Hill View Farm
Evolutionary System X, liberty model
Trail Saddles
Manufacturer: Hill View Farm
Model: Evolutionary System X, liberty model
Category: Trail Saddles
Purchase: I ordered this saddle for $2450 plus shipping from Hill View Farm in Minnesota. I was told I had a 30 day trial. I wanted the saddle because my old, wade style saddle( that i have ridden for over 10 years) does not fit the peruvians I now ride. I put the saddle on my horse after watching some of video instructions. I rode the horse for a while but he did not seem very happy. I also was not thrilled with the way it sat for me. I figured for that much money it should sit like a dream fro the get go. It seemed to have an uncomfortable ridge under my thigh near the edge of the padding. I have ridden many other saddle and know that when you sit in the right one it feels good right away. I let my horse sweat a bit because I wanted to see if I had dry spots. this particular horse is very sensitive to saddles and he never did relax with this one. When I took it off i had all kinds of dry spots. I took pictures and sent them to the company and they wrote back right away, but it did not seem to help. I then tried another horse since i wanted it to fit different horses and that is what they say it will do. It was not any better on the other horse who had a very different back than the first horse. It did not seem like the panels flexed like I thought they would and seemed to dig into the second horse. She also did not seem to like it. I spoke to the company again and did more pictures but It just did not seem to the horses or me very well. I am also not the kind of person who switches saddles much. I have had the same thorowgood dressage saddle for over 10 years and I had a wade style, custom saddle for 10 years that I only sold because it does not fit my peruvians.
Likes: I liked the idea of the flex panels and was very excited to try it. I find the peruvians are very hard to fit for saddles and the peruvians I have are built very different. I did not want to have numerous saddles for different horses. That is why I was willing to pay this price. I thought the saddle looked like the seat would fit well.
Dislikes: I put the saddle on my horse after watching some of video instructions. I rode the horse for a while but he did not seem very happy. I also was not thrilled with the way it sat for me. I figured for that much money it should sit like a dream fro the get go. It seemed to have an uncomfortable ridge under my thigh near the edge of the padding. I have ridden many other saddles and know that when you sit in the right one it feels good right away. I let my horse sweat a bit because I wanted to see if I had dry spots. This particular horse is very sensitive to saddles and he never did relax with this one. When I took it off I had a number of weird dry spots. I took pictures and sent them to the company and they wrote back right away, but it did not seem to help. I then tried another horse since i wanted it to fit different horses and that is what they say it will do. It was not any better on the other horse who had a very different back than the first horse. It did not seem like the panels flexed like I thought they would and seemed to dig into the second horse. She also did not seem to like it. I spoke to the company again and did more pictures but It just did not seem to work for the horses or me very well.
Quality: construction and quality wise it seemed very good.
Summary: I am not the kind of person who switches saddles much. I have had the same 2 saddles for over 10 years: a thorowgood dressage saddle and my custom wade style saddle. I was very disappointed in how the saddle felt when I rode in it. Maybe I would have gotten used to it, maybe not. I also expected the horse to like it better and to seem comfortable, not obviously uncomfortable.
Rating: 1
Author: bonnie
Date: 2010-11-23
Usefulness Rating: 3.12319 out of 5.
138 reader(s) voted.
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