is swinging away, encourages the step under of the hindleg, thereby increasing the length of stride, and enabling the back to swing.

The movement that your seatbones make when riding correctly in walk on a horse, mimic exactly, what they would be doing if you were walking on foot. One will rise whilst the other lowers, as the horse’s back rises and lowers in two halves. As the hindfoot steps under, the back lowers on that side and your seatbone will lower with it. As the opposite hindfoot steps off the ground, the action will push the back upwards with the thrust and lift your seatbone up and forward with it.

Likewise, the action is the same in sitting trot, although it is often not what riders are actually taught! ‘Drive with your seatbones’ is a common instruction when sitting trot is being taught and also ‘Polish the saddle’ in canter. I always cringe when I hear instructors saying this! Have you ever wondered why some riders, especially dressage riders, appear to flap their legs at every stride, and that some also nod their head like some ‘nodding donkey’ drilling rig! Driving with the seat is the cause. As we have examined earlier, the horse’s back is depressed on one side at each stride, as the rider pushes the seatbones forward, but the action of pushing the seatbones forward also causes the thighs and knees to drop down together, and the lower legs to slip back. As the seatbones then slide forward again, the thighs and knees rise, and the lower legs slip forwards again, hence the lower legs waggle back and forth involuntarily at every stride.

Most riders will find the unilateral use of the legs difficult to achieve in any pace other than walk, and so I do advocate using the legs in trot and canter with a quick squeeze/release, once at each stride, in the rhythm of the trot or canter. I find that as the action of squeeze and release is fast enough not to impede the swing of the ribcage/belly, it works well enough, and the walk seems to be the pace that most riders overwork with the legs and seat to try to get the horse to walk out more.

Very often, the rider is told to ‘tuck the tail under’ as well, and because the movement can then not go through the lower back, it comes out in the next available place – the neck and shoulders, so the head nods up and down at each stride, also involuntarily. It is so horribly ugly, and yet seems to be perfectly acceptable in the dressage arena.

Watch any really good rider- and when I say really good rider, one whose movements appear to blend imperceptibly with those of the horse and who appears to be doing nothing- and you will notice that the thighs and knees rise and fall only once at every stride in sitting trot. Watch from the front of the horse if possible and you will clearly see that the thigh and knee drop and the lower leg then follows the swing of the belly, as the horse’s back lowers on that side. Then, as the other side lowers, the thigh and knee on that side also lower, and the leg just closes lightly with the belly as it swings away. The legs remain quiet and still and the rider can clearly feel every movement of the legs of the horse underneath.

If a rider is driving with the seatbones, you will clearly see from if viewing from the front, the rider’s knees and thighs rising and falling together, rather than unilaterally, and you will also notice a lot more movement in the lower leg.

This driving seat is also the cause of the rider’s hands chopping up and down. Try this just sitting on a chair. Sit as you would on a horse with your hands in front of you, as if holding the reins. Now push both seatbones forwards and back together, and note how your hands rise and fall as you do so. Now, imagine you are walking on your seatbones, and push one hip forward then the other, and you will find that your hands stay still. It is almost impossible to drive with the seat and have hands that are independent of the reins. There is a simple equation that I tell pupils to think of – you have two halves to your backside, the horse has two halves to his back- put two and tow together in sync, and you make one- put two and two together out of sync, and you make life difficult for both you and the horse.

This ‘polish the saddle’ instruction is also advocated at canter. In a good canter, the horse’s back will lift and round, but if the rider is ‘polishing the saddle’ the seat will push down heavily against the horse’s back and prevent the back from lifting, instead, ‘scooping’ the canter out so that it becomes flat and hollow.

There are two distinct movements in canter, the rider’s back flexes in and straightens in much the same way as sitting trot, but this time in the one/two/three rhythm of the canter.

The pelvis however, also makes a backward circling motion; at least, the feeling is of this. The hipbone will literally describe a circle, as the horse’s forehand rises, the riders seat will be dropped down and back, as the horses back levels the rider’s seat will be lifted, and so on, in the one/two/three rhythm. On the first beat, think of closing the seat muscles, as the lower leg lightly closes, to engage the hindlegs and maintain impulsion, releasing both leg and seat muscles during second and third beats. The feeling is of ‘sucking’ the horse’s back up, lightening the seat but without drawing the buttocks off the saddle, allowing the back to come up into the seat, and increasing, not flattening, the jump in the canter stride.

In this way, the rider’s seatbones are actually mirroring the planes of movement of the horse’s back, ‘cogging’ into it rather than squashing it flat. The rider’s seat remains in constant but very light contact with the saddle, upper body tall, still and elegant, no unsightly rowing of the shoulders, or seat bouncing in the saddle.

I have another simulator that is purely rider powered, based on a spring mechanism. If you try to row with the shoulders or slide your seat in the saddle, the simulator refuses to move. We did not build this into the machine- it just happens because you are opposing the movement. If it does this to a machine, just think what it does to a horse’s back!