Lightweight, flexible and adjustable to the different physical conformations of horses: the new frontier in the field of horse riding saddles comes from Trentino, is called Polly and has been created entirely using a 3D printer.
Polly has been designed by Sabrina Polana, a Design graduate of LABA - Free Academy of Fine Arts of Rovereto, together with ProM Facility. The rapid prototyping laboratory at Polo Meccatronica, the high-tech incubator of Trentino Sviluppo, has offered its skill and technologies to help generate a unique product created to meet one simple need: minimization of the negative effects traditional saddles have on horses.
A saddle designed with the horse in mind, rather than the rider
The use of stiff, heavy saddles not adjustable to each individual horse can cause the animal to develop serious problems, such as contact between the thoracic vertebrae or the abnormal development of muscle groups. So when Sabrina Polana, a Trento student who loves horse riding, decided to design a riding saddle as her graduation thesis, the first objective she set herself was the horse’s well-being. The resulting concept is a device that is highly adaptable to the horse’s back. Going from an idea to a veritable prototype is no simple matter, however, so Polana decided to turn to ProM Facility. The lab techs redesigned the saddle with her, optimizing the project by using in-depth engineering analysis and selecting the most appropriate materials and technologies. The project lasted approximately 6 months, during which time Polly started to come to life amidst the 3D printers of the Rovereto workshop.
A high-tech saddle
Polly consists of 3 distinct components:
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The first is in direct contact with the horse’s back and includes 6 pads connected to 3 arches. Together they form a structure of mobile plaques that adapts to the anatomical shape of each animal both in static and dynamic conditions and distributes the weight of the rider as evenly as possible.
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Above the arches there are springs that have the purpose of absorbing the rider’s weight on the horse’s back and of following the horse’s movements during locomotion. They are interchangeable and entirely customizable in terms of geometry, height and rigidity.
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The saddle’s dorsal portion consists of a customisable seat on which a cushion with a reticular structure is positioned so as to ensure comfort and breathability for the rider.
The entire saddle has been created using a HP Multijet Fusion 4200 printer from thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU). TPU is resistant but elastic and as such nicely meets the adaptability and softness requirements necessary for ensuring high levels of comfort. The only components of the saddle that need to be rigid and have not been printed in TPU are the arches, for which PA12 has been chosen that, although being lightweight, is highly resistant.
In addition to being very light (approx. 3 kg in toto) and almost entirely customisable, Polly is also environmentally friendly. The HP 4200 printer, in fact, allows to recover excess plastic powder so as to produce objects 80% of which comes from scraps of previous processes.
