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Orderly Fashion asked in PetsHorses · 10 years ago

English Saddle: Knee rolls vs None?

What do you think? I'm personally more comfortable in a saddle without knee rolls, calf bocks, etc. I have a Collegiate Graduate with a plain flap--no knee rolls, no calf blocks, nothing. I've rode in this saddle for almost 10 years, so anything else just feels unnatural. If you can ride on a plain flap, you can ride on pretty much anything. All that extra support just makes riding so much easier, and I feel that until you can ride without them, you can't really ride at all.

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  • 10 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    My Olney straight cut show saddle has no knee rolls (I love this saddle - we've had it 7 years and bought it when it was a year old and the leather has always been really soft and even though it was made to measure for another horse - a partbred Arab - we had no problems fitting it to our chunky Connemara other than needing a little re-stuffing). The only time I don't like it is jumping down hill - you end up sitting on his wither! But now we have a Heritage working hunter saddle for jumping and that has a slight knee roll as it's only really for occasional use and in a working hunter class a third of the time you're jumping, a third of the time you're doing an individual show on the flat and the final third you're actually trotting your pony up in hand.

    I have problems riding in a saddle with knee rolls! When I was riding a friend's cob before he started having problem with his knee (we thought it was his foot for ages as he had some rings where he'd had a touch of laminitis), her saddle has knee rolls and my knees would not be in contact with the saddle (it was really bizarre). However, her saddle is a GP and the knee rolls are a decent size, maybe too big for me to adapt to after riding in my saddle for a few years. Then again, I'm quite weird :L

    Source(s): Riding 12 years
  • Anonymous
    10 years ago

    My current saddle has knee rolls but the saddle I have for my little mare is an old Berney hunting saddle and had no knee rolls at all just a plain flap, I jumped XC/SJ and hunted in that saddle for years with no issue. It's a relic at this stage.

    I don't think it's a good idea to become dependant on knee rolls, you should be balanced without, also it's not a good idea either to be fixed in the saddle. You should be able to get out of the saddle if needs must.

  • ?
    Lv 6
    10 years ago

    That's the exact saddle that I have. Whenever I get on in my mom's saddle (custom County with rolls and calf blocks) it's like sitting in a Lazy Boy with a seatbelt. It's so nice.

    It's true though--once you learn to ride without them, you can ride anything.

    I want my next saddle to have them though.

  • 10 years ago

    At my lesson stables all of the saddles have knee rolls.

    They treat it as a safety measure.

    I prefer to ride with them because it feels weird if there is nothing there.

    Source(s): Me :)
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  • 10 years ago

    for me it depends what I'm doing when jumping the saddle I use has quite big knee rolls whilst when doing dressage my saddle hardly has any at all.

  • 10 years ago

    I don't mind riding without kneerolls, but I prefer to have them.

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