Going Treeless

The treeless saddle is a giant effort to provide comfortable equipment for our horses. There have been many improvements in saddle construction since the Hittites first rode out of nowhere to conquer Mesopotamia.



From bareback to a simple leather pad to heavy and elaborate hand-hewn wooden saddles to the modern spring tree and ultra-light materials used to help lighten the horse’s load, the progression has been first toward security for the rider, then to safety and comfort for the horse.

The treeless saddle is just as it sounds. Where typical saddles, both English and Western, are built on a forked frame (the tree) made of some hard material and shaped to bridge the horse’s spine and distribute the rider’s weight evenly. The purpose of the tree is to give the saddle shape and the leather something to be formed around and to keep the saddle from slipping to either side. A good tree will not press into the horse’s muscles or spine. The tree is key to proper saddle fit.

A Western saddle, thanks to its wide base of support, allows the weight of both saddle and rider to be evenly distributed across a large area of the horse’s back. With knowledgeable fit and appropriate padding, most horses will find good-quality Western saddles comfortable.

There has been discord for years, however, on the English saddle front. The wooden tree has many proponents who swear its stability is better at weight distribution than the spring tree—a flexible metal alternative—which, they argue, can flex and pinch at the wrong moment. Both sides agree that there has to be proper fit and an understanding of equine movement and musculature in order for any saddle to be acceptably (to the horseman, at least) pain-free.

At the same time that the tree battle raged, there has always been a strong voice coming from the bareback crowd. Bareback is about as natural as it gets when you’re talking about an omnivore sitting on the back of a prey animal, and many riding programs start young riders bareback in order to help them learn balance and feel the horse’s movement.

Not all horses are good bareback candidates, however. Some have prominent backbones and high withers that render bareback excursions painful for both horse and rider. Some just don’t like all that rubbing and touching. Too much contact can be as bad as not enough in some horse’s opinions. So the bareback pad—very similar to the early leather saddles—was reinvented. Generally made of heavily-padded fabric or fleece-lined leather, sold with or without stirrups, the bareback pad is a step closer to a saddle and very much like the un-cinched blanket favored by Native American horsemen. Bareback pads (cinch included, stirrups optional) can be had for well under $100 in most tack shops and catalogs.

Still, the lack of security for the rider has kept many horsemen from attempting anything more challenging than a trot around the pasture with a bareback pad. Stirrups are not necessarily a boon, as with no stabilizing fork, too much pressure on either side will send pad and rider into an unplanned turf inspection. Enter the treeless saddle.

I had the opportunity to try one of the first English treeless saddles—the Ansür dressage version—when they first hit the scene. The saddle is well-made (as befits a rather expensive piece of equipment), and entirely treeless. The leather is simply formed into saddle shape, girthed as any English saddle would be, and has a very comfortable, well-padded and shaped seat.

I must say that I was not happy with the way the saddle fit my very round, withers-free Morgan test horse. I found it impossible to get my leg on him as I was too busy trying to keep from sliding off the side of the perfect hemisphere of leather arcing over his back. The saddle’s owner, however, had a narrow mare on whom the saddle did give significant purchase for her inner thighs and calves. She liked the saddle so much, in fact, that she bought a second for her daughter’s horse. That’s a high compliment indeed.

A caveat here: that same fan eventually discarded the treeless saddle when she found that her dressage seat was suffering.

Ansür is not the only maker of treeless saddles. Bob Marshall made treeless Western saddles popular. His endurance and barrel racing models appear both sturdy and comfortable, though I have not had a chance to try one. Torsion UK, Hilason,, Phoenix, Trekker, Treefree and Sydney Saddleworks, an Australian maker of stock saddles, all make treeless saddles of different types. There is sufficient variety now to make it possible for many riders to find a treeless saddle that works for them.

As with the bitless bridle and any other exotic, unfamiliar piece of equipment, I recommend a trial first. If you can borrow a treeless saddle to try, have at it. If you must spend over $2000 (US) for a new saddle, it had better make you happy. If none of your friends own treeless saddles, check the online auction sites. You might be able to pick up a used one/. A quick eBay search turned up thirteen listings in one swoop. My local tack shops had not one in stock, new or used.