About 15 years ago, Sports Saddles President, Bob Marshall, invented the saddle about with the goal of making the most balanced, most comfortable and most advanced saddle at an affordable price. Marshall is a skilled trainer and saddle maker for over three decades. Marshall began his concept by carefully removing the bars between pommel and cantle. The concept has been refined substantially to where it is today.

This bar-less approach completely eliminated the bridging problem. With no wood between the riders body and the horse, the communication with the horse rises dramatically. Marshall began training his young horses using his new saddle and quickly discovered that because the pommel was not rigidly set as in regular treed saddles the pommel was free to conform to the width of the shoulders and different wither heights. Bob quickly learned that his young horses moved more easily and caught on to the leg cues more quickly.

A variety of models have since been developed. Now people use the SS for for schooling, training, trail, barrel racing, show, competitive and endurance riding, reining, other specialties and just about anything in between.