GB2523415A - Horse saddle flap and panel - Google Patents

Abstract

A saddle for horses where the panel of the saddle is cut away at the front to prevent the panel interfering with the horses shoulders, and the flap of the saddle that extends over the cut away section of the panel is reinforced to prevent the flap from collapsing under the pressure of the riders knee onto the shoulders of the horse and hence inhibit the horses shoulder movement. The saddle will allow a horse to take a longer stride, and more naturally. The flap may be reinforced with plastic, carbon fibre, metal or any other material that reduces or prevents the flap from bending or collapsing, and may be flat or shaped. The reinforced material may be connected the saddle tree and lie next to the flap, or connected to the flap, where the reinforced material may cover just the front of the flap or cover a larger of the flap without impeding the riders leg. The reinforcement and changes in the shape of the panel may be applied to all types of saddles. Alternatively the reinforcement may be built into the panel.

Description

Intellectual Property Office Application No. GB1408283.8 RTN4 Date:t7june 20t5 The following terms are registered trade marks and should be read as such wherever they occur in this document: Velcro Intellectual Property Office is an operating name of the Patent Office www.gov.uk/ipo

Future Panel -Description (2)

The invention relates to the combined panel and flap design of a horse riding saddle.

Figure 1 shows cross section of the saddle from the front, with the horse shown as (01) Figure 2 shows a horse with the shoulder position shown.

Figure 3 shows a cross section of the horse and saddle at the point where the panels are in contact with the horse, just behind the shoulder of the horse.

Figure 4 is a view of the underside of the right flap of the saddle, showing the panel and the reinforced area of the flap.

Figure 5 is a view of the top side of the right flap of the saddle, showing the reinforced area of the flap and the raised saddle block (used to give support to the riders knee) Saddle: the item used to act as the seat or interface between rider and horse. Fig.1 Fig.1 01 is the horse, 02 is the flap, 03 is the panel, 04 is a pad which is part of the flap, 05 is the skirt (covers the stirrup bars and provides rider comfort), 06 is the saddle seat.

Panel: the padded area that forms the area of contact against the horse (an additional pad or cloth may be used that is separate from the saddle but does not form part of the saddle. These are rider added accessories). There are two panels (Fig.1 03 and Fig.3 03 and Fig.4) that sit either side of the horses spine, primarily to lift the riders weight off the spine.

See Fig 1 & 3. The panel runs from front to back of saddle, and has a front leg' section that come down the body of the horse at the front. The panel may be made of any material. Panels are usually covered with leather or soft synthetic material, and are filled with wool, synthetic wool, foam or other shock absorbing material. It is possible to design a panel without shock absorbing material but generally pads would be used between these and the horse to reduce pressure on the horse.

The panel shape at the front would normally follow the shape of the flap(Fig.1 02+04) at the front of the flap.

Fig.4 shows the front of the panel cut away (Checked pattern) and reinforcement material added to prevent the soft flap from collapsing under the pressure of the riders knee.

Flap: Fig.1 02 plus 04(04 is often but not necessarily a padded area on top of the flap at the front of the saddle). The flap is generally but not always a flat piece of material, often leather but may be a synthetic material, that may or may not be connected to the panel. If not connected to the panel the flap is connected to the saddle tree, if a combined unit the panel and flap are connected to the saddle tree. There may be one or two flaps on each side, if two flaps the inner flap that is against the horse would be called the sweat flap, there to protect the outer flap from the sweat of the horse.

The flap is usually a large piece of material that sits between the riders leg and the horse, and so is large enough to be between the lower thigh down to the knee (which is then bent) and then as far as the heel of the riders leg, although usually finishes just above the heel. This enable the rider to give the horse instructions with heel pressure. The flap protects the horse from direct contact from the riders leg and boot, other than the heel. The flap may or may not have blocks or rolls attached.

Saddle Tree: the tree forms the internal skeleton of the saddle, to which other materials are attached. Trees can be made of wood and metal, or plastic and metal, just plastic, carbon fibre, or other composite materials or any combination of all these materials.

Blocks or Rolls: are raised sections that may be hard or soft. These are placed on the flaps to provide support to the riders leg, eitherjust above the knee or behind the calf, or both. These provide security for the rider. The block may be attached to the sweat flap or the outer flap. See Fig.3 05 and Fig.5 Panel shape at the front has traditionally followed the front line of the flap(s). More recently, particularly on Jump, Event, General Purpose, All Purpose, Endurance, and Polo saddles the panel shape has been set further back from the front of the flap, enabling it to sit behind the shoulder of the horse, and so free the movement of the shoulder. Racing saddles have often been constructed without panels and so create even greater pressure on the shoulders and/or spine.

This invention,the incorporation of reinforcement material Fig.3 and Fig.4 into the flap when used in any saddle will enable the horse to take a longer stride and so increase the speed the horse is moving at or reduce the level of energy expended in covering the same distance. The benefits are that a horse can move more naturally, jump higher and gallop faster. Potentially enabling a race horse to win a race that otherwise it might not have if using conventional saddles or conventional race saddles. Numerous designs of panel shape have been tried but the majority have found that the forward area of the flap) Fig.4 (Checked pattern area), in front of the panel,collapses onto the horse due to the lack of support from the removed panel section. Blocks on the underside of the panel have been fitted to support the panel and inventors claim these allow freedom of shoulder movement for the horse) however they simply replace the material that formed the panel. When the flap collapses the benefit of cutting back the panel area at the front is lost; replacing the cut away area with a block defeats the object of removing material. Fig.2 shows the horses shoulder shape) which rotates backwards as the horses leg moves forwards. The movement backwards of the shoulder is restricted by traditional saddles. This invention creates the space needed for the shoulder to rotate whilst simultaneously providing support for the riders knee. Fig.? 01 is cartilage and it is this area that rotates backwards and forwards due to the movement of the bones Fig.2 02 which form the upper leg.

This invention of reinforcing the area Fig.4 (Checked pattern) where panel has been removed prevents the flap collapsing. The panel sits behind the shoulder of the horse, enabling the horses shoulder to rotate under the flap into space shown in Fig.4 (checked pattern) almost unhindered, providing increased freedom of movement of the front legs.

The reinforcement material (Fig.4 and Fig.5 shown by shading lines and checked pattern) of the flap does not collapse but still provides support for the riders leg. Without the reinforcement the riders knee pressure would push the flap (Fig.3 04) onto the horses shoulder impinging movement. The reinforcement material enables there to be a gap at the front of the saddle into which the shoulder can rotate.

The Invention method.

Preventing the flap collapsing is achieved by reinforcing the front area See Fig.4 and FigS, of the flap, where normal panel material has been removed from. The reinforcement is done by fixing a piece of stiff material Fig.4 and Fig.5 to the flap. The material used to make the reinforcement may be plastic, carbon fibre, metal, or any material that reduces or prevents the flap from bending or collapsing partially or completely. The reinforcement may be flat or shaped in the three dimensional plane. The reinforcement may cover a large area of the flap or only a small area at the front of the flap. With a larger area of reinforcement there is a compromise between increased support to the knee at the front of the flop, with interference with either the upper thigh or the lower leg if the reinforcement material extends too for towards the middle or back of the saddle. The two dimensional shape of the reinforcement material is not fixed and may vary from saddle to saddle, horse to horse, rider to rider. The reinforcement shape is likely, but it does not essentially have, to cover all the area where traditional panel support had previously been provided, Fig.4. The reinforcement is likely to be attached directly to the tree (the rigid skeleton of the saddle), Figs, but this is not essential to achieve some benefit, so the invention does not specify attachment to the tree or otherwise. The reinforcement material is likely to be thin, probably but not essentially between land 5mm thick. Thinner stronger materials may be used to the same effect.

Thicker materials may be used but it is thought that other adverse affects may occur if the reinforcement material is too thick. The ideal material is light weight, resistant to water damage, stiff but not completely rigid, none brittle. Other materials that are not ideal will provide some of the benefits and so are covered by this description. The reinforcement material does not have to be connected to the flap, it could simply lie against the flap material and be connected to the tree. Connection to the flap is preferred for aesthetic reasons and also to maintain the shape of the flap at the front over time.

An alternative method would be to build reinforcement into the panel area where shoulder movement occurs, and make the panel softer at the front area)) and reshape the remainder of the panel to accommodate this. The reshaping of the padded panel and the introduction of a reinforcement material combined are the basis of this invention, whether the reinforcement is part of the flap, the panel or an independent piece of material extending over area the area where panel has been removed, Fig.4 Checked pattern.