Bua saddle - An innovation?
A great debate at the moment! Many movements have arisen from the will of horse owners to modify their behaviour and approach of horsemanship and horse keeping, which include "natural" feeding, barefoot, bitless and of course... treeless! Many questions are being asked by the horse world, and it is finally trying to evolve (which was long overdue). Both scientists and horse owners now try to use methods and techniques that are more "respectful" of horses and that promote the health and well-being of our equine friends. I won't exactly talk about treeless saddles in this article, but rather a new tree that was put on the market in 2015. And yes I know, it is an Irish product... I know I spend my time saying that Irish people tend to stay a bit "behind" in terms of evolution of the equine world, and yet both the Micklem bridle and the Bua saddles are innovations in the area of new tack that is developed purely for equine welfare and performance, and they both come from Ireland.
For those who want to know more about the saddle, you can access the website at this address: http://www.buasaddles.com/
The first thing you should know about the saddle is that Bua is an Irish word meaning "victory", and I have to say that I understand why they would chose this name... The design was invented by a student names Martin Ryan (such an Irish name!) at the age of 22. It was in 2005, and the final product was only put on the market in 2015 at the Dublin Horse Show, exactly 10 years after ! Which means 10 years of tests and research and development... Actually, you know what? I was there! A friend of mine (who had a lot of interest for treeless saddles) mentioned this brand to me and told me to go have a look. I sat on it at the time and I remember finding it very comfortable, but I thought then that there were still a few things needed to make it a finished product. I still think that, but I'll come back on my opinions later.
First, let's talk about that "tree": what makes it so special? This "tree" is not actually a tree... it is not made of wood and it is not traditionally designed (obviously). It's not exactly a treeless saddle either, it does contain a shaped inside part that gives the saddle a structure and a certain rigidity. The first difference of that "tree" is that is it is cantilevered, which means that the cantle of the saddle is "suspended", therefore offering shock absorption between the rider and the horse. Indeed, the part of the tree that forms the seat for the rider isn't directly linked to the part of the tree that is on the horse's back. The only link existing is at the front of the saddle through a curve at the level of the pommel. Moreover, as I said before, the "tree" is not made of wood, it is made of a composite material used in aerospace and automobile. The "tree" is therefore highly robuste and flexible, and also, very light! The whole saddle weighs approximately 4kg... and you can carry it one handed very easily. It is those elements that make the Bua saddle so different: the heart of saddle is a concentrate of innovation.
The saddle can be entirely taken apart and washed in a washer. It is available in many different colours (black, navy or brown for the leather bits, and black, grey, brown, orange and green for the other bits). The leather used is also different, more similar to the leather used for car seats. Each part of the saddle can be removed and replaced individually, you can therefore buy new flaps, a new tree, a new seat, etc. The flaps are available for the different disciplines: general purpose, dressage, jumping and endurance. You can therefore buy one saddle and only change the flaps to adjust for the different disciplines.
There you have it! A saddle that has nothing to do with traditional saddles! Dynamic, light, customisable... but is it truly a revolution?
I straight away liked the principle when I saw it. As you may already know, I'm not the type of person who just accepts something just because "that's what we've always done and it's always worked before". However, I still have big doubts on some aspects of the saddle. The first one is the principle of "one size fits all", as much on the horse's side than on the rider's. The tree itself cannot be changed, even the flocking cannot be modified. There is therefore only one size available (17.5 inches) and no ways of modifying the saddle to adapt it to your horse's back. The principle is to say that the flexibility of the tree allows inherent adaption to the back and therefore can fit any horse. I highly doubt this is true. Moreover, I question whether this suspension might actually makes us bounce more on our horse's back, which is not at all desirable. And I wonder if the suspension mechanism (with the only contact between the rider and the horse parts of the saddle being at the shoulders) doesn't actually put too much pressure on the front of the saddle (which is already where more saddles tend to put more pressure). Many questions then, and it is still too early to answer them. I'm quite sure many scientific experiments are being undertaken at the moment, and that soon there will be a paper published about it, giving new insights on the saddle. Actually, the reason why my University bought the saddle in the first place is because one of my lecturer is testing different saddles (including the Bua) for her PhD. So you see, science is coming!
So these are all my initial questions, but I finally got to test the saddle myself. Being new, it's quite hard to get your hands on it, especially when you just have a leisure horse, just to try it on. However, studying Equine Science at UL has its privileges! and I got to borrow the saddle and try it on Willow.
However, I was highly skeptical when I put it on his back. Indeed, the saddle was used for another study of a friend of mine in my class, and everybody that sat in it (including two of my teachers) all hated it. One of my lecturers, whose opinion I highly value and respect, even told me that she would never put that saddle on her horse's back, even if she got paid for it!! She thinks that the saddle makes the rider bounce too much, and that all the horses she tried it on hated it, and that the "one size fits all" is more a "one size fits none" principle. I was therefore highly skeptical (I value so much her opinion, she taught me so much...) and I took all the precautions in the world when I put it on Willow's back. As I have learned (sadly by eating sand), Willow is highly sensitive to saddle fit, and will throw you off if he's not happy. My teacher even told me that one of the horses even started to raise his back dangerously as he hated the saddle so much (which he evidently never did with any other saddle on).
For Willow's saddle fit, you need to know this: he has quite a hollow back, with a moderately prominent withers, and two sorts of "fat" deposits on the shoulders just where the saddle goes (although I don't know if it's truly fat as it never gets bigger or smaller, no matter what state he is in, even after coming back as a skeleton after a journey from France to Ireland). Up to now, I have tried 5 different saddles and had someone over to adapt my saddle to his back and the best we could do was "not too bad". In general, the saddles have a tendency to be unbalanced towards the rear, the cantle is highly unstable, and the saddle isn't stable laterally (ie. it slips) and I often find myself seating on the left side.
You can see on the next video the difference between my "traditional" saddle where the cantle is highly unstable and the Bua saddle (on the left). The width of the "flocking" on the Bua may also be a sign of greater weight repartition on the horse's back.
The first impression when I put the saddle on his back without a saddle pad is that the saddle doesn't sit quite right and it's hard to find its rightful place. Instinctively, you'd actually want to move it backwards quite a lot, but when you see where the billets end up, you can see that you are too far back. I've put it on other horses and got the same impression. Maybe it's only due to the jumping flaps that are very forward cut? Also, I find that the saddle is very high off the horse's back, with the pommel being quite far high up above the withers (which guarantees that the saddle doesn't come in contact with any parts of the spine, that's for sure!). However, it sticks well to the horse's back and is regular in its pressure from the flocking, is far away from the horse's scapula, and seems quite stable laterally.
During the first trial at liberty, Willow doesn't show any kinds of reaction. I then realise that the saddle doesn't move... It's the first saddle I've ever tried on where the cantle doesn't raise 10m up in the air every time Willow lowers his head, even in canter when Willow puts his nose on the ground. This was always the case with other saddle I'd tried, even with a riser pad, sometimes even at a walk. However, the saddle being so flexible, the saddle pad slipped quite a lot to the rear.
Once seated in it, it didn't take me long to see the difference. It was another horse I had underneath me. I felt his every moves, and I felt like I could communicate so much better with him. I could feel him bend much better and he responded so much better to the legs, he even started answering the tensions in my calf muscles. Moreover, the flexibility and dynamism of the tree allows the transcription of the horse's every move, and he felt freer than ever. I felt like I got some more engagement of the hind end, and a better control of the shoulders. Whether it was me feeling him better or him moving better, I couldn't tell, but it was all of a sudden a very different horse I was riding.
Where the difference was the most notifiable was in canter. I didn't work much in canter previously to trying that saddle, and Willow is still quite stuck to the big green horse trot before falling into canter. However with the Bua the problem seemed to have completely disappeared. He once again started to transition from the walk like he did last summer after long hours of work on it (although even then it wasn't always the right lead...). He gave me beautiful neck stretches with quite a lot of engagement, and even during those highly uncomfortable moments where his back becomes jelly and his neck disappears in front of me, I was able to sit straight and be completely stable in my saddle. Very simply, the saddle holds way better on his back and it does a world of good to the both of us.
There are still negatives to be said: the pommel of the saddle is very high and very wide and it can be quite uncomfortable for the rider's leg muscles (as my very sore legs the day after could tell you). Moreover, the jumping flaps are so flat, they don't hold your legs properly at all. I have therefore taken contact with the Bua saddler of my region to try different options to accommodate me. Can't wait!
On this second video, you can see the behaviour of the pommel. The height is needed as during dynamic testing you can see that the tree extends on either sides of the withers. With a "traditional" saddle, the opening of the pommel is fixed, and therefore during dynamic testing, the saddle will sink into the horse's muscles rather than adapt.
You might therefore have understood it already, but Willow and I will soon have our own Bua saddle! I'm sold! Even though it might not be fully adapted to me, it's perfect for Willow, so we'll try and see with the saddler what we can do to make it better for me.
