Zaldi San George Saddle
In 2009, Zaldi, a well known saddle manufacturer, launched with great innovations in terms of technology and design, a new Dressage saddle - San George.
Dressage Portugal met two top riders in order to hear their opinion on this saddle. Camilo Borges, rider and dressage judge and a user of Zaldi saddles, and Maria Moura Caetano, Portuguese champion and Zaldi’s face for the season.
Maria Moura Caetano revealed to Dressage Portugal that “It was a model that positively surprised me. Nowadays, we all know that the market for dressage and show jumping saddles is quite competitive, offering great quality. In Germany, everything is a lot more developed with very good saddles. Zaldi, because it is a great brand, has succeeded in accompanying this evolution; in my opinion, this saddle can be compared to any of the top brands that currently exist in the market. It’s excellent for training dressage.”
The same opinion is shared with Camilo Borges that states: “Through its history, Zaldi has had a constant concern in doing right and getting good suggestions, just like when they created the ‘Millenium’ model, which they developed with the Portuguese Olympic rider Carlos Pinto. The same happened with the model ‘Dressage Especial’, for which they had the suggestions of the Spanish rider Juan Matute.”
With this model, Zaldi had a special concern in improving the tree. The new tree design is much deeper and comfortable, increasing the contact between the rider and horse. This was also achieved by introducing a stirrup bar that has a 15% angle.
All this evolution set makes the seat to better support the vertebrae, resulting in a correct riding posture. Like Maria Moura Caetano says: “It’s a saddle that it’s enjoyable to ride in; you can really feel the difference when riding with this one or with another inferior quality saddle. The fact that it has a much deeper tree, it shows on the level of comfort of the horse, and on shoulder freedom. The stuffing on the back is also much more comfortable. You can really tell which riders are riding in this saddle. It stabilizes on the horse gaits, especially on the German horses that have a trot with much more air suspension. With the saddles that aren’t made for this discipline, we notice the horses have a much harder trot, and the saddle lifts up a little behind. This doesn’t happen with the San George. The saddle is perfectly leveled with the horse.”
The stability of this saddle highlighted by Maria Moura Caetano is due to the flocking components, filled with a mixed stuffing and enriched with special wool that doesn’t absorb sweat and repeals water. Other factor that contributes for the saddle comfort is the latex inlay of the seat that gives it the so desired stability. It is also helped by the V shaped back end of the saddle. It is used a high quality leather, more flexible, elastic and long lasting.
The San George model design, presents itself with an ergonomic conception – a double knee block. This allows more freedom for leg position, which in Camilo Borges opinion is “indeed one of the great advantages and improvements. Previous models put the rider in a rather correct position, but aren’t great for young horses because the aids aren’t so tuned yet and the rider needs some mobility. The San George presents the advantage of keeping the same level of comfort between having the leg more stretched when we ride well trained horses, and when we ride with our leg shorter on younger horses”.
Besides ergonomics, Zaldi also presented a quite innovating finishing. Camilo Borges states that “This model is new in design. It was a concern that was well achieved. In the previous models the design was almost the same and you couldn’t tell the difference between them at first glance.”
Maria Moura Caetano renews the new look of this saddle highlighting: “I think this saddle is beautiful with those orange lines; both the black and brown models, it expresses difference. Who hasn’t seen any of these saddles is certainly curious in knowing which brand it is.”
We couldn’t finish this section without asking Maria Moura Caetano how she feels about being sponsored by Zaldi. The rider said that “It was a great pleasure having been chosen to represent Zaldi. Not only can I use their excellent products, which in any case I would be doing , and is an honor to be supported by a quality brand like Zaldi. On the other side, currently I’m the Portuguese champion in title, and that is also a great advantage for the sponsors. I was very satisfied with this opportunity and hope to be able to carry on with the good results and highly represent the Zaldi brand.”
The San George saddle is available in several colours: (black, brown, tan, dark brown and havana). Seat sizes: 16″, 16,5″, 17″, 17,5″, 18″ and 19″. Tree width: could go from 28 to 34cm.
