Horse Tack Review
Ghost
Ghost Firenze
All Purpose Saddles
For Sale on eBay
For Sale on Amazon
Manufacturer: Ghost (View all products by Ghost)
Model: Ghost Firenze (View all Firenze reviews)
Category: All Purpose Saddles
Purchase: Purchased from Badlands Equine for $730. Bought online.
Likes: This is the second brand of treeless saddle I've tried, after giving up on a Freeform Classic which had too wide of a twist and made me very sore. I bought this 2nd Ghost after first purchasing a Roma model and liking it very much. The Ghost saddles feel just like riding in a regular english saddle. They are very secure and I find they shift less than a regular treed saddle since they contour to the horses' backs. My concerns about going treeless were wither/spine relief and safety for myself. My mare has big, asymmetrical shoulders so I was always fighting to keep treed saddles fitting her even with custom panel adjustments. The Firenze does not affect her shoulder movement, so nothing moves the saddle out of place. There is always a dry channel down the horses' backs, and it is easy to see the clearance when I look down the channel. My horse is fast, has rough gaits and spooks sometimes. I have less concerns about losing my balance with the Firenze than I did in my previous all purpose english saddle. It never slips and I can mount from the ground.
Dislikes: My horse is built downhill and at first I had difficulty posting the trot. The rep at Badlands Equine told me about shimming the front, which seems obvious since a treeless follows the exact plane of a horse's back, so was putting my balance forward. I customized my pad with shims, and now I can balance very well. I also moved the panels forward several inches so my weight sits over my horse's center of gravity. The Ghost saddles are easily customized for better fit, and I keep my panels a little wider apart on my wider backed horse.
Quality: Very well made with Italian leather mixed with synthetic parts such as the stirrup straps (hard wearing biothane). I have not put any scratches on the leather or made marks yet, and I'm not easy on saddles. I have tried different types of stirrup leathers and all have worked fine so far. I bought the wider panels that recently became available for even better weight distribution.
Summary:
Rating: 5
Author: Becky
Date: 2016-05-25
Usefulness Rating: 4 out of 5.
2 reader(s) voted.
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