Ladies Saddles

[Curbstrap2]

What are your thoughts on Ladies saddles? Valid concept or marketing tactic?

[David Genadek]

Valid concept that is misused as a marketing tactic.

David Genadek

[Curbstrap2]

Valid concept that is misused as a marketing tactic.

David Genadek

Can you explain how a ladies saddle differs from a standard saddle?

[barra]

http://cheetah.eb.com/mw/art/med/pelvis.htm

The basic premice of a different saddle (seat) for men and women is due to the differences in the male and female pelvis.

Barra

[D.A. Kabatoff]

Curbstrap,

if you look at the illustration Barra provided you'll notice that what many people refer to as their "pin bones" are further apart on women than men. There is a common misconception about women needing a narrower seat than men. In fact, a wider, flatter seat will be more comfortable for a woman. If the seat is made too narrow it becomes a wedge between the pinbones that has the effect of pushing the pin bones outwards and creating discomfort. The waist of the tree should be narrower than a typical tree. By waist, I mean the lower edges of the bars, roughly in the center of the tree should have some of the bar cut away. If you look at a tree from the side, this gives the effect of the lower edge sweeping upward about 1/2" (depending on the treemaker it could be more or less) more than a typical tree. The point of this is to help create a relief area for a womans thighs which are typically fuller on the inside of the thigh compared to a mans. I suppose it depends on the thickness of the rider's legs if this makes much of a difference or not but making the groundseat narrower will definitly have a detrimental effect on most female riders.

Darcy

[Curbstrap2]

http://cheetah.eb.com/mw/art/med/pelvis.htm

The basic premice of a different saddle (seat) for men and women is due to the differences in the male and female pelvis.

Barra

Yes, that part is obvious. As a petite individual, I am pretty much built without any 'junk in the trunk'. I have sat in some womens saddles and found them uncomfortable. I prefer a very narrow twist in the seat and was curious about the differences in the way they were made. Most specifically, I was referring to how the actual saddle seat construction differs. My apologies for not being clear.

[Curbstrap2]

Curbstrap,

if you look at the illustration Barra provided you'll notice that what many people refer to as their "pin bones" are further apart on women than men. There is a common misconception about women needing a narrower seat than men. In fact, a wider, flatter seat will be more comfortable for a woman. If the seat is made too narrow it becomes a wedge between the pinbones that has the effect of pushing the pin bones outwards and creating discomfort. The waist of the tree should be narrower than a typical tree. By waist, I mean the lower edges of the bars, roughly in the center of the tree should have some of the bar cut away. If you look at a tree from the side, this gives the effect of the lower edge sweeping upward about 1/2" (depending on the treemaker it could be more or less) more than a typical tree. The point of this is to help create a relief area for a womans thighs which are typically fuller on the inside of the thigh compared to a mans. I suppose it depends on the thickness of the rider's legs if this makes much of a difference or not but making the groundseat narrower will definitly have a detrimental effect on most female riders.

Darcy

Thank you Darcy for the explanation. I suppose this varies between female riders, but I understand the concept....even though it doesn't seem to apply to me personally.

[David Genadek]

Thank you Darcy for the explanation. I suppose this varies between female riders, but I understand the concept....even though it doesn't seem to apply to me personally.

Here is a good award winning article on the subject:

http://equinestudies.org/whos_built_best_2008/whos_built_best_2008_pdf1.pdf

Two of the factorsthat have not been mentioned are the difference in the location of the legsocket in the pelvis and the angle in which the legs leaves the pelvis.Although the seat bones are of importance I have found these issues to be ofgreater relevance to the saddle maker and rider.

The only time making the waist of the saddlenarrower will have any effect is if the tree is wider than the spread of thehorses ribs which is impossible. Narrowing the waist of the tree will onlyreduce the bearing surface of the bar and create useless dead airspace in thesaddle.

David Genadek

[Tosch]

There is an "older" thread in here somewhere from maybe a year ago, titled " Lady's seat" if I remember correctly. Around that time lots of discussion was going on about gender related seats and seats in general.

Tosch