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Julie Payne & Bright Diamond
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Julie & Diamond at Barbury Castle 2008
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Julie's comments:
I got her on loan at the end of her fifth year – during that year she had been broken in and had done a little endurance. But when I first saw her back I wondered how we were going to fit a saddle to that! She was also very crooked and crabbed to the right, with muscle atrophy on her right hind and hamstring.We managed to sort of muddle through her first season as a 6 year old, using a small close contact saddle and various pads.
I did a lot of flat work schooling to help straighten and strengthen her back and improve her top line. But we had many problems with the saddle - pressure areas on her ribs at each side behind the wither, lumps appearing on her back in various locations, and left fore lameness, which vets and my physio all agreed was coming from the right hind hamstring.
Then I saw Les and the FnE saddles at Lindum in July and decided after talking to him to give the FnE a go. I admit I had previously ruled it out, because I thought it would never work on Diamond's shape and length of back. But I tried it at Lindum and decided then and there. Diamond has not looked back since.
It took a little time for her to adjust to the different feel, and for her back to settle down, but we have had a fantastic end of season since. We have no lumps, no unevenness, and I have become so confident in her back that I am not checking it every time I take the saddle off, not like before! Her shape has changed amazingly, I train with Adam Kemp in dressage and he couldn't believe the change in her. She has now completed her first ER, has done endurance competitions two weeks running, followed by a dressage competition – something I could never had entertained doing before as her back would have been too sore. She uses the Air Flow Numnah for competitions with great success. The FnE saddle has been a real breakthrough for Diamond.
Within three months of using a FnE Trekker saddle with its EasyFlex tree and EasyFlex panels the back pain disappeared, the white marks started to go and the back profile significantly improved as shown below.
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Back shape when using a flocked saddle. Red line trace |
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Back shape after using FnE saddle for 3 months including two 80km endurance rides and lots of schooling Black line trace |
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An overlay of the pictures above using the belly line as the reference. Black line is new shape and red line is old shape. |
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The design of the FnE saddle is such that it is able to follow the shape of Diamond's back and distribute the weight evenly with none of the bridging pressure points experienced with other types of saddle. It was also adjusted to give the rider a balanced seat, enabling her to school Diamond using dressage techniques. As Diamond was no longer constrained by her saddle she was able to round her back using all her muscles in a coordinated way, resulting in the back and top-line improvement.
