Which Sopris saddle

[Nanno]

Yes, I had a 4-day pack trip this summer with the Rookie loaded to 48 lbs. (so my goat was carrying 53 lbs. if you include the weight of the saddle). Goat and saddle both did great. I had another goat wearing a wooden packsaddle and I had to load it a bit lighter because the saddle tree was pinching the goat. By the end of the trip, the goat with the wooden saddle was a little sore but my goat with the Sopris was not sore at all. My biggest complaint was that I had several instances where the panniers on the Sopris saddle popped out of their hooks. Usually only the front or back end would pop out so we didn't lose the panniers off the side, but it was annoying to have to keep looking back to check that they were seated correctly in their hooks. There was only one time at the end of an extreme descent where the whole saddle slid forward onto the shoulders and the pannier on one side came out of the hooks completely and was dragging by the tie-down strap. This pulled the whole saddle off to the side. It was difficult to get it all back together because of the steepness of the slope.

What I'd like to see (and I know this idea has been sent to Charlie at Sopris) is spring snaps at the pannier attachment points instead of those open hooks. Then the panniers would never be able to come loose no matter what the goat did. It seems like no matter how tight I cinch them down, the darn panniers pop out of the hooks on one end whenever the goat jumps a log, lays down for a break, bashes a pannier on a rock face, etc. Spring snaps might be a little bit of a pain for removing the panniers quickly if you have a squirrely goat that won't stand still, but the amount of hassle they would prevent on the trail would be well worth the trade-off in my opinion.