Imus 4-Beat Amish-Made Gaited Horse Saddle, 16 withStandard Tree, withBreast Collar

  

4-beat Saddle, Western Pleasure, Size 16", Standard Tree Used in normal wear condition, 4-beat Saddle, Western Pleasure, Size 1 6 ", Standard Tree. Includes Saddle, matching breast collar, trail comfort stirrups, and Latigo straps as shown. This saddle does show signs of wear see pictures. This is an original Imus 4-Beat Saddle from Gaits of Gold, Inc.

(now Phoenix Rising Saddles) and was Amish made. The saddle has been regularly cared for but it has seen many miles on the trail and has some marks to show for it. This saddle works great for horses that have a lot of shoulder action and is cut specifically for that. From Brenda Imus, the creator of the 4-beat saddle: Enter Eli, a young Amish man who has a well known saddle making uncle, and had by now built a few saddles himself for local people. Eli was working full time at a local Amish sawmill, and producing several saddles each year on the side.

I went to visit him, and we discussed my ideas. He proved to be an agile thinker, as well as a superb craftsman. He built our first prototype saddle. With each saddle we made improvements and modifications.

For one thing, I decided to use only the best top grain leather hides for our saddles. This not only adds to their durability and beauty, but allows them to soften and break in much faster than if we used stiffer, more traditional full grain leather. We quickly realized that the fiberglass ground seats that came standard with the trees hindered the ability of the bars to flex with the horses movement. So Eli began to hand craft a web suspended, leather ground seat for each saddle. Our saddles are as impressive on the inside as they are on the outside.

Most significantly, after several prototypes and several months of sales, I decided to institute a 3/4-fired, three way rigging system on the saddle. This excludes the need for a back girth, and allows us to position the saddle farther forward so that the fork of the saddle gently cups the horses wither and shoulder, allowing the rider to be seated more forward, closer to the horses true center of gravity, while permitting the animals shoulder complete freedom of action. Also, since gaited horses tend to have more lift and/or reach in front, saddle galls at the girth right behind the elbow are common. Our rigging system allows the cinch to settle at the least active point of the barrel of the horse, virtually eliminating galls. We positioned the free swinging stirrups slightly more forward, thus eliminating stress on the riders ankles, knees and hips while encouraging a more comfortable and practical, "Liberty Equitationtm, " seat.

We placed Supracor® padding between the saddle tree bars and the fleeceand then decided what the heck! And placed it in the seat of the saddle to give the rider unsurpassable comfort as well. We like this material so much, in fact, that we also chose to use it as padding in the optional matching tooled Imus 4-Beat® stirrups.

This saddle does show signs of wear as noted in pictures. The item "Imus 4-Beat Amish-Made Gaited Horse Saddle, 16 withStandard Tree, withBreast Collar" is in sale since Wednesday, September 28, 2016. This item is in the category "Sporting Goods\Outdoor Sports\Equestrian\Tack-Western\Saddles". The seller is "shyrider02" and is located in Bradenton, Florida. This item can be shipped to United States.

• Brand: Imus 4-Beat Saddle/Gaits of Gold
• Saddle Type: Pleasure/Trail
• Color: Pecan
• Country/Region of Manufacture: United States
• Saddle Size: 16"
• Model: Gaited Horse Saddle
• MPN: Does Not Apply
• UPC: Does not apply